Peal & Company
Vintage-BESPOKE
2-Strap Officers Field Boot
Custom Fitted Peal Trees
Circa 1960

Euro 2400

The present shoe is from Peal’s last years of operation as a preeminent, independent custom shoemaker.

In 1965 Peal closed their doors and sold their name to Brooks Brothers in final capitulation to market forces, the end of a 174 year history. The few early and actual Peal & Co. shoes to be found in the world today are truly on the highest bespoke level of workmanship with, not surprisingly, utilize a quality of leather reserved for custom-made shoes and are much sought-after by knowledgeable collectors. It is not enough to call this boot one-of-a-kind –every custom made shoe can be called that- because, in this case, the model itself is unusual; a 2-strap shaft, as distinct from the still rare but certainly more common 3-strap models. This boot comes with my highest recommendation. It is in every detail of form and construction, a cordwainer’s work of art. For dress, field, tramping, trekking or shooting, I can think of few to equal this boot.

History of the firm: “Peal and Co were founded in 1565 and were the oldest-established and most successful makers in the world, employing up to 200 staff. The firm was established in Durham and moved to Derby in 1765, reaching London in 1791. In 1953 Peal bought their Oxford Street neighbours, Bartley and Son, inheriting their Boot and Fox emblem and moved to Wigmore Street in 1958. The business closed early in 1965, when the family decided that lack of family succession, a declining trade and shortage of skilled staff made closure their best option. The closure of Peal and Co. was very helpful to the remaining shoemakers in London including Foster and Son, who acquired two important assets, the Peals’s boot and fox emblem and Mr. Terry Moore, Peal’s master last maker. The old Peal lasts are still said to be in use by Foster & Son.

Peal & Co. counted among their clients, luminaries from both sides of the Atlantic, among them (a much shortened list);

Fred Astaire
Ethel Barrymore, John Barrymore
Humphrey Bogart & Mrs H Bogart (Lauren Bacall)
Sir Charles Chaplin
Gary Cooper
Mrs Walt Disney
Sir Douglas Fairbanks
Henry Fonda
James Garner
Cary Grant
Rex Harrison
Boris Karloff
Steve McQueen
John Mills
David Niven
Sir Laurence Olivier
Mary Pickford
Mrs Rudolph Valentino
Guy de Rothschild
Henry Ford II & Mrs H Ford
Benny Goodman
Dean Martin,
Jehudi Menuhin
Richard Avedon
Lady Violet Bonham Carter nee Asquith, 40 Gloucester Sq.,
Mrs Neville Chamberlain
Rt Hon Sir Anthony Eden KG
Dean G Acheson, US Secretary of State
Barry Goldwater, Senator
Edward L Kennedy
John F Kennedy
Mr. Marx of Berlin c/o Dr W Smith, West Lodge, West End Lane, Hampstead
Col. Elliott Roosevelt, son of FDR & Eleanor
Theodore Roosevelt
HM King Edward VIII, Duke of Windsor
Hon F Bowes-Lyon, brother of the Queen Mother
F J Bowes-Lyon, Grenadier Guards
Lady Rosemary Spencer Churchill
Lord Louis Mountbatten
Duke of Westminster
Prince Aga Khan
Princess Eugene of Belgium
King of the Hellenes (Greece)
Crown Princess of Greece
Prince Nicholas of Greece
Prince Peter of Greece
Crown Prince Constantine of Greece
Crown Princess of Japan
King & Crown Prince of Norway
Prince Christian of Schleswig Holstein
Crown Prince of Sweden
Queen Marie of Yugoslavia

Size Details:

Shoe Condition:

All original soles and heels, very lightly worn, perhaps only once!, thus a superb example –very likely the best available example- of bespoke Peal workmanship.