Series editors' preface - Wood Tools

it over a blunt metal blade or by pounding
with wooden mallets, to soften it. Goat skins
are folded, hair side in, and rubbed back and
forth over a curved board causing them to
develop the typical pebbly or grainy appearance
of morocco leather. The original shagreen
was made by trampling seeds into the surface
of moist leather and shaking them out when
dry. Thick hides may be split into two or more
thickness and surfaces may be dyed or painted,
sized waxed, or buffed to finish. In the United
States, under rulings of the Federal Trade
Commission, a split must be so marked and
cannot be called ‘genuine leather’ or ‘genuine
cowhide’ (Tanners Council of America, 1983).
Methods of working and uses of leather
Numerous methods of working leather have
been used, of which a few will be mentioned
here. Apart from sewing and riveting used to
assemble three-dimensional leather structures,
leather has been fastened to rigid foundations
using animal glue to cover boxes, coffers, caskets,
sword hilts and scabbards or stretched
across frames to produce litters, sedan chairs,
coaches, wall panels, screens and chairs. Skins
were prepared and applied to forms both in a
wet and dry state by stitching, riveting or gluing.
The marked ability of vegetable tanned
leather to conform to a mould when wet and
to remain permanently set on drying with moderate
heat has been known as cuir bouilli since
at least the fourteenth century and exploited
for the production of a large variety of domestic
and industrial objects. Leather for moulded
objects has also been laminated, either alone
or with canvas or paper. Decoration of leather
has been achieved using lines impressed into
the surface with hot metal tools and by modelling,
cutting, punching, incising or bruising
over a relief in wood, blind stamping and gold
tooling. The practice of gilding all over was
used for panelling and hangings but although
gold leaf was sometimes used it is more common
to find silver or tin foil adhered to the surface
with shellac or white of egg and covered
with yellow varnish (see Figure 3.4 and Figure
11.5). Specialized tools were developed for
stretching, cutting, skiving, finishing edges and
joining and for creating decorative surfaces on
leather (see Scholten, 1989).
Stretched leather was used for seats of chairs
and stools in Egypt but its use for fixed uphol-
Upholstery materials and structures 103
Figure 3.4 Wallpaper and leather panels; crimson
flock and embossed gilt leather, Dutch and/or English,
c.1680