Saddle From Human Leather

[vacacaballo]

Ok, this is pretty macabre. But, I was going through some old copies of The Australasian Saddler & Harness Maker, from the early 1900's, and came across multiple references to a white English Somerset saddle made from human leather. It is said to have been made by Hansell & Sons of Philadelphia.

I've attached images of the two references from the journal...and here's a link to a third citation. http://www.devilspen.../human-leather/

Human leather is supposed to be, qualitatively, much like dog or pig skin. From further reading, I guess it wasn't unusual during this period for medical students to possess small leather goods made from human skin.

I still don't know how I feel about this. But, it's blown my mind a little. I could find no reference to the current whereabouts of this saddle. Has anyone seen this saddle or heard anything else about it? A photo of the saddle was reportedly published in the Harness Gazette, circa. 1904.

Edited June 14, 2013 by vacacaballo

[FlHobbyist]

I wonder if there were trolls around at the turn of the century. I suspect strongly this magazine was a comedy magazine, assuming it really did exist. I notice they imply this article was a reprint from Sci Am which I find very, very hard to believe.

Addendum:

The actual issue of Feb Sci Am, doesn't seem to be digitized and available on the web at the moment. The only citations of this are from someone trying to sell this old copy of Sci Am, and from a blog called The Devils Penny. I'm wondering if the name of the supposed author of this piece (M. Glen Fling) is a pun of some sort.

Also, Scientific American has been known to run comedy pieces every now and again, mixed in with their usual articles.

I'm just thinking if there was any truth to this whatsoever, the news would be notorius. Sort of like the various (false) claims about the Germans in WWI, that were then made true in WWII, we still hear about those claims often, though modern thinking is they may too be false.

Edited June 14, 2013 by FlHobbyist

[vacacaballo]

Thanks for your input. The idea that a turn of the century troll could plant something extraordinary like this is certainly a good one...and something I hadn't really considered. However, after some research, the author appears to be a Miss M. Glen Fling of East Chapier St, Germantown, Philadelphia. I've found a bunch of articles of hers, across multiple publications, all of which have some slant toward science and other technical subjects. None of the articles I found were sensationalist in any way. It does appear she wrote in the Philly and Chicago areas, during the early 1900s.

Of course, it may turn out the Alton Evening Telegraph citation presented on The Devil's Penny website is not correct in its attribution to Scientific American. However, since the first mention of this saddle in The Australasian Saddler & Harness Maker cites a 1904 issue of Harness Gazette, 1907 may not even be the year it appeared in Sci. Am, if indeed it did.

I'm more interested in the 1903/4 Harness Gazette article, which is said to include a picture of this saddle. If anyone has any ideas as to how early copies might be found, please let me know. Meanwhile, I'll keep digging.

[electrathon]

Curious who the donor was and if it was consensual.

[Double U Leather]

Had an ol' bronc rider say one time that when he died he wanted his hide tanned and made into a barrel racing saddle so he could spend eternity between the two things he loved the most....a good horse and a beautiful woman...LOL.

[vacacaballo]

Double U Leather - That's hilarious (and not a bad idea). I've put on a few pounds over the years. So, I imagine if I keep going and donate my own hide to that effort, we might also be able to get a breastplate and headstall out of the deal.

Electrathon - Good questions.

Update: I found 2 copies of Scientific American for sale from Fed 23rd, 1907. Both sellers list an article on leather products from human skin, including a saddle. Bizarre.

[FlHobbyist]

I am curious about this too. I saw the Amazon and Ebay sales on the issue, but I don't want to pay the money to find out the truth of the matter. This tale is sounding more plausible by the hour. If it turns out being true, it raises a number of unsettling questions in my mind, namely, Why is this object so hush, hush?

lol... About the jokes above. If ya gotta go, then go in style

[electrathon]

One thing to remember is that human rights have changed considerably in the last 100 years. Slavery had recently ended in America and was (is) common in most of the world. Different races of people were looked at as less than human (Asian, Black, Indian) at that time. It still goes on to this day around the world.

[Emmet]

I came across this site on my trawling of the depths of the internet as to the veracity of its claims who knows. A whois says its based in India so human rights issues may or may not be at the forefront.

http://www.humanleather.co.uk/humanleatherproducts.html

[REDTAILHAWK]

Ok, so you guys got me curious enough about this weird subject that I picked up the Scientific American on Ebay that had the article in it. Sorry about my poor scanning abilities, the magazine was 11X17 and the scanner I have is 8 1/2 X 11 so I had to cut and paste the article. But at least I got it crooked too! Interesting, but pretty strange!

[raysouth]

Wonder where it ended up?

Don't think I would care to sit in that saddle. YUK!

God Bless.

Ray

[shtoink]

I've heard from a couple different places that it is supposedly some of the nicest leather you can find and reasonably durable when compared to other sources.

I did a bit of digging for sources to back the info up, as I couldn't remember exactly where I had heard it and here is what I found with a quick search:

The FAQ page at Human Leather. <-- These guys make items exclusively from legally obtained human leather.

A tongue-n-cheek article, but it talks about some of the things that have been made from human leather.

The Wikipedia page on Anthropodermic bibliopegy, which is the use of human leather for the purpose of binding books.

It seems that PETA doesn't have much of an issue with using humans for leather, though.

It may seem macabre and a bit foreign for most people,but we are looking back on history with a different set of societal values. All things considered, the use of human leather for making a saddle seems quite plausible.

On a side note, it'd be interesting to know how well tattoos come through in the final product. Some people have some really ornate artwork and I had read about traditionally tattooed Japanese skins being preserved in such a manner.

[oldtimer]

It must be made into a ladies saddle!

[Matt S]

Fascinating.

[shtoink]

Fascinating.

I read that in Leonard Nimoy's voice...

[vacacaballo]

RedTailHawke, thanks for posting that. I'm very keen to see that Sci. Am. article. Unfortunately, the resulting image of your scan is a bit small to read (549x400px). Do you have anything larger? Say, 1200x875px? Thanks again.

BTW, I wrote to the History Detectives (on PBS) and asked them if they'd be interested in finding out more about it this saddle and perhaps even locating it. I haven't heard from them and I expect I won't, given the lack of strictly historical significance this saddle has. But, I figured it was worth a shot.

[vacacaballo]

Shtoink, sadly the horror of Adolf Hitler knew no bounds. According to this Nuremberg report, the SS valued tattooed human leather.

"At Dachau and Mauthausen, human skin of dead prisoners was used to make lamp shades, saddles, riding britches, gloves, house slippers, and ladies' hand bags. Tattooed skin was particularly valued by the SS men."

From Nuremberg Trial transcript: http://avalon.law.yale.edu/imt/open4.asp

[vacacaballo]

And...to all you fellas who are making plans to have your saggy old man-hides tanned and made into beautiful barrel racing saddles with custom honeysuckle rose tooling, y'all better have good lawyers. 'Cos a final request like that can turn the most grieving widow into a bitter and inventive force to recon with, esp. post mortem. You may find yourself made into cruppers for a team of flatulent mules.

Edited August 8, 2013 by vacacaballo

[FlHobbyist]

Thanks for coming back and confirming that it was in Sci Am, and not one of their (rare) humor articles. I am certainly surprised that that human leather was used, and the wiki article about bookbinding was a real eye opener. I don't know how I would feel about these pieces, weird, macabre, disgusting, yet still interesting. Maybe morbid curiosity sums it up best. In any event, thanks for the post

[TXAG]

I saw a tv show a couple of months ago that showed a human leather-bound book from a museum...kind of creepy...I think it was on Mysteries at the Museum, in case you want to see if you can find a rerun...