They may have belonged to someone in the entourage of the local ruler, or to the ruler (the nawab) of Awadh (Oudh, of which Lucknow was the capital) himself. Each shoe is provided with four gilded silver tassels. Each of the shoes is 23.5 cm long, 11.75 cm wide and 11 cm high.
The shoes were included in the exhibition "Shoes: Pleasure and Pain", shown at the V&A between 13th June 2015 and 31st January 2016.
The shoes may have been acquired in 1855 for what was then known as the India Museum in London, whose collection was moved to the Victoria and Albert Museum after 1879.
V&A online catalogue (retrieved 6th June 2017).
WV