Elegant evening shoes or pumps. Provenance: Crown Princess Stephanie of Austria. Stéphanie (21 May 1864 – 23 August 1945) was a Belgian princess by birth and became Crown Princess of Austria through her marriage to the heir-apparent of the Habsburg dynasty, Archduke Rudolf. She was famously widowed in 1889 when Rudolf and his mistress, Mary Vetsera, were found dead in an apparent murder-suicide pact at the Imperial hunting lodge at Mayerling in the Vienna Woods. Her grandfather Leopold I of Belgium was the country's first king. Her aunt, Charlotte of Belgium, the future ill-fated Empress of Mexico, was married to Maximilian, the brother of her future father-in law, the Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph.
This pumps are made of ruby silk. Label inside: „k.k. (meaning "imperial-royal", pertaining to the Austrian Empire before 1867 and to the Austrian part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire 1867–1918) Hofschuhmacher (imperial shoemaker) * W. Marschner“. The shoes have a medal from Berlin, 1877. They are made in Vienna, ca. 1881. Decorated with a bow of silk and lace. Cotton and leather lining. Leather soles. Length: 10.8“. Very good condition. Some abraison in the heel area. Part of the lot is a copy of the certificat from Mathilde Wiemer. Mathilde got this shoes as “thank-you” for her services (May-November 1903) in the house of Countess Chotek from Chotkova and Wognin as Princess from Hohenberg. A very, very rare item.