A PAIR OF CEREMONIAL FEMALE MAHSI UZBEK BOOTS
Bukhara, Uzbekistan, Central Asia, ca. 1900 - 1910

Of postilion shape, the joined panels of plum silk velvet worked in metallic threads wound around silk cores, bold outlines of floral motifs on raised cut-out support, the inner flowerheads couched in orange thread, highlights of twisted green silk thread, the heel reinforced with couched metal thread, the kneecap in green silk velvet edged in white crochet band, the sole of verdigris stingray, lined in joined panels of silk ikat in white, magenta, yellow, and blue, the inner toe in Russian printed cotton, the inner sole of off-white leather.

Each approx. 66cm x 28cm

Provenance: purchased from Mansour Gallery, London, 2007 - 2008.

Late 19th-century and early 1900s Bukhara court footwear were often low-vamp, high-heel shoes worn with leather stockings or heavily embroidered velvet boots like the present example. For related examples, please see the section on Riding Dress and Paraphernalia in J. Kalter and M. Pavaloi, Uzbekistan: Heirs to the Silk Road, 1997, pp. 177-180. The catalogue of the Paris IDMA (Institut du Monde Arabe) exhibition Sur les Routes de Samarcande: Merveilles de Soie et d'Or, 2022, features three further examples of such boots attributed to Mahsi women in Central Uzbekistan, part of the Tashkent and Samarkand National Museums's permanent collection (acc. no. 3379, 7402, and 4452).