Antique French Cavalry Officers Boot Trees - Wooden Boot Lasts

Antique French Cavalry Officers Boot Trees - Wooden Boot Lasts - Antique Boot Stretchers - Hunting Boot Forms - FF101M

These three pairs of boot stretchers came from the Saumur Region of Central France.
Saumur is famous for the Military Cavalry College and more recently the Cardre Noir. The Cadre Noir is a corps of écuyers, or instructors, at the French Military riding academy, the École Nationale d'Équitation at Saumur in Western France, founded in Versailles before transferring to Saumur in 1828. During the second world war the students who were considered to young an untrained yet to fight against the invading German Army were left behind in the barracks. However due to the rapid advance when the German troops arrived at the towns river it was the students and the older staff of instructors who in fact blew the bridges an held off the advancing troops for several days. There is a fantastic military museum in the centre of the city showing the history of the military in this region and another large tank museum mapping the change of the cavalry brigade to an armoured one. Both museums are worth a visit if you are ever near, as is the very old distillery in the centre of town.plus its many and varied vineyards.

These are all antique pieces. The pair in the centre are slightly younger around the turn or early 1900's with the other two around the mid to late 1800's.
They are marked with either D or G, meaning Droite for right and Gauche for Left so obviously French unlike the others we have listed that are English or Irish. These stretchers appear to be hand carved from French Oak or similar.
They would make great shop display or just use them for the purpose they were intended.

The Dimensions are as follows :-
 

Middle Pair.
The dimensions are 16" or 410mm high not including the handle, heel to toe 10.75" or 270mm, foot width 3.5" or 90mm, calf width 4.5" or 115mm, 5.5" or 140mm depth and 14" or 350mm around the calf. The handle is 4" or 100mm high.
We are unsure of the exact size around a UK size 9 or ten. Each foot weighs a little over 5.2lbs or 2.35kg so 10.4lbs or 4.7kgs the pair.

As these items are relatively heavy and long, we are sorry but a large portion of the price is the cost of shipping that is included.
Your purchase will be very carefully packaged with recycled materials where possible and despatched via the Irish An Post postal service.
**************THE PRICE INCLUDES TRACKED INTERNATIONAL DELIVERY - (except for Australasia and South America)
*********************PLEASE CONTACT US FOR SHIPPING COSTS TO AUSTRALASIA AND SOUTH AMERICA************************

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PURCHASE MORE THAN ONE ITEM LISTED IN OUR SHOP, PLEASE CONTACT US FOR A COMBINED PRICE.