LEATHER, ITS ORIGIN AND FABRICATION

The use of hides and leather, goes back to the most ancient times. Archeological research, in Egypt particularly, has established that leather was a widely used material in the early civilisations. Victor Hugo imagined Caïn and his children dressed in animal hides.

Leather is known to everyone, but few people know or imagine the many stages and complex transformations that are to be observed between the skinning of the animal and the appearance of leather in the form of often luxurious goods displayed in shop windows.

We will attempt to change this state of affairs in the following pages by describing the various stages of manufacture.We will begin with the raw material – the hide, and continue with the different stages, the operations and the means employed in the transformation of the hide into leather.
This book concludes with the illustrations of four typical manufacturing processes.

This book can also be read in French.