Summary

This cream cardboard pattern with its text of '10-11-12' referencing size and its diamond shaped hole (suggestive of a button hole), was most likely used by Stanio Fancoff as part of his shoe patterning schemata sometime between the 1930s and 1970s. Along with many others, this pattern was an integral part of Stanio's shoemaking craft and business.

Stanio Ivanoff Fancoff was born in 1908 in Bojentsi, a small village in Bulgaria. At age 11, Stanio left home to learn the shoemaking trade. In 1929, he immigrated to Melbourne, settled in Fitzroy and began to work for the V.G. Zemancheff & Sons basket shoe factory in South Melbourne. In1936, he married Dorotea Georgi Touzou who had recently arrived in Australia. Around this time, Stanio set up his own shoemaking business from home, with Georgi, her cousin and sister weaving the shoes which he then assembled. Select shoe samples were then taken to Sydney and Tasmania for sale. In 1942, Georgi and Stanio moved to Broken Hill for Georgi's health; there daughter Nancy was born and Stanio set up a shoe shop/factory. In 1945, Georgi died and by 1950 Stanio and Nancy had moved to Adelaide where he again opened a shoemaking business and shop. He passed away in 1978, having been in the shoemaking business for 59 years. This collection documents his migration and working life experiences.

Physical Description

Cream colored cardboard with a bottom grey edgeline. Primarily rectangular shaped with a short strap form protruding from the left top quadrant. Perpendicular to the top edge line are two pencil lines, while the lower short strap exhibits one pencil line and a random pencil marking, A diamond shaped cutout is centrally located within the short strap region. Although in good condition, the area adjacent to the cutout exhibits two fold lines, while various creases appear within the remaining pattern structure.

Significance

This collection is significant in documenting a small migrant business as well as the fashion of a particular period. It is well provenanced and charts the application of trade skills in a new country. It also illustrates the stages of hand shoe manufacture from the 1930s, demonstrating the enduring nature of the tools and patterns that were used.

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