Saddle From Human Leather

[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...