Bookvica

[SHOE PRODUCTION] Small archive, consisting of a manuscript notebook and 4 photographs

Item #2673

[Zlin, Czechoslovakia], [late 1930s]. 23,5 × 16 cm ca. Sketch book of shoe stands and socks arrangements for Baťa display windows.

23 vellum plates of single-sided hand drawn illustrations + 12 pages of notes in Czech. Laid in are four glossy photos (three 22 × 13,5cm, one 16 × 16cm) of shoe arrangements in mock window displays numbered 1—9. These are most likely practice windows for arrangers on the Baťa premises, possibly a student competition for the Baťa School of Work, an in-house employee training program based on the model of Ford’s Works in the USA and the principles of pedagogical reformism that was popular in the early 20th century.
Bata was one of the most successful Eastern European pre-war shoe-production firms, maybe the biggest in the region. In 1938, the Bata concern included 63 foreign companies, a railway to Vizovice (Czechoslovakia), a travel agency, a construction company, trading houses and shops - about 8 thousand trading shops in their country of origin and more than 8 thousand abroad, housing stock, own forests and farms. The concern provided over 67,000 jobs. The events of World War II caused great damage to the company. The managers, including Jan Antonin Batya Jr., left for America. The Czech part of the Baťa company was nationalized on October 27, 1945 and renamed Svit (people’s enterprise). The communist leadership of Czechoslovakia exported shoes made in Bati factories under the “Chebo” brand to the USSR and the countries of the social commonwealth.

Status: On Hold