These days, every store, like Hallmark, that sells any kind of dust collectors always seems to have a range of tiny ceramic shoes. I asked a clerk once what the big deal was about shoes, and she said, “People collect them”. Gee, lady, I didn’t realize. I mean, I understand the collecting bug: shot glasses, wall plates, beanie babies, and so on. But usually collectables have some kind of sentimental significance to the person who amasses them. Or there’s enough difference between the individual items, like each shot glass having a different logo, to make them interesting when you see them all displayed together.
My grandmother crocheted dozens of tiny shoes for gifts and church bazaars. They were soaked in sugar syrup and slipped over a tiny wooden foot mold that came apart when they were dry.
The result was a very delicate 3-D lace shoe, and it went perfectly with the delicate blown glass shoes on ladies dressing tables and etageres.
Many, many years ago the ceramics factories in the UK would make samples for the sales reps to take around to various customers.
Since transport was nothing like as good in the 18thC and 19thC they needed to travel light, so those samples were often very small examples of the factories’ work and were very well made, painted and glazed.
These items became collectable but are quite rare, I would not be surprised to find that one or more factories produced these little porcelain shoes for demonstration purposes and that they just caught on.
In the UK one can find high quality reproductions of these little ceramic shoes. I don’t know ehy, but I find them utterly adorable. Last time I was over there I bought a ton of them for gifts; at 14 pounds (about $25) apiece.