Domed, octagonal shoe buckles of blackened steel with ribbed surface.
Shoe buckles were worn both by men and women for most of the eighteenth century. Shoes were made with flaps that were fastened with a buckle. Buckles consisted of a decorative frame made of cheaper materials such as pewter or pinchbeck (a metal alloy imitating gold), but they could also be highly decorated and made of silver and be ornamented with rhinestones or even diamonds. The frames were attached to a mechanism made of iron. Buckles were made separately so they could be used with several pairs of shoes.
This pair of buckles is probably from the 1770s or 1780s when men's shoe buckles became very large and deeply arched.
