IMGR55

THE CENTRES OF PRODUCTION

wntended by thc dcfćndants chat de Swan and Lc Maire lud do mon right than othas co a monopoly of thc cmbossing proce** 'a* they wcrc not thc fint imrcntors, and that thc patent wai invalid not having bccn ratified by thc States of HoDand’. Eventually thc States General ruled that thc ‘infringers’ be allowcd to continue making embosscd leather notwithsunding thc patent The 'platcs' could be madę in metal or wood. Metal platcs were probably uscd in Spain, and perhaps dtcwhełc, by thc lale sixtccnth ccntury (Piąte al); they rcquircd hcat and produccd dcsigni in bas-relief. Wooden moulds could not be heated but required that thc leather be damped; they did noc nccessarily producc cmbossing in high relief but could be madę to do to by dcep cuoing and we know that thc Dutch favourcd very boldly emboned dcsigni in thc mid-seventcenth ccntury (Platcs 34 and 35). There is obviously considerable doubt whether dc Swan was in fact the iiwentor of tlić cmbossing proces* with wooden moulds. It is, howcvcr, probablc that this proces* was devdopcd in Flandcrs.

The fact than an Englishman could claim in 1660 that he had learncd 'to make leather morę bright than gold in Amsterdam’ indicates that the Dutch gilt-lcathcr industiy was admired in England at that datę and that there were those who sought 10 imitate ats produets.¹ Gilt leather continued to be used in Holland to a great octem after this materiał had gone out ofhigh fashion clscwhcre - that is, after 1760 or so.¹ Production continued, apparendy on a morę cxtcnsivc scalę than elsewhere, and there was even an aport nade of fiocked leather*.

In the archives of Mcssn. Coutts* Bank is a ktter dated 13 Aprd 1693 from Ceorge Campbell (cousin ofthe founder ofthe Bank, who acted as a kind of intelligencc officcr) wnting from Amsterdam to Aloander Campbell of Edinbwgh, in whach the (óllowing passage occurs: ‘as fcc any ocher things from this place I cannot learn of anytliing that would tura to account with you. TTxre is a... vełvett (fiocked) and Guildcd Leather that is aponed from this [country] to England, but whether that will doe in [Scotjland or not, I doe noc know.*¹

Germany

Evidence ofthe use ofgilt leather in Germany is meagre; indeed a Director ofthe Deutsches Ledermuseum ha* evtn apressed the doubt that it was cvcr madę in the German States. Hbwewr, we have already scen that one leather gilder fiom Bamberg in Franconia settkd

• Sec pige 61 ind noce j, pige «x

• Sm Emk, E Tir M tf WĄ+r. 19*4. * I*, włwt he qmm a nunu nade m 170 emmw| At Dach ‘who km aot «we ima 4t om of nh ia thc* bona; *ł*w (? lock) mi lacho hm|im> sili hang uch «ed*.

‘ InfbmnBa Undły npffccd by Mm Yaonici Scoka, arcłiivM 10 Coau Bank.