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[Illustration: (1.) GOAT.]

[Illustration: (2.) SEAL (BOLD GRAIN).]

[Illustration: (3.) SEAL (FINE GRAIN).]




                       LEATHER FOR LIBRARIES.

                                  BY

                  E. WYNDHAM HULME, J. GORDON PARKER,
                  A. SEYMOUR-JONES, CYRIL DAVENPORT,
                                  AND
                           F. J. WILLIAMSON

                                LONDON:
             Published for the Sound Leather Committee of the
                          Library Association
                                  by
                        THE LIBRARY SUPPLY Co.,
            Bridge House, 181, Queen Victoria Street, E.C.

                                 1905.




                         LIBRARY ASSOCIATION.

                   CONSTITUTION OF THE SOUND LEATHER
                              COMMITTEE.

     CYRIL DAVENPORT, _British Museum Library_.

     J. P. EDMOND, _Signet Library, Edinburgh_.

     DR. J. GORDON PARKER, _London Leather Industries Laboratory,
     Bermondsey_.

     E. WYNDHAM HULME, _Patent Office Library_. (_Hon. Secretary._)




CONTENTS.


                        CHAPTER I.
                                                            Page
    History of Sumach Tanning in England, Degradation of
    the Manufacture of Leather, and History of the Reform
    Movement. By E. WYNDHAM HULME                              5

                        CHAPTER II.
    The Causes of Decay in Bookbinding Leathers. By
    J. GORDON PARKER                                          15


                        CHAPTER III.

    Provenance, Characteristics, and Values of Modern
    Bookbinding Leathers. By A. SEYMOUR-JONES                 29


                        CHAPTER IV.
    The Repairing and Binding of Books for Public Libraries.
    By CYRIL DAVENPORT                                        39


                        CHAPTER V.
    Specification for the Fittings of a Small Bindery. By
    F. J. WILLIAMSON                                          51


    INDEX                                                     55




                      _The Bancroft Library_
                   University of California · Berkeley

                        THE ROGER LEVENSON
                          MEMORIAL FUND




                              CHAPTER I.

                       History of Sumach Tanning
                    in England, Degradation of the
                  Manufacture of Leather, and History
                        of the Reform Movement.

                                  BY

                           E. WYNDHAM HULME.




CHAPTER I.


The section of the leather trade to which this Handbook relates is
that concerned in the manufacture of light leathers tanned with a
pale tannage preparatory to being dyed. Bark and most other vegetable
tanning substances leave a colour on the skin which cannot be removed
without detriment to the durability of the leather; the retention of
the colour, however, detracts from the purity of the final colour
imparted by the dye. The reputation in the past of the sumach-tanned
Spanish leather was founded upon this peculiar property of sumach
of leaving the skin white, and on this point the wisdom of the
ancients has been justified by the results of an exhaustive series of
experiments conducted by the Society of Arts' Committee, which have
given to sumach the first place in the list of tannages for light
leathers.

The date of the introduction of sumach tanning into England may,
with some show of probability, be assigned to the year 1565, when
a seven years' monopoly patent was granted to two strangers, Roger
Heuxtenbury and Bartholomew Verberick, for the manufacture of
"Spanish or beyond sea leather," on the condition that the patentees
should employ one native apprentice for every foreigner in their
service. This stipulation indicates that the industry was a new one.
Following the custom of the times, the supervision of the industry was
entrusted to the "Wardens of the Company of Leathersellers in London."
Additional evidence of the use of sumach at this period is afforded by
another patent to a Spanish Jew, Roderigo Lopez, one of Elizabeth's
physicians. By way of settling her doctor's bills the Queen granted
to Lopez, in 1584, an exclusive licence to import sumach and aniseed
for ten years. Besides attending the Queen in his professional
capacity, Lopez was called upon to act as interpreter to the Portuguese
pretender, Don Antonio, on his visit to this island. As the result
of some misunderstanding with Antonio, Lopez was induced to join a
conspiracy nominally aimed against the life of Antonio, but actually
directed against the Queen, and in 1594 Lopez expiated his crimes at
Tyburn. Those who are curious in such matters will be interested to
trace in the "Merchant of Venice" the re-appearance of our sumach
merchant as Shylock, while the name of Antonio is boldly retained by
Shakespeare for his hero (Cf. S. Lee, "The Original of Shylock," in
the _Gentleman's Magazine_, 1880). After the arrest of Lopez, his
grant was continued to R. Alexander and R. Mompesson (Patent Roll, 36
Eliz., p. 11). In the Charter of the Leathersellers' Company, dated
1604, "Spanish leather and other leathers dressed or wrought in sumach
or bark" are mentioned. In 1660 the duty granted upon imported sumach
was fixed at 13s. 4d. per cwt. of 112 lbs., and on dried myrobalans
at 1s. 3d. per lb., thus disproving the statement of Prof. Thorold
Rogers in his "History of Prices" (Vol. 5, p. 414), that oak bark was
the only tanning material used in England at this period. The earliest
description known to the writer of the process of sumaching by sewing
up the skins into bottles and allowing the fluid extract to penetrate
the fibre by pressure, is to be found in 1754 in the "Dictionary of
Arts and Science" (Vol. 3, article "Morocco").

The first step in the degradation of the manufacture of light
leathers, though it at first affected the heavy leathers only, was
the introduction of the use of sulphuric acid in 1768 by Dr. McBride
of Dublin (_Phil. Trans._, 1778). By substituting a vitriolic liquor
for the vegetable acids obtained by fermenting bran, rye, or other
cereals, Dr. McBride claimed three advantages: (1) Absolute control
over the degree of acidity of the liquor, whereas organic souring was
troublesome and uncertain; (2) that the skins were "plumped" better
by the acid, and that the danger of injury to skins (by bacterial
action) was avoided; (3) that the process of tanning was materially
shortened. At all events, the Doctor succeeded in convincing first the