Vintage Dress shoe appreciation, tips, maintenance and advice

[Domino23]

I bought a pair of shoes on eBay because I liked the color and style, now that they've arrived I'm trying to figure out if they're shell cordovan or not.

Reasons why:
1:Leather has rolls instead of creases

2: The leather has a different feel to it that any other leather I've touched before. It's dense and feels almost plastic like. Its not PVC, corrected grain or actual plastic/fake leather, it just feels different, more firm but not unpleasant

3: The color

4: The weight. These shoes are surprisingly heavy/dense, the leather is thicker than I expected. The shoes have a surprising heft to them

5: The shine . This is hard to explain or demonstrate in the pics but there's a depth to the shine that I haven't seen in any other leather before, it's light there's multiple distinct layers to it.

6: No pores

Reasons why it might not be


1: This model isn't listed on the shell cordovan shoe list website. The maker is Sibley's.

2: There are a few small microcreases on one of the shoes, tiny compared to the rolls but still there.

3: The shoes weren't sold as shell cordovan, but the seller didn't appear to be a pro so they might not have known

4: Uneven color. One shoe is much redder, the other is more brown. Lack of uniformity.

I showed them to a couple of my friends who own cordovan shoes, one has a pair of Florsheims and the other a pair of Alden loafers, they believe it's shell but I'd rather gather as much feedback as possible before I start fiddling with them to restore them. If they're not shell I'm still happy because I like the color, if they are shell I want to use them for practice for restoring/shining before I get a "proper" pair. Any help would be appreciated!

 

[greekgeek]

I bought a pair of shoes on eBay because I liked the color and style, now that they've arrived I'm trying to figure out if they're shell cordovan or not.

Reasons why:
1:Leather has rolls instead of creases

2: The leather has a different feel to it that any other leather I've touched before. It's dense and feels almost plastic like. Its not PVC, corrected grain or actual plastic/fake leather, it just feels different, more firm but not unpleasant

3: The color

4: The weight. These shoes are surprisingly heavy/dense, the leather is thicker than I expected. The shoes have a surprising heft to them

5: The shine . This is hard to explain or demonstrate in the pics but there's a depth to the shine that I haven't seen in any other leather before, it's light there's multiple distinct layers to it.

6: No pores

Reasons why it might not be


1: This model isn't listed on the shell cordovan shoe list website. The maker is Sibley's.

2: There are a few small microcreases on one of the shoes, tiny compared to the rolls but still there.

3: The shoes weren't sold as shell cordovan, but the seller didn't appear to be a pro so they might not have known

4: Uneven color. One shoe is much redder, the other is more brown. Lack of uniformity.

I showed them to a couple of my friends who own cordovan shoes, one has a pair of Florsheims and the other a pair of Alden loafers, they believe it's shell but I'd rather gather as much feedback as possible before I start fiddling with them to restore them. If they're not shell I'm still happy because I like the color, if they are shell I want to use them for practice for restoring/shining before I get a "proper" pair. Any help would be appreciated!

Most probably shell, off chance it's Corfam. Based on the color depth I'll guess shell.

 

[eTrojan]

I bought a pair of shoes on eBay because I liked the color and style, now that they've arrived I'm trying to figure out if they're shell cordovan or not.

Reasons why:
1:Leather has rolls instead of creases

2: The leather has a different feel to it that any other leather I've touched before. It's dense and feels almost plastic like. Its not PVC, corrected grain or actual plastic/fake leather, it just feels different, more firm but not unpleasant

3: The color

4: The weight. These shoes are surprisingly heavy/dense, the leather is thicker than I expected. The shoes have a surprising heft to them

5: The shine . This is hard to explain or demonstrate in the pics but there's a depth to the shine that I haven't seen in any other leather before, it's light there's multiple distinct layers to it.

6: No pores

Reasons why it might not be


1: This model isn't listed on the shell cordovan shoe list website. The maker is Sibley's.

2: There are a few small microcreases on one of the shoes, tiny compared to the rolls but still there.

3: The shoes weren't sold as shell cordovan, but the seller didn't appear to be a pro so they might not have known

4: Uneven color. One shoe is much redder, the other is more brown. Lack of uniformity.

I showed them to a couple of my friends who own cordovan shoes, one has a pair of Florsheims and the other a pair of Alden loafers, they believe it's shell but I'd rather gather as much feedback as possible before I start fiddling with them to restore them. If they're not shell I'm still happy because I like the color, if they are shell I want to use them for practice for restoring/shining before I get a "proper" pair. Any help would be appreciated!

Hard to tell from the single photo. Lighting isn’t good enough to really pick up the details: too much contrast. More photos would help, as would flatter lighting.

For reference, Sibley’s was a high end department store in Rochester, NY. It was acquired by May Company in 1986. We see shoes that were private labeled for them once in a while.

Sibley's - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

 

[Satoman1]

I bought a pair of shoes on eBay because I liked the color and style, now that they've arrived I'm trying to figure out if they're shell cordovan or not.
I showed them to a couple of my friends who own cordovan shoes, one has a pair of Florsheims and the other a pair of Alden loafers, they believe it's shell but I'd rather gather as much feedback as possible before I start fiddling with them to restore them. If they're not shell I'm still happy because I like the color, if they are shell I want to use them for practice for restoring/shining before I get a "proper" pair. Any help would be appreciated!

It seems some micro creasing here,or it's maybe just paint layer crack. Other part does looks like shell to me

 

[Domino23]

Hard to tell from the single photo. Lighting isn’t good enough to really pick up the details: too much contrast. More photos would help, as would flatter lighting.

For reference, Sibley’s was a high end department store in Rochester, NY. It was acquired by May Company in 1986. We see shoes that were private labeled for them once in a while.

Sibley's - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

That’s odd, there were 7 pics in the album. It will be a couple days before I can get pics in natural lighting outdoors, but I’ll gently clean the shoes and take some pics outside next Wednesday and post them here

 

[Domino23]

Most probably shell, off chance it's Corfam. Based on the color depth I'll guess shell.

Thank you, based in its short and unique history I’d be fascinated if the shoes were corfam . Im going to start cleaning and conditioning the shoes based, I’ll get some better pics in a couple of days and hopefully there will be some improvements and it will be easier to tell

 

[eTrojan]

Thank you, based in its short and unique history I’d be fascinated if the shoes were corfam . Im going to start cleaning and conditioning the shoes based, I’ll get some better pics in a couple of days and hopefully there will be some improvements and it will be easier to tell

Sorry. First time I looked, only the first picture loaded.

I would lean towards shell with a couple caveats:

• The color variation is unique to shell, as long as the darker sections aren’t polish buildup. I generally start all my shoes with a vigorous saddle soap cleaning, scrubbing with a horsehair dauber. If it’s polish, the suds will usually pick up the red tint, and you’ll discover that you likely need something more aggressive to get it all off.
• The rolls on the vamp and the pucker on the eyelet holes look right for shell, too. The wrinkles on that left toe need a better photo.
• They don’t look CORFAM to me for a couple reasons. As a man made material, the color would be consistent, and the CORFAM I’ve seen runs darker, so the cherry red vamp is too light. Also, it states “fully leather lined” which I would think defeats the purpose of CORFAM, which was a semi-breathable poromeric plastic designed to replace leather (my pair of corfam literally has the word “poromeric” inside).

Some CORFAM history for the group:

Museum Collection:The Short Life of DuPont’s Corfam

Not everything can be successful, even if you have had an enormously successful product like nylon. Corfam is an excellent example of a synthetic product that simply did not live up to its expectations over time for DuPont. Early in the twentieth century, DuPont began seeking a synthetic...

www.hagley.org

 

[mormonopoly]

I

I bought a pair of shoes on eBay because I liked the color and style, now that they've arrived I'm trying to figure out if they're shell cordovan or not.

Reasons why:
1:Leather has rolls instead of creases

2: The leather has a different feel to it that any other leather I've touched before. It's dense and feels almost plastic like. Its not PVC, corrected grain or actual plastic/fake leather, it just feels different, more firm but not unpleasant

3: The color

4: The weight. These shoes are surprisingly heavy/dense, the leather is thicker than I expected. The shoes have a surprising heft to them

5: The shine . This is hard to explain or demonstrate in the pics but there's a depth to the shine that I haven't seen in any other leather before, it's light there's multiple distinct layers to it.

6: No pores

Reasons why it might not be


1: This model isn't listed on the shell cordovan shoe list website. The maker is Sibley's.

2: There are a few small microcreases on one of the shoes, tiny compared to the rolls but still there.

3: The shoes weren't sold as shell cordovan, but the seller didn't appear to be a pro so they might not have known

4: Uneven color. One shoe is much redder, the other is more brown. Lack of uniformity.

I showed them to a couple of my friends who own cordovan shoes, one has a pair of Florsheims and the other a pair of Alden loafers, they believe it's shell but I'd rather gather as much feedback as possible before I start fiddling with them to restore them. If they're not shell I'm still happy because I like the color, if they are shell I want to use them for practice for restoring/shining before I get a "proper" pair. Any help would be appreciated!

I’m voting not shell on these. There’s something about the finish on that leather that just doesn’t look right to me. I also think there’s a little creasing on the side view. Finally, these aren’t particularly high quality shoes with a vinyl welt. It’s unusual to see a company cheapen out on some materials, but still use shell.

 

[vestbash]

I bought a pair of shoes on eBay because I liked the color and style, now that they've arrived I'm trying to figure out if they're shell cordovan or not.

Reasons why:
1:Leather has rolls instead of creases

2: The leather has a different feel to it that any other leather I've touched before. It's dense and feels almost plastic like. Its not PVC, corrected grain or actual plastic/fake leather, it just feels different, more firm but not unpleasant

3: The color

4: The weight. These shoes are surprisingly heavy/dense, the leather is thicker than I expected. The shoes have a surprising heft to them

5: The shine . This is hard to explain or demonstrate in the pics but there's a depth to the shine that I haven't seen in any other leather before, it's light there's multiple distinct layers to it.

6: No pores

Reasons why it might not be


1: This model isn't listed on the shell cordovan shoe list website. The maker is Sibley's.

2: There are a few small microcreases on one of the shoes, tiny compared to the rolls but still there.

3: The shoes weren't sold as shell cordovan, but the seller didn't appear to be a pro so they might not have known

4: Uneven color. One shoe is much redder, the other is more brown. Lack of uniformity.

I showed them to a couple of my friends who own cordovan shoes, one has a pair of Florsheims and the other a pair of Alden loafers, they believe it's shell but I'd rather gather as much feedback as possible before I start fiddling with them to restore them. If they're not shell I'm still happy because I like the color, if they are shell I want to use them for practice for restoring/shining before I get a "proper" pair. Any help would be appreciated!

These are 100% not shell.

 

[suitforcourt]

I bought a pair of shoes on eBay because I liked the color and style, now that they've arrived I'm trying to figure out if they're shell cordovan or not.

Reasons why:
1:Leather has rolls instead of creases

2: The leather has a different feel to it that any other leather I've touched before. It's dense and feels almost plastic like. Its not PVC, corrected grain or actual plastic/fake leather, it just feels different, more firm but not unpleasant

3: The color

4: The weight. These shoes are surprisingly heavy/dense, the leather is thicker than I expected. The shoes have a surprising heft to them

5: The shine . This is hard to explain or demonstrate in the pics but there's a depth to the shine that I haven't seen in any other leather before, it's light there's multiple distinct layers to it.

6: No pores

Reasons why it might not be


1: This model isn't listed on the shell cordovan shoe list website. The maker is Sibley's.

2: There are a few small microcreases on one of the shoes, tiny compared to the rolls but still there.

3: The shoes weren't sold as shell cordovan, but the seller didn't appear to be a pro so they might not have known

4: Uneven color. One shoe is much redder, the other is more brown. Lack of uniformity.

I showed them to a couple of my friends who own cordovan shoes, one has a pair of Florsheims and the other a pair of Alden loafers, they believe it's shell but I'd rather gather as much feedback as possible before I start fiddling with them to restore them. If they're not shell I'm still happy because I like the color, if they are shell I want to use them for practice for restoring/shining before I get a "proper" pair. Any help would be appreciated!

These were made by Dexter for Sibley. I doubt they are shell given the other cheaper parts like the welt and soles.

 

[greekgeek]

It seems some micro creasing here,or it's maybe just paint layer crack. Other part does looks like shell to me
View attachment 1884179

Oooooh good catch. Looks more like a corrected grain leather then. Blucher flaps and eyelets through me off some, presents similar to shell.

Looking again, I gotta agree with the others, not shell. Looks like a pretty decent enough corrected grain leather though, fwiw. Have seen similar used by Florsheim. Corrected grain gets no love on SF, but it still has some utility IME, say something to kick around in and not worry about.

 

[friendlygoz]

Crockett & Jones shell loafers for date night. These have skyrocketed to the top of my favorite-shoes list (I admit: it’s a long list).

 

[Domino23]

I'd like to thank everyone for their patience and answering my questions about shell cordovan. I did some digging last night reading more into this thread and other forums. Today's question:


How reliable is

https://shellcordovanmodels.com/#Johnston & Murphy

This website seems to be an evolving compilation of verified shell cordovan makers and models. The reason I'm asking is I decided to search specifically off of the makers and models here and then verify the model number inside the shoe.


For Johnston and Murphy they list the following:

"24-9312 - Dark Cherry - Aristocraft Plain Toe Blucher"

I was browsing and found a shoe with that model number, and it matches the color and style description, but it's not being sold as shell cordovan. The seller seems to be a normal person selling not a business or a professional, they are just selling it as a regular shoe.


If the website is reliable and the model number is a good place to start let me know and I'll upload some more pics for verification.

 

[smfdoc]

I'd like to thank everyone for their patience and answering my questions about shell cordovan. I did some digging last night reading more into this thread and other forums. Today's question:


How reliable is

https://shellcordovanmodels.com/#Johnston & Murphy

This website seems to be an evolving compilation of verified shell cordovan makers and models. The reason I'm asking is I decided to search specifically off of the makers and models here and then verify the model number inside the shoe.


For Johnston and Murphy they list the following:

"24-9312 - Dark Cherry - Aristocraft Plain Toe Blucher"

I was browsing and found a shoe with that model number, and it matches the color and style description, but it's not being sold as shell cordovan. The seller seems to be a normal person selling not a business or a professional, they are just selling it as a regular shoe.


If the website is reliable and the model number is a good place to start let me know and I'll upload some more pics for verification.

The shellcordovanmodels.com site is quite good. You are correct that it is evolving with time. It was started by one of our own thread members and I very occasionally contribute to it when I run across an unlisted pair.

 

[Nealjpage]

I grabbed these vintage logger boots yesterday at an estate sale. Leather is so dry it cracks when bent. Trying to rehydrate them. If it's a failure it was only a $4 experiment.