Until the early twentieth century, young Han Chinese girls had their feet wrapped tightly in bandages to stop them growing. The bandages remained on throughout the girls’ lives so that as adult women their feet were so tiny they could fit into shoes like these. To have bound feet was considered beautiful and virtuous. Bound feet were painful and sometimes crippling, and their unpleasant smell, caused by the binding, had to be masked with perfume. This pair of silk embroidered shoes was collected in 1841.

View database record 1944.9.63