Leatherworking - Origins And History Of The Different Trades

[UKRay]

I have been asked to demonstrate leatherworking at some shows this coming year and have a pressing need to create a presentation about the social history of leatherworking. Okay so far, but when I started looking at the origins of the various leather oriented trades (belt maker, harness maker, saddler, boot maker etc) I realised it may not be as simple as I first thought.

I believe that early and very basic leatherworking would have been done by 'end users' who may have bartered their surplus products for other commodities. A man who makes himself a functional but ugly pair of boots may make another pair for his neighbour in exchange for a pile of logs. A guy who wants a harness for his oxen would make something that worked but it would not be asthetically pleasing. His neighbour may not care what the harness looks like as long as he can use it to pull logs home from the forest so he is prepared to do a deal.

The problem arises when the seller wants real money for his products. The average peasant almost certainly doesn't have any spare money so the seller is forced to find a 'wealthy' buyer. The buyer obviously wants the very best his coins can buy so this immediately creates a competitive retail situation.

The maker now has to offer the buyer top quality products/services or risk losing the sale. This situation, by necessity, leads to improved product quality and a higher level of craftsmanship. Constant competition simply lifts the 'bar' even higher. Suddenly the general artisan maker needs to be a specialist.

This brings a range of problems for the craftsman as choice is made available to the buyer. How does the maker fund his inventory? Is this really the start of specialist makers?

My thoughts started out with the most obvious trade - shoemaker. The shoemaker who can make really good shoes will always sell them. He may also make bags and pouches from his scraps - the techniques and skills are fundamentally the same, cutting, stitching and finishing. I felt it was unlikely that the high class shoemaker would also make saddlery or harness. Not because he couldn't do the job, but because the cost of stocking the differing materials would have prevented him from doing both.

The medieval saddlers and harness makers may have had clients who were military folk (which would explain why they had money for expensive horse trappings). Perhaps they concentrated on horse equipment, fighting gear and armour strapping. However, the scabbard maker (which we know existed as a trade) may have made sword belts or baldrics - but did he work with a sword maker - maybe he was originally a sword maker? Do you know?

Who made leather bottles?

Who made leather clothing?

What other leather trades were there

I'm fascinated to know what other people think about the origins of leatherworking and how the various trades came about. I am not saying any of my suppositions are correct, just offering them as a subject for conversation. Anyone got any thoughts on his?

Ray

[Mijo]

Ray, when I first picked up this hobby I was very interested in the history of leather crafting. I stumbled upon R.A. Salaman's Dictionary of Leather Working Tools, c.1700-1950 , which not only provides detailed explanation of the various tools used in the different trades but also really good historical information about each trade. I think you'll find a lot of answers to your questions within this book.

[UKRay]

The Dictionary of Leather Working Tools was one of my first stops, Mijo. It is very helpful but I was hoping for some general opinions about the development of the individual leather trades from craftsmen rather than academics.

IMHO, social history isn't as cut and dried as many people seem to think. It is open to interpretation and who better to interpret leatherworking than the folks on this forum?

I have attached a PDF document that made me think, hopefully others will find it interesting too. It is a bit on the big side so give it time to download.

Ray

AY17-16-Leather and leatherworking.pdf

[ChuckBurrows]

Ray - I suggest the books by your fellow countrynman John W Waterer, founder of the London Leather Crafts Museum - his books (often hard to find and often not cheap for those out of print) offer some of the best info on the history of leather crafting from the dawn of time to the late 20th Century. In England particularly the many and varied guilds had a huge impact on who made what and how it was made.

Edited April 27, 2012 by ChuckBurrows

[cem]

Hi Ray, these couple of sites might be of some help as well http://www.leatherconservation.org/ and http://leatherworkingreverend.wordpress.com/. Also thankyou for the pdf link I had downloaded it before but had accidently deleted it, definately some interesting stuff in there.

Cheers,

Clair

[SimonBakerCASEMAKERS]

Hi Ray,

I would second the advise of Chuck, the books by John W. Waterer, especially 'Leather in Life, Art and Industry', will be the place to start. This looks at the history of the different leather trades in the UK. There are some on sale in Amazon from just £14, which is not bad, they can be a lot more expensive.

all the best, simon

[UKRay]

Leather in Life, Art and Industry has just been ordered from Amazon... thanks guys. Excellent links, Clair - cheers!

I've been doing a bit more thinking and it seems to me that the main changes in medieval leatherwork would have happened in centers of commerce or where the rich and famous gathered. I say this because, as many of us are aware, it is hard to be creative in a vacuum. You need stimulation to bring out the best work. Merchants travelling around Europe, emissaries from the various royal courts and those rich enough to travel would make purchases in the most fashionable cities and parade their leathery purchases in their home countries. The 'fashionistas' didn't tend to frequent the rural areas so their impact would almost certainly have been felt by the town and city based leatherworkers. Designs first seen (and purchased) in Amsterdam, Rome, Paris or Madrid would quickly be commonplace in London and thus would influence the local leatherworkers

We have the same sort of thing going on here on this forum. Seeing top quality work inspires us to develop new ideas and try to improve on existing designs. Would medieval leatherworkers have been any different?

Ray

[DoubleC]

Ray I'm going to just give you an opinion which I think you asked for some where. Really interesting topic and not one I've actually thought about before, especially as far as specialty things. When you mentioned history I went pretty far back. I mean back to when we crawled out of the primordial slime or whatever happened. We needed clothes to keep us cool and warm. I can't imagine what it was like for people before they were tribal. One person had to do everything for themselves and that seems so incredible to me now. At least animals are born with their clothes on. When you think about it survival probably lead to folk living in a group as much as the need for socialization. If you look at now and how many people live alone by choice. I wonder if the first tools started then in a rudimentary form along with leather work being more specialized. I see a say woman who makes clothes for her social group from skins brought to her. Then a young boy or girl watches her do it for years and they snare a rabbit and make something. Suddenly there's competition and the woman starts dyeing/making/finding doo dads to add to her clothes. I mean I use a stick as a matting tool. Twin Oaks suggested when I was trying to learn about negative and positive space that I just find a stick and pound the dickens out of it on the concrete. I did and I'm still using it, design changes with use. This may not be the least helpful because I'm kinda thinking out loud and for that I apologize. But I think it's a great topic. Cheryl

[kwelna]

Just to add to the conversation, you may also may wish to examine the changes due to advances in weaponry through out history. If those with money were the soldiers they would become a major driving force in inovation. As they (weapons) advanced, so would the armor worn. As weapons and materials moved from stick and stones, to clubs, to spears, swords then bows and arrows to cross bows etc. I think it was the chineese that even came up with an early version of bullet (arrow) resistant armor by utilizing overlaping layers of compressed paper and\or silk on the exterior of their armor.

Our saving grace is two fold. First the internet and sites like this one. Second is a paradigm shift from hording knowledge (aka Trade Guilds) where only those within the guild\group were privy to the "secrets" to sharing knowledge. Sites like this facilitate the dispersion of ideas, knowledge and techniques both old and new. Information and innovations that would\may have taken weeks to months to years to propogate across medieval europe now occur at the speed of light. The other is all your willingness to share your knowledge. Without that willingness to basically share with what could ostensibly be consideered your "competition" is truely a relatively new phenomenon.

PS Being a novice leather worker, I for one truely appreciate the access to your knowledge and experience

[UKRay]

You make a fascinating point, Kwelna. The military have patently driven the leather industry, one way or another, since the very first 'organised' war. Only in recent years, with the advent of cheap synthetic materials, have we seen a drop off in military interest. When all the oil is gone, I suspect they will come looking for leatherworkers again.

My copy of Leather in Life, Art and Industry arrived this morning and I'm delighted with it. So much information and interesting leathery stuff. I'd suggest any leatherworker should put it on their wish list. Okay, it is a tad dated, but the pictures are incredible and the information is still as relevant today as it was when the book was written back in the 1940s. Excellent lead guys - thanks again.

Ray

[Jazznow]

A bit of information on the German guilds (I think this was more or less the same in whole medieval Europe, but not as extreme):

The guilds were very selective and it was very difficult to join a guild, because the members didn't wanted to get competition. This means, that especially craftsmen with good and innovative ideas were not allowed to join a guild (side note: the difficulties of becoming a member of a guild was the reason why widows of master craftsmen were very attractive for younger men, because marrying one means that you could become a guild member almost instantly). This restrictive policy resulted in a major lack of innovations in almost all trades. There was defacto no competition at all and no need for developing new ideas, techniques etc.

Regarding your idea of a shoemaker making pouches or something other out of his scraps would not have worked in the later medieval gild system, because a shoemaker who sold a pouch, a belt or something else committed a crime and had to face very high fees. This is why there was an own guild for all the different parts of what we call leather working in general I.e. shoemakers, saddle makers, belt and strip makers, harness makers, glove makers and so on and so on.There were different guilds for different kind of tanning hides too.

The shoemakers even put it one step further in Germany. There were shoemakers (schuhmacher) who actually build new shoes and other craftsmen who repaired old shoe (called flickschuster or schuster, maybe the difference in the English words shoemaker and cobbler expresses the same).

Maybe that helps you. Would like to now more about your presentation and how it turns out.

Greetings

Jonathan

[UKRay]

That all makes perfect sense, Jonathan, I'd forgotten about the strict trading laws imposed by the guilds. So what on earth did they do with their scrap leather? lol

Medieval people had a whole lot of ideas and rules that can be very difficult for a 21st century person to understand unless they are explained, Can you imagine living in a world where innovation is frowned upon and innovators are actively prevented from developing new ideas?

You are quite right about the shoemaker and cobbler. The shoemaker literally makes shoes and the cobbler repairs them.

My presentation is about the huge role leather played in medieval life. I want to talk about the number of trades it generated and the diversity of products, I need to look at the ways the leather industry was driven - military, industry, agriculture, leisure etc. Finally, I need to give a demonstration of leathercraft using copies of medieval tools. It is a lot of work to prepare all the information, develop visual aids / 'show and tell' boards and gather samples of leather and artifacts but I'm really enjoying the research process.

Ray