IMGR84

Appendix D

‘SCORCHED’ LEATHER

W should pcrhaps be madę ofanocber kind ofornamenscd leather/bund in both Spain and nuCfa bas been nscd for tbe backs of kneden or cushions, for seats and backs of chairs, and as kr yahiable fumiture. Ic i$ apparendy rdated to some fbrms ofguadamtci. Its charac-ait that it is madc from sheepskin just as it comcs from the tanners, in the natura! biscuit no surface finishing of any kind having been applicd, and that it bcats an all-ora in a darker brown. Precisely bow this was done is not known but tbe cffect coutd havc uincd in two ways; by pbdng the lcatfacr, face upward, over a wooden błock with a w in gnij and then rubbing with a bonę or wooden tool which caused a bmising and ent darkening of the sutface where the pressure borę upon the raiscd parts of the design lock helów; but it bas also been ptoduced by a proces cmpJoying beat and pressure ras pcrhaps a lata one repUcing odgina! hand rubbing. The chair backs fllustrated jatę bom the scventecnth century) (Platę 80) cleady bcas, on the flesh side, the impression cr-all design icceived from a wooden błock. Exacdy where these impressions are the darkened oa the gtain side, tbe surface where this occurs bcing comprescd and slightly . The possibility is that the leather, cut to rcquired shapc, was laid grain side downward ted metal piąte, the wood błock placed, face downward, on the flesh side and the put for a shott time under a press, the surface whete cłose contact was madę with the >dng slighdy scorched. The same principle of darkening vegctablc tanned leather with «al was latct employed in some fbrms of blind tooling and in 'cteasing* otnamental tlły adjacent to edges. Extant cxamples indudc the chair backs mentioned; the covers ksdal and tcrrestrial gtobes now in dtc libraiy at Ham House; a number of covers for odm pieca of furaitutc, also from Ham House but in a dilapidated State from use; vcn, still in use, for a set of highly otnamenied, carved and gdt chairs and settees in the tlące, Florencc. That is anotha such set on some 50 ctghtcenth-centuiy chairs in the ace, Romę. In Spain thcrc is, or was, a piece about 0*58x0*35 m. (ajx 13$ in.) kh an imticate Moorish design in which the background is dirk brown and tbe f in tbe natural colour of the leather. This inceresdng piece, said to datę from the tutccnth century was exhib«ed as Barcelona in 1953. bcing describcd as auro was then m a prfyate coflection, sińce ditpcncd, and its ptesent wbcreabouts is 86