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Star (Christchurch), Volume LXIV, Issue 852, 28 August 1933, Page 5

The saying to the effect that a shoemaker should stick to his last originated with Apelles, the celebrated Greek painter, who set a picture which he had finished in a public place, and concealed himself behind it in order to hear the criticisms of passers-by. A shoemaker observed a defect in the shoe, and the painter forthwith corrected it. The shoemaker went again the next day, and, encouraged by the success of his first criticism, began to extend his remarks to the leg of the figure. This excited the ire of the painter, who, thrusting out his head from behind the picture, told the shoemaker to keep to his trade; in other words, to stick to his last.