History of decorating leather

[Johanna]

I stumbled on this page by accident. I had forgotten how many different kinds of awls there were.

Impression/Incision: There are few instances of combining techniques such as Incising and Stamping, such as is done in much modern leatherworking, however, that should not be taken as a solid statement that such was not done. It is quite possible for such tooling to be done only using stamping tools, but the edges of such work are usually not as sharply defined as the cut and tooled work.

• Belts -- Dress Accessories. Catalog nos. 22-23. These use both Incising and Stamping for decoration
• Leathercovered Box (14th C - Italian) -- Newman, Thelma. Leather as Art and Craft. This box, which is currently in in the Metropolitin Museum of Art, has a overall design that could easily pass for a modern tooling style. There is an Elizabethan example of Cutting that is vaguely reminiscent of the modern "American Floral" designs that *could* be such a case (Citation forgotten).
  

[*]Impression/Paint:

• Stonyhurst Bible binding (7th C.) [plate II; Waterer's Leather and Craftsmanship, Faber & Faber LTD., London, 1950.]
• E. Diehl, Bookbinding, Vol. 1, Dover Books, NY, c.1946,1980, p. 109.
  

[*]Cutting (or often referred to as Carving)/Cuir cisele' - This is a method of decorating leather in which the design is cut into dampened leather instead of being tooled or blocked. The design is first outlined with a pointed tool and then dampened. Sometimes it is then brought into relief by depressing the background, usually by stamping a succession of dots into the leather very close together by means of a pointed tool. Certain parts of the design are sometimes embossed from the flesh side of the leather, and in such cases the decorating must be done before covering.

Some sources state that this technique was really only practiced only during the 15th century and then only in certain areas such as Southeastern Germany and Spain. There are no English and Flemish and practically no Italian examples are known.

1. Incising -- Taking a knife, or in modern tooling, a swivel knife, and inscribing a design into the surface of the leather. Note that a dull knife can leave a much larger "line" than a sharp one, and will not weaken the surface strength as much. This is *possibly* the most common method of ornamentation for leather during the Middle Ages. Numerous examples can be found in Knives and Scabbards, Shoes and Pattens, etc.
2. Carving -- Technically, this is the technique of undercutting the leather surface and making it physically stand out from the general surface of the leather.
   
3. Cutout -- Creating designed by punching holes in the leather. There are examples of this in Shoes and Pattens, as well as the various fields on the burial shield of the Black Prince (shown in Leather and the Warrior).
   
4. Sgraffio or Scraping -- Scraping away parts of the surface to create an overall effect. There are examples of this in Shoes and Pattens and Leather and the Warrior.
   
5. Embroidery -- Doing needlework on the leather itself. There are examples discussed in Shoes and Pattens.
   

[*]Impressing

1. Stamping/Punching/Cold Stamping -- Using a hammer and unheated metal "Irons" to create a pattern, or set a single image. There are a few examples of examples of these in Knives and Scabbards, most often to create a repeating motif of a single design element.
2. Blind Stamping -- Impressing by means of heated metal stamps, touched to the leather. This is the method of ornamentation used on books, and other items using very thin leathers.
   
3. Creasing/Veining. -- This is referred to a single or double line, often used to create a decorative border edge on leather. It is done with either heated metal irons, or by friction with wooden tools. It is essentially similar to blind stamping in that it uses heated metal to create a design.
   
4. Cuerro Gofrado -- Rather like "Blind Stamping", this rather lays the leather atop a heated metal design, and pressed down onto it, creating a multilayered effect. It seems to have not been common beyond Spain and Italy.
   
5. Poker Work/Pyrogravure/Poker Art -- This also uses a heated tool, but rather than to impress the design into the surface, to burn the surface with a very hot metal, in much the same way as a Branding Iron or a Running Iron works. [On light leather you can burn, using a soldering iron with a sharp tip, a series of dots and lines that are black. They last for a very long time and you can create some very complicated designs (including some of the really difficult ones from the book of kells) This method of decoration is authentic for the period 800-1100 (see sheaths in the Yorvik viking centre) and probably before and after those dates.]
   
6. Gold Stamping -- This is a means of imbedding gold leaf patterns into the surface of the leather. Judging from bookbindings, leather tapestries, and some of the nicer items described in inventories, they used gold, silver, and tin leaf on many items, and often faked up the tin to resemble gold or silver.
   

[*]Modelling -- Creating a bas relief in the leather using a number of techniques, including carving.

• Dublin piece (13th c) -- This could just as easily have been a combination of stamped work and embossing. The basic design (animals and vegetation) would have been laid out and rough worked by pressing or modeling, then the background would be stamped with a small round stamp before the main design is finished. Additionally, the background dots in the piece appear to have been worked in rows; they follow the rough lines of the main design rather than being the smooth all-over pelleted background
  

[*]Molding or Moulding -- May include molds and/or countermolds to create the design. A design that has been engraved on a piece of wood can be pressed into a piece of leather stretched over the form. It would appear that many molds for Bottels, etc. rather than having the leather go around the mold, often have the leather pressed inTO the mold. Many period leather bottles were made in this fashion, as well as a number of examples of materials shown in Waterer's books.

[Romey]

I knew of all but 2, interesting article find Johanna, your always on the ball