Galoshes, slap shoes, and overshoes

 Three different terms, with apparently similar meanings. The word overshoe is the most recent; according to the OED it first appears in a 1770 entry in Langdon Carter’s Virgina diary (1). Slapshoes according to Randle Holme were “shooes with a loose Sole” (2 pp. iii, 14) The oldest of the three terms is galosh, which appears in the fourteenth century and is mentioned, spelt galeges, in a 1523 act. (3) In 1572 Bossewell defined it as “A Shooe called a Gallage or Patten, whiche hath nothing on the feete but onely Latchettes.” (4) From this it would appear a slap shoe, or slap sole shoe, indicates that just a sole, that extends to under the heel, has been added to a shoe, while a galosh is a separate item worn over a shoe.

Figure 1: Slap shoes. 1660s. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Slap shoes

There are a few survivals, usually of women’s shoes. One pair in the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, are 1660s Italian, of white leather and brocade. [Figure 1] another pair are in the National Trust collection at Ham House, and there is an excellent article on the conservation of a seventeenth century pair in their collection, on the blog of the Bata Shoe Museum . 

Figure 2: Detail from Abraham Bosse. The Shoemaker

 

Galoshes

Galoshes, also spelt goloshes, galloshooes, etc., should not be confused with gamashes, which are a form of legging. They appear to come in two types. There are those that comprise just a sole with a covering for the toe of the shoe and then, like a mule, extend back flat under the heel, see the detail from Bosse’s Le Cordonnier  (The shoemaker) of 1632-3.[Figure 2], this maybe a type of slap shoe, where the sole is separate from the shoe. There is an example of this type of shoe with its galosh in the British Museum collection. [Figure 3] The second type fits Bossewell’s description with latchets that fit over the shoe, usually with a complete fill in between the sole and the heel. [Figure 4] Holme referred to them as “Galloshios are false shooes, or covers for shooes”. (2 pp. iii, 14/2)

Figure 3: Shoe with toe galosh.c.1610. British Museum

The point of galoshes was to save footwear from the dirt. As Heywood wrote, “I would his Portugal skinne were tann’d into Spanish Leather, and … cut into some slovenly Boote, to be dabled in the durt without a Galoach .” (5) Pepys in 1665 reported that “my Lady Batten walking through the dirty lane with new spicke and span white shoes, she dropped one of her galoshes in the dirt, where it stuck, and she forced to go home without one.” (6 p. 15th Nov.)

Figure 5: Shoe with galosh. early 18th century. Tullie House Museum, Carlisle.

 

For some, being seen wearing galoshes could be construed as not being able to afford a coach. As Etherege put it, “’Tis but despising a Coach, humbling your self To a pair of Goloshoes, being out of countenance When you meet your Friends, pointed at and pityed Wherever you go.” (10 p. 15) However even the wealthiest wore galoshes. For the nobility galoshes could be, not leather but fabric. In 1617 Richard Sackville, 3rd Earl of Dorset, owned “two paire of goloshes the one pair of tawney velvett the other of blewe velvet” (11 p. 51) The slap shoe style could even be used on a boot, as can be seen in the pair arrowed just beyond the lady's head in Bosse's Le Savetier/

Figure 5: Abraham Bosse. Le Savetier. 1632-3

References 

1. Oxford English Dictionary. "overshoe." OED Online, Oxford University Press. Available at: www.oed.com/ Accessed 12 July 2024.

2. Holme, Randle. The academy of armory. [Online] 1688. [Cited: July 12, 2024.] https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo/A44230.0001.001?rgn=main;view=fulltext.

3. Acts, Statutes, etc. Cordwainers Act. 14 & 15 Hen. 8. c. 9. 1523.

4. Bossewell, John. Workes of armorie: deuyded into three bookes. London : Imprynted at London in Fletestrete within Temple barre at the signe of the Hande and starre, by Rychard Tottyl., 1572.

5. Heywood, Thomas. A Chalenge for Beautie. London : Raworth, 1636.

6. Pepys, Samuel. Diary. [Online] https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary.

7. Robertson, S. The expense Book of James Master 1646-1676 [Part 1, 1646-1655], transcribed by Mrs Dallison. Archaeologia Cantiana. 1883, Vol. 15, 152-216, pp. 152-216.

8. —. The expense Book of James Master 1646-1676 [Part 4, 1663-1676], transcribed by Mrs Dallison. Archaeologia Cantiana. 1889, pp. 114-168.

9. George, E. and S. eds. Bristol probate inventories, Part 1: 1542-1650. Bristol Records Society publication. 2002, Vol. 54.

10. Etherege, George. The man of mode, or, Sir Fopling Flutter. London : Printed by J. Macock, for Henry Herringman, 1676.

11. MacTaggart, Peter and MacTaggart, Ann. The Rich Wearing Apparel of Richard, 3rd Earl of Dorset. Costume. 1980, Vol. 14.