Shoe, winklepicker shoe

Mock crocodile stamped black leather men's shoes inscribed 'Distinctive Footwear'. The shoes were acquired in 1996 as part of a group of old shoe stock, dating back to the 1960s and 1970s, and made by Roses, a shoe firm in Middlesex Street, Aldgate.

Shoes with very pointed toes are often called winklepickers. Apparently this name originates from the practice of eating periwinkle snails. A pin or pointed objects had to be used to get the winkle out of the shell. They became popular for men and women in the late 1950s.

This pair was worn by the donor Alan Flux to the Butterfly Ball in Berkeley Square in 1978. 'The Butterfly's Ball, and the Grasshopper's Feast' is the title of a poem by William Roscoe, written in 1802, and telling the story of a party for insects and other small animals.