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# I propose a comparison of expensive footwear from two different eras: a pair of velvet men's shoes with gold trim from Italy in the 1730s, in the collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and a woman's boot from a Scythian burial in the Altai, 2
- URL: https://theparnassian.com/en/predlagaiu-sravnit-doroguiu-obuv-iz-dvukh-raznykh-epokh-paru-barkhatnykh-muzhskikh-tufelek-s-zolotoi-otdelkoi-iz-italii-1730-kh-gg-v-kollektsii-los-andzhelesskogo-muzeia-iskusstv-i-zhen/
- Published: 2020-09-16T08:23:16.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-01T05:42:16.000Z
- Author: Alexandr Radayev
- Tags: Archaeology, The East, Museums, Observations

I propose a comparison of expensive footwear from two different eras: a pair of velvet men's shoes with gold trim from Italy in the 1730s, in the collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and a woman's boot from a Scythian burial in the Altai, 2,300 years old, in the collection of the Hermitage. On the whole, at the sight of these artefacts, all theories of the unprecedented development of luxury goods alongside the development of capitalism, or, say, of the unique role of European craftsmen of the Middle Ages and the modern era in filling the treasury of world culture, collapse for me personally. The excellent condition of the Scythian woman's footwear allows one to appreciate the impeccable workmanship and technique: leather boots wrapped in red cloth, trimmed with shaped gold foil, tin, crystals of pyrite and glass beads, sewn with animal sinew. We know that this is not yet the most outstanding item in the inexhaustible legacy of Scythian treasures, but nevertheless! I am convinced that the Eurocentric perception of world history requires considerable adjustment in view of the indisputable achievements of the East

![](https://theparnassian.com/content/images/2026/09/photo_3272@16-09-2020_11-23-16.jpg)