NOTHING LIKE LEATHER. [From Dickens's Household Words.]

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume IX, Issue 906, 8 April 1854, Page 4

NOTHING LIKE LEATHER. [From Dickens's Household Words.]

It is time that Leather — the tough old .veteran whose fame extends far and wide — should look to his laurels. He is from time to time attacked by a number of annoying antagonists, who saucily threaten to " put him down." Once it is Papier Macbe, a conglomerated paste-like stripling, who claims a toughness and lightness of his own, t without the solid consistency of Leather. A onother time it is young Carton Pierre, a nativ of France, who presents a substance built up of paper and plaster. But the veteran has had more formidable attacks from two other interlopers — Mesr India Rubber and Shah Gutta Percha, these boast so much of their elasticity, their toughness, their indestructibility, and every other corporeal and corpuscular excellence, that Leather has had as much as be can do tf> maintain his ground against them. It is therefore, to know, tf.at tough old Leather does not mean to give up

the contest. He will fight bis battle yet, and shows a disposition to carry the contest into the enemy's country. Already we find ladies making leather picture frames and leather ornaments of various kinds for their appartments ; and we perceive that saloons and galleries are once again, as in times of yore, exhibiting leather tapeitries. We find, too, architects and decorators acknowledging that leather may be accepted at a fitting and graceful means of embellishment in many cases where carved wood would otherwise be used. A leather tapestry is not a curtain hanging loose, like the arras or Gobelin hangings ? but it is sttetched on canvas, and made to form the panels of a room; the stiles or raised portions being of oak or some other kind of wood. Such was generally the case in the old leather tapestries, and such it is in those now produced ; but the mode of use is fusceptible of much variation ; since the gilding, and stamping, and painting of the leather are independent of the mode of fixing. These tough old garments, to keep tbe walls warm, were known in early times to an extent which we now little d»eara of. As a wall-covering, leather presents great advantages ; not only from its durability and it« power of resisting damp, but from its facility of being embossed, the e?.se with which it receives "old, silver, and coloured decoration, and the scope it alTords for introducing landscapes, arabesques, emblazonments, or other painted devices. All these properties were known before decorators bad been startled by the norelttes of Ctrtoo Pierre, Paper Machi, and Gutta Percha. Continental countries were more rich in these productions than England. In the Alhambra, the Courts of the Lions still presents, if we mistake not, the same leather hangings vhich were put up there six centuries ago. The great Flemish towns — Lille, Brussels, Antwerp, and Mechlin — were all famous for producing these hangings; those from the last-named town were especially remarkable for their beauty. Eighty year 3 ogo the French manufacturers complained that, bowever excellent their gilt and embossed leather might be, tbe Parisians were wont to run after those of Flanders ; just as Worcester gloTcmakers in our day deprecate the wearing of French gloves by true-born Britons. There were, nevertheless, fine specimens produced at Peris and Lyons ; and there were one or two cities in Italy also, in which the art was practised. Many old mansions in England have wherewithal to show that leather hangings of great beauty were produced in this country in the old time. Blenheim, the seat of the Dukes of Marlborowgh, 16 one of the places at which these English leathers are to be found. At Eastbara manorhouse, in Essex, built by Henry tbe Eighth, there were leather tapestries of great sumptuousness, covered with such large quantities of gold, that they realised a considerable sura when sold half * century ago, by a proprietor wbo cared more for coined gold than for art. It is curious to note that tbe writer of an old French treatise on this ar 1 ., acknowledges the superior skill of the Englishmen engaged in it, pnd lnraenta thet his countrymen cannot maintain r.n even position with them in the market. Thus the English leather tapeetries must hays been, at one time, excellent. The leather required for these purposes undergoes s process of tanning and currying, differing from that to waicb leather fcr other purposes is subjected. The old French leather gildt-rs about the times of Louis the Fourteenth aid Fifteenth generally employed sheep-leatber ; but sometimes calf and lamb-skins. The last two were better, but the first was the cheapest. The dry skins of leather were soaked in water, to mollify them ; they vrerc then vigorously pommelled, to give them supplenesc. The leather was laid upon a fiat stone, and scraped and ecrsped until its wrinkles were removed — not iilled up, as with thecosraelic of the wrinkled dowagers of the old school — but fairy and honestly scraped out of existence. There was a stretching proceso effected at the same time, whereby the leather became somewhat lengthened and widened at the expense of its thickness. As it is the fate of many skins to have defective places, the workmen showed a nice skill in trimming the margin of the hole or defective spot, and pasting or glueing a little fragmpnt of leather so nearty over it as to form aa invisible joint, When the leather was thus far advanced, it was covered with leaf silver ; for it appears that, in those days, gilt leather was not gilt leather; it wt3 silvered leather lacquered to a golden bus. The silverer rubbed a little bit of parchment size over the leather with bis hand ; and while this was yet in a sticky or tactile state, he applied upon it leaves of very thin beaten silver — not attenuated to so extraordinary a degree as leaf-gold, but still very thin. These leaves were, as applied side by side on the leather, pressed down by a fox's tail rolled into a sort of little mop ; and the leather was exposed to air and sunshine until dry. This lacquer was a mysterious mixture of resin, aloes, gum sandarach, litharge, red lead t and linseed oil, brown in colour, but assuming a golden hue when backed by a silvery surface. The lacquer, like a thick syrop, was laid on by tbe hand, as the best possible lacquering-brush ; and, after two or three applications, the lacquered silvered leather was dried in open air. Sometimes the leather was coated with leaf-copper in- | steid of leaf-silver ; and in that case the lacquer was required to be of a different kind to produce the desired gold hue. Then came the artistic work, the employment of design as an adornment. Wood blocks were engraved, much in the same way as for the printing of floor-cloths and paperhangings — with this variation, that the cavities or cut out portions constituted the design, instead of the uncut parts of the original surface. The design was printed on the silvered leather by an ordinary press, with the aid of a counter mould, if tbe relief were required to be higher than usual ; the leather being previously moistened oo the under surface to facilitate the pressing. There was thus produced a uniform golden or silver surface, varied only by stamped or relievo pattern ; but occasionally the design was afterwards picked out with colour. The advocates for the use of gilt and embossed leather tapestries have a formidable list of good things to say in their favour. They assert, in the first place, that leather beats wool in its power of resisting damp and insects— whether the light-minded moths of the summer months, or the dull-souled creeping things which have a tendency to Jay their eggs in woolly suhstances. They assert, also, that well-prepared gilt leather will preserve its splendour for a great length ol time. And, lastly that a soft sponge and a little water furnish an easy mode of cleansing the cur-

face, and keeping it bright and clear. Tbese various good qualities have induced one er two firms in England and in France to attempt the revival of leather tapestries. It has been up-hill work to induce decorators and connoisseurs to depart from the beaten track, and adopt the oldnew material ; but it has taken root; it is growing ; and many sumptuous specimeus are finding their way into the houses of the wealthy. The ducal mansions of the Norfolks and the Sutherlandi, the Hamiltons and the Wellingtons, the Devonshires, the Somersets, and other brave names have something to show in this way ; and royalty has not been slow to take part in the matter. The English revivers adopt, we believp, many of those described as having been followed by the old French workmen, but with various improvements ; among others, they use gold leaf instead of lacquered silver-leaf — a very proper reform in these Californian days. The relief on the leather tapestries is very lon or elight, but by deepening the engraving or embossment of the stamps, it can be made much more bold. It thus arises that leathers become available for a great variety of ornamental purposes, varying from absolute plainness of surface to very bold relief. Thus we hear of the employment of adorned leather for folding-scrsen*, for cornices and frames, for pendents and flowerborders, for panellings, for relief ornament 3 to doors, pilasters, shutters, architraves, friezes, and osilings ; for chimney pieces, for subjectpanels, for arabesques and paterns ; for mountings in imitation of carvings ; for decorations to wine coolers, dmner-vraggons, tables, chairs, pole-screens and cheval-screens ; for bindings, cases, end cabinets of various kinds • for clockcases and brackets, for consoles and caryatides, for decorations i*> ships' cabins, steam bo?t saloons, railway carriages — but we must stop. Some such things as these were produced in the old times; but more can now be effected. Pneumatic and hydraulic pressure are now brought into play. Without diving into the mysteries of the workman's sanctum, we believe tbat the leather is first brought, by an application of steam, to the state of a tough pulpy material, ready to assume any ons of a thousand metamorphoses. The design has been previously prepared ; and from this a mould is engraved or cut in a peculiar mixed metal which will not discolor the leather. The leather is forced into ths meuld by a gradual application of pressure, partly hydraulic and partly pneumatic, bo tempered as to enable the leather to conform to the physical force, the pressure from without, without breakage or perforation. The leather, when once removed from the mould, retains its new form while drying, and can then either be kept in its honest unsophisticated leathery condition^ or can be brought by paint or gold to any desired degree of splendour. No cne can conceive — without actual inspection — that «uch bold < relief could be produced in leather. Not only is this io some specimens oo bold as to be fully half round, but there is even the backward curve to imitate ths uoder-c-.it of carving : this could only be obtained by means of the remarkable combination of elasticity end toughness in leather. Some of the recent, productions, in less bold relief, dioplty a very high degree of artistic heauty. Her Maje3ty and the Royal Consort, o few years ago, jointly sketched a design for a cabinet, of which the whole of the decorations were to be of leather ; this has been completed ; the dimensions are nine feet by ceven ; the style is Renaissance, and the ornamentation is most elaborate ; two of the panels are occupied by bas-reliefs, in which the figures are represented with nearly as much beauty of detail as if carved — and yet all is done in stamped leather. In all these articles formed in leather, to break them is nearly out of the question ; to cut them is not particularly easy ; to destroy them in any way would seem to require the very perversity of ingenuity. To be sure, if a leather bas-relief were soaked in water for soeie hours, and then knocked about, it would receive a per- j manent disfigurement. But so would * man's , face. Whereas, if the soaking were not followed j by the thrashing, both the leather r*!ievo and the j man's face, would retain their proper forms. At any rate, a leathern ornament is one of the toughest and strongest productions which could be named. Occupying as it does, a midway j position in expense between carved wood and various stamped and cast materials, leather has a sphere of usefulness to 511 dependent on iss qualities relative to those of its antagonists. Leather flower-making is becoming an occasional resource for industrious ladies. And a very good resource, too. Why should crochet | and embroidery continue to reign without a rival ? Is it so very pleasant to make anti-Macsssars and slippers and collars and furniture covering, that no new employment for spare half-hours need be sought ? If a lady should deem it unpleasant io have to deal with little bits of damp leather, let her remember that there is greai scope for the display of taste — always an important matter, whether in business or in pleasure. When we mention picture-frames, we must be understood as referring to their ornamental decorations only. A carpenter or a frame-maker prepares a flat deal frame, with neither mouldings nor adornments ; the fair artist covers this with leather ornaments, and then paints the whole to imitate ancient oak, or in any other way which her taste may dictate. The preparation of the ornament depends on this fact — that leather can be brought into almost any desired form while wet, and will retain that form when dry. The leather (a piece of common sheepskin will suffice) is cut with scissors or sharp knives into little pieces, shaped liked leaves, stalks, tendrils, fruit, petals, or any other simple object ; and these pieces are curved and pressed, and grooved, and marked, and wrinkled, until they assume the required form. It is not difficult to see how, with a few small modelling-tools of bone or bard wood, all this may be done. And wben done, the little pieces are left to dry ; and wben dry, they are tacked or pasted on the frame ; and when tacked or pasted, they are finished just as the oruate taste of the lady-worker may suggest. If a picture-frame may be thus adorned, so may a screen, a chimney ornament — anything, almost, which you may please. If we mistake not, the leather-embossers have . begun to sell the simple tools, and to give the simple instructions requisite for the practice of this pretty art. But whether this be so or not, a tasteful woman can easily work out the requisite knowledge for herself. Our lady readers, however, need not be left wholly to their own re-

sources in the practice of this art. Madame de Conde, in her little shilling essay on the leather imitation of old oak carving, tells us all about it. She instructs us how to select the basil or sheepskin, how to provide a store of cardboard, wire, mouldiDg instruments, glue, asphaitum, oak stain, amber, varnisb, brushes, and the other working tackle ; how to take patterns from leaves in cardboard ; how to cut the leather from the cardboard patterns : how to mark the fibres or veins with a blunt point ; how to pinch up the leather leaf in imitation of Nature's own leaf ; bow to make stems by strips of leather wrapped round copper wite ; how to imitate roses, chrysanthemums, daisies, china-asters, fuchsias, and other flowers, in soft bits of leather crumpled up into due form ; how to imitate grape*, by wrapping up peas or beans in bits of old kid glove ; how to obtain relief ornaments by modelling soft leather on a wooden foundation ; how to affix all these dainty devices to a supporting framework ; and how to colour and varnish the whole. These items of wisdom are all duly set forth.