Chinese export cream silk satin slippers with ribbon rosettes and pleated ribbon trimming across the instep. With a tiny self-fabric wedge heel and leather soles. Stamped in red ink on the interior: "HONSING / SHOES"; it is believed that this is the stamp of a China-based factory who exported shoes to Europe and North America. Satin shoes from China were among the items ordered in 1793 by American Thomas Fisher; see Jean Gordon Lee, Philadelphians and the China Trade 1784-1844 (1984), p. 92, and p. 218, no. 257 for PMA shoes. See also June Swann, Shoes (1982); p. 37, fig. 32c.

What makes this pair especially interesting is that they are not straights but have a proper left and right foot which, in the early 19th century, was not yet a practice of Western shoemakers. We thank Prof. Hilary Davidson for identifying these as not being straights.  

Pairs of late 18th- and early 19th-century shoes with identical "Honsing" Chinese factory marks are in the Rijksmuseum (loan 1924, on loan from the Koninklijk Oudheidkundig Genootschap) and the Philadelphia Museum of Art (P1953-110-2a,b).

Very good condition.