Orthopaedic brace
Category
Medical & health
Date
Unknown
Materials
Leather shoe with rubber sole and cotton lace attached to metal struts with plastic supports
Measurements
80 mm (Height) x 50 mm (Depth); 140 mm (Length)
Collection
Sudbury Hall Museum of Childhood, Derbyshire
NT 672706
Summary
A child's orthopaedic leg brace for the right foot, consisting of a white leather shoe attached to two metal struts that provide support to the lower leg up to the thigh. The shoe has a rubber sole with a leather strap and small metal buckle that can be fastened around the ankle. It also has a white cotton lace that is threaded through six pairs of small, circular metal eyelets on either side of the shoes tounge. The brace has two hard plastic supports that are connected to the metal struts by small screws, The lower support would run around the calf of the person using it and the top support would run around the thigh. Each of these supports has two leather straps that can be fastened and tightened using velcro strips and the bottom support includes a padded lining of synthetic material. Between the two plastic supports there is a leather support for the knee that can be fastened and tightened using two leather straps that both have a small metal buckle. The metal strut on the left hand side of the shoe connects to its sole via a small rectangular shaped slot at the heel. There is another slot on the right hand side but the metal strut on this side only runs down to the bottom of the lower plastic support suggesting that a piece of the strut may be missing.
Provenance
Purchased by The National Trust as part of the Collecting Cultures Exploring Childhoods project.