800 Year Old Leather Wallet

[AndyL1]

A fan of my Facebook page shared this with me and I thought it was very interesting. Beautiful work from the middle east 800 or so years ago.

The story:

https://www.facebook...6&type=1&ref=nf

The wallet:

Andy

[benlilly1]

Just goes to show you how tough leather really is...I wonder what the lumpy stuff is under the worn leather?? A stuffing?

[electrathon]

A little Lexol would fix that right up.

[gentle ben]

Where are the credit card slots?!?!

[FlHobbyist]

I'm amazed by the beautiful artwork and the fact that it made it to our era.

[Blak Smyth]

Is that stitching on the left side? Amazing!!!

[oltoot]

I wonder if the relief was first molded and filled with some sort of backing (lumpy stuff) then sewn to body as thing was assembled?

Edited September 6, 2013 by oltoot

[benlilly1]

I wonder if the relief was first molded and filled with some sort of backing (lumpy stuff) then sewn to body as thing was assembled?

That was my thought...maybe it's wool?

[Sjohnsone]

a little late to the party on this one - but I believe the piece was decorated, then sewn to another piece of leather with filler in-between, perhaps to give it a little body.

This really got me contemplating the possibility of people embossing leather back then on more of a production level. I feel like whenever we envision people from old days, if you weren't rich then you didn't have any decorative clothing; however I feel like decorating leather with a press or stamp is a no brainer to sell more than your competition, especially if it's being taken on trade routes.

I feel like a leatherworker 800 years ago would run into the same issues we have today: How the heck am I going to get someone to pay for me to spend 20 hours working on just one piece?

[ReneeCanady]

That was my thought...maybe it's wool?

My first thought was that it could be some type of glue they conjured up, but then I noticed it didn't go to the edges so that's probably out. I bet you are correct on it being wool.