Two-piece front on pull-on boots

[smithjub]

Greetings,

The picture below is a cropped image from the picture of the young Lt. being discussed in another thread. My question involves the type of boot being worn by the officer whose leg can be seen in the bottom of the picture. It appears as though the boot has a two-piece front, rather than the one piece front available on most of the high-end boots. I've only seen the two-piece style on "economy" boots, and was under the impression that a two-piece front was a later style and not period correct for our time frame. To me, however, this pic suggests otherwise.

Am I seeing what I think I'm seeing in this picture, or is this a different style of boot entirely? Is the two-piece style of boot out there today actual period correct? I've been trying to research boots online, but can't seem to find out definitively when the two-piece front common on modern boots (and the aforementioned "economy" boots) came into being.

Thank you in advance.

[tmattimore]

Re: Two-piece front on pull-on boots

Yes you see what you are looking at. To set the nomenclature. The front is called a vamp the lower rear is called a counter the legs are the shaft and the vertical line is the side seam. This is known today as the typical construction of a cowboy boot. This type of construction appears as early as the two piece, it was not as popular however due to labor expense of hand sewing and the degree of skill needed to crimp the boot. The two piece remained the more popular until well into the late 1880's. The wrinkled look of the two piece was considered fashionable. Since these are private purchase they were most likley made to the wearer's desires. Another popular type was the three piece with vamp, counter and one piece shaft. The original texas cowboy's of the 1860's and 70's preffered the two piece It took Mr.Luchasse to make this type of construction the standard for a cowboy boot.

[KyCavMajor]

Another example of that type boot

This picture is from the Arsenal Museum In "Nawlins". It is a Lousiana Trooper, the picture also shows two pistols..... darn farb ,,,