the skin of several sorts of beasts dressed and prepared for the use of the various manufacturers, whose business it is to make them up. See TANNING.

Colouring of Leather.

To colour white leather. Hang the skins in chalk or lime-water, till they are grown supple, that the hair or wool may be stripped off; stretch them on tenters, or by means of lines, and smooth them over; then brush them over with alum-water very warm, and colour them with the colour you would have them, and dry them in the sun, or in some warm house, and they will be useful on sundry occasions, without any further trouble.

To colour black leather the German way. Take of the bark of the elder two pounds, of the silings or ruit of iron the same quantity; put them into two gallons of rain-water, and stop them up close in a cask or vessel, and let them stand for the space of two months: then add to that the liquid part of a pound of nut-galls, beaten to powder, and a quarter of a pound of copperas, heating them over the fire, and suffering them to stand 24 hours after; and then use the liquor with a brush till the skin has taken a fine black.

To colour leather a fair red. First rub the leather well in alum-water, or alum it; boil stale urine, scum it till half of it is wafted: then put in an ounce of the finest lake, the like quantity of brazil in powder, one ounce of alum, and half an ounce of sal-ammoniac; mix them well, and keep them stirring over a gentle fire about two hours; and so use the liquid part, to colour or tinge the skins.

To colour leather of a curious French yellow. Take one part of chalk, and another of wood-ashes, and make of them a good lye; then strain out the fine liquor, and set it in a vessel over the fire, and put into it turmeric in powder, and a little saffron; and let it simmer, till it becomes pretty thick; then set it a cooling, to be used as occasion requires.

To make white leather blue. Take a quart of elderberries, strain out the juice, and boil it with an ounce of powder of alum, and half an ounce of indigo, or smalt-blue, and brush over the leather with a fine brush dipped in it three times, suffering it to dry between whiles, and the business will be effected.

To colour Spanish leather, &c. Take that which the Dutch call pompelmelch, warm it, and rub the leather with it; then take of Venice tot appelten; and having pounded it small, put a quantity of water to it, and let it soften over a gentle fire; then press out the water, and rub or wash out the skin in it; repeating the same several times; and after that, take the finest shoemakers black, and rub the skin over with it, having in the melting added a little vitriol or copperas; and letting it dry, take goose or hog's grease, and with a woollen cloth rub the skin over for a good while, where there is a good fire to supple it, and afterwards rub it over with your hands, till it disappear; or instead of grease, you may use linseed or train-oil, and so in case of any other colour, according to the colours you design.

Dying of Leather.

A reddish colour. First wash the skins in water, and wring them out well, and afterwards wet them with a solution of tartar and bay-salt in fair water, and wring them out again; then to the former dissolution add ashes of crab shells, and rub the skins very well with this: afterwards, wash them in common water, and wring them out; then wash them with tincture of madder in the solution of tartar and alum and the crab-shell ashes: and if they prove not red enough after all, wash them with the tincture of brazil.

A pure yellow. Take of fine aloes two ounces, of linseed-oil four pounds; dissolve or melt them; then strain the liquor, and besmear the skins with it, and being dry varnish them over. An orange. Boil fustic-berries in alum water; but for a deep orange use turmeric-root.

Blue. Boil elder-berries, or dwarf elder, in water; then smear or wash the skins with it; wring them out; then boil the berries as before in a solution of alum water, and wet the skins in the same water once or twice; dry them, and they will be very blue.

A pure sky colour. For each skin take indigo one ounce; put it into boiling water, let it stand one night; then warm it a little, and with a brush-pencil besmear the skin twice over.

Purple. Dissolve roch-alum in warm water, wet the skins with it, dry them; then boil rafed brazil well in water; let it stand to cool: do this three times, and afterwards rub the dye over the skins with your hand; and when they are dry, polish them.

Green. Take sap-green and alum-water, of each a sufficient quantity; mix and boil them a little; if you would have the colour darker, add a little indigo.

Processes for dying Leather Red and Yellow, as practised in Turkey; with directions for preparing and tanning the skins, as communicated by Mr Philippo, a native of Armenia, who received from the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, &c. one hundred pounds, and also the gold medal of the Society, as a reward for discovering this secret.

1. First preparation of the Skins, both for Red and Yellow Leather, by dressing them in lime. Let the skins, dried with the hair on, be first laid to soak in clear water for three days; let them then be broken over the flesh side, put into fresh water for two days longer, and afterwards hung up to drain half an hour. Let them now be broken again on the flesh side, limed in cold lime on the same side, and doubled together with the grain side outward. In this state they must be hung up within doors over a frame for five or six days, till the hair be loose; which must be then taken off, and the skins returned into the lime-pit, for about three weeks. Take them out, and let them be well worked flesh and grain, every fifth or seventh day during that time: after which, let them be washed ten times in clear water, changing the water at each washing. They are next to be prepared in drench, as below mentioned.

2. Second preparation of the Skins for both the Red and Yellow Dyes by drenching. After squeezing the water out of the skins, put them into a mixture of bran and water, warm as new milk, in the following proportions, viz. about three pounds of bran for five skins, and water sufficient to make the mixture moderately fluid, which will be about a gallon to each pound of bran. In this drench let the skins lie three days; at the end of which time they must be well worked, and afterwards returned into the drench two days longer. They must then be taken out and rubbed between the hands; the water squeezed from them, and the bran scraped off clear from both sides of the skins. After this they must be again washed ten times in clear water, and the water squeezed out of them.

Thus far the preparatory process of all the skins, whether intended to be dyed red or yellow, is the same; but afterwards those which are to be dyed red, must be treated as follows.

3. Preparation in honey and bran of the skins that are to be dyed red. Mix one pound of honey with three pints of luke-warm water, and stir them together till the honey is dissolved. Then add two double handfuls of bran; and taking four skins (for which the above quantity of the mixture will be sufficient) work them well in it one after another. Afterwards fold up each skin separately into a round form, with the flesh side inwards, and lay them in an earthen pan, or other proper vessel; if in the summer, by the side of each other; but in the winter, on the top of each other. Place the vessel in a sloping position, so that such part of the fluid as may spontaneously drain from the skins, may drain from them. An acid fermentation will then rise in the liquor, and the skins will swell considerably. In this state they must continue for seven or eight days; but the moisture that drains from them, must be poured off, once or twice a day, as occasion may require. After this a further preparation in salt is necessary; and which must be performed in the following manner.

4. Preparation in salt, of the skins to be dyed red. After the skins have been fermented in the honey and bran, as abovementioned, let them be taken out of that mixture on the eighth or ninth day, and well rubbed with dry common tea-salt, in the proportion of about half a pound to each skin; the salt must be well rubbed and worked with them. This will make them contract again, and part with a further considerable quantity of moisture; which must be squeezed out by drawing each skin separately through the hands. They must next be scraped clean on both sides from the bran, superfluous salt, and moisture that may adhere to them. After which, dry salt must be strewed over the grain side, and well rubbed in with the hand. They are then to be doubled with the flesh side outwards, lengthways from neck to tail, and a little more dry salt must be thinly strewed over the flesh side, and rubbed in; for the two last operations about a pound and a half of salt will be sufficient for each skin. They must then be put, thus folded on each other, between two clean boards, placed sloping, breadthways; and a heavy weight laid on the upper board, in order gradually to press out what moisture they will thus part with. In this state of pressure, they must be continued two days or longer, till it is convenient to dye them, for which they will then be duly prepared.

5. Preparation of the Red Dye, in a proper proportion for four skins. Put eight gallons of water into a copper, with seven ounces of shenan*, tied up in a linen bag.

*Shenan is a drug much used by dyers in the East; and may easily be procured at any of the ports of Syria and Africa, in the Levant. It is the Eastern-jointed cali, called by botanists felicornia; and grows in great plenty in those and other parts of the East. There is a lesser species of the felicornia on our coast, which, from its great affinity with the shenan, might be presumed to have the same qualities. On some trials, however, it has not appeared to answer the intention. Light a fire under a copper, and when the water has boiled about a quarter of an hour, take out the bag of shenan, and put into the boiling fluid or lixivium, 1st, two drams of alum; 2dly, two drams of pomegranate bark; 3dly, three quarters of an ounce of turmeric; 4thly, three ounces of cochineal; 5thly, two ounces of loaf sugar.

Let the whole mixture boil about five minutes, then cover the fire, and take out a quart of liquor, putting it into a flat earthen pan; and when it is as cold as new milk, take one skin, folded lengthways, the grain side outwards, and dip it in the liquor, rubbing it gently with the hands. Then taking out the skin, hang it up to drain, and throw away the superfluous dye. Proceed in the same manner with the remaining three skins; repeating the operation on each skin separately, eight times, squeezing the skins by drawing them through the hands before each fresh dipping. Lay them now on one side of a large pan, set slopping, to drain off as much of the moisture as will run from them without pressure, for about two hours, or till they are cold; then tan them as below directed.

6. Tanning the Red Skins. Powder four ounces of the best white galls in a marble mortar, sifting it through a fine sieve. Mix the powder with about three quarts of water, and work the skins well in this mixture for half an hour or more, folding up the skins four-fold. Let them lie in this tan twenty-four hours; when they must be worked again as before; then taken out, scraped clean on both sides from the first galls, and put into a like quantity of fresh galls and water. In this fresh mixture they must be again well worked for three quarters of an hour; then folded up as before, and left in the fresh tan for three days. On the fourth day they must be taken out, washed clean from the galls, in seven or eight fresh quantities of water, and then hung up to dry.

7. Manner of dressing the skins after they are tanned. When the skins have been treated as above, and are very near dry, they should be scraped with the proper instrument or scraper on the flesh side, to reduce them to a proper degree of thickness. They are then to be laid on a smooth board, and glazed by rubbing them with a smooth glaas. After which they must be oiled, by rubbing them with olive oil, by means of a linen rag, in the proportion of one ounce and an half of oil for four skins: then they are to be grained on a graining board, lengthways, breadthways, and cornerways, or from corner to corner.

8. Preparation with Galls, for the Skins to be dyed yellow. After the four skins are taken out of the drench of bran, and clean washed as before directed in the second article, they must be very well worked, half an hour or more, in a mixture of a pound and a half of the best white galls, finely powdered, with two quarts of clean water. The skins are then to be separately doubled lengthways; rolled up with the flesh side outwards, laid in the mixture, and close pressed down on each other, in which state they must continue two whole days. On the third day let them be again worked in the tan; and afterwards scraped clean from the galls, with an ivory or brass instrument (for no iron must touch them.) They must then be put into a fresh tan, made of two pounds of galls finely powdered, with about three quarts of water, and well worked therein fifteen times. After this they must be doubled, rolled up as before, and laid in the second tan for three days. On the third day a quarter of a pound of white sea-salt must be worked into each skin; and the skins doubled up as before, and returned into the tan, till the day following, when they are to be taken out, and well washed six times in cold water; and four times in water lukewarm. The water must be then well squeezed out, by laying the skins under pressure, for about half an hour, between two boards, with a weight of about two or three hundred pounds laid upon the uppermost board, when they will be ready for the dye.

9. Preparation of the Yellow Dye, in the proper proportion for four skins. Mix six ounces of caffarii gehira*, or dgehira, or the berries of the eastern rhamnus, with the same quantity of alum, and pound them together till they be fine, in a marble or brass mortar, with a brass pestle. Then dividing the materials thus powdered, into three equal parts of four ounces each, put one of those three parts into about a pint and a half of water, in a china or earthen vessel; and stir the mixture together. Let the fluid stand to cool, till it will not scald the hand. Then spreading one of the skins flat on a table, in a warm room, with the grain side uppermost, pour a fourth part of the tinging liquor, prepared as above directed, over the upper or grain side, spreading it equally over the skin with the hand, and rubbing it well in. Afterwards do the like with the other three skins, for which the mixture first made will be sufficient.

This operation must be repeated twice more on each skin separately, with the remaining eight ounces of the powder of the berries, and alum, with the abovementioned due proportions of hot water, put to them as before directed.

The skins, when dyed, are to be hung up on a wooden frame, without being folded, with the grain side outwards, about three quarters of an hour to drain, when they must be carried to a river or stream of running water, and well washed therein six times or more. After this, they must be put under pressure for about an hour, till the water be well squeezed out; afterwards the skins must be hung up to dry in a warm room.

This being done, the skins are to be dressed and grained as before directed for those dyed red; except the oiling, which must be omitted.

Gilding. LEE

Gilding of Leather. Take glair of the whites of eggs, or gum-water, and with a brush rub over the leather with either of them; then lay on the gold or silver, and letting them dry, burnish them. See the articles Gilding and Burnishing.

To dress or cover leather with silver or gold. Take brown red, grind or move it on a stone with a muller, adding water and chalk; and when the latter is dissolved, rub, or lightly dab the leather over with it, till it looks a little whitish; and then lay on the leaf, silver or gold, before the leather is quite dry, laying the leaves a little over each other, that there may not be the least part uncovered; and when they have well closed with the leather, and are sufficiently dried on, and hardened, rub them over with an ivory polisher, or the fore-tooth of a horse.