or Chagrin, in commerce, a kind of grained leather; of the process of preparing which, we gave the best account that we could then find in the Encyclopaedia. That account, however, as we learn from Professor Pallas, is very defective. He says, indeed, that no accurate account of it has ever been published in Europe previous to his own; of which we shall now lay an abridgement before our readers.

"All kinds of horses or asses skin, which have been dressed in such a manner as to appear grained, are, by the Tartars, called fawwur, by the Persians fagre, and by the Turks fagri, from which the Europeans have made shagreen or chagrin. The Tartars who reside at Astracan, with a few of the Armenians of that city, are the only people in the Russian empire acquainted with the art of making shagreen. Those who follow this occupation not only gain considerable profit by the sale of their production to the Tartars of Cuban, Astracan, and Safan, who ornament with it their Turkey leather boots, slippers, and other articles made of leather, but they derive considerable advantage from the great sale of horse hides, which have undergone no other process than that of being scraped clean, and of which several thousands are annually exported, at the rate of from 75 to 85 roubles per hundred, to Persia, where there is a scarcity of such hides, and from which the greater part of the shagreen manufactured in that country is prepared. The hind part only of the hide, shagreen, however, which is cut out in the form of a crescent about a Russian ell and a half in length across the loins, and a short ell in breadth along the back, can properly be employed for shagreen. The remaining part, as is proved by experience, is improper for that purpose, and is therefore rejected.

"The preparation of the skins, after being cut into the above form, is as follows:—They are deposited in a tub filled with pure water, and suffered to remain there for several days, till they are thoroughly soaked, and the hair has dropped off. They are then taken from the tub, one by one, extended on boards placed in an oblique direction against a wall, the corners of them, which reach beyond the edges of the board, being made fast, and the hair with the epidermis is then scraped off with a blunt iron scraper called skrak. The skins thus cleaned are again put in pure water to soak. When all the skins have undergone this part of the process, they are taken from the water a second time, spread out one after the other as before, and the flesh side is scraped with the same kind of instrument. They are carefully cleaned also on the hair side, so that nothing remains but the pure fibrous tissue, which serves for making parchment, consisting of coats of white medullary fibres, and which has a resemblance to a swine's bladder softened in water.

"After this preparation, the workmen take a certain kind of frames called pahs, made of a straight and a semicircular piece of wood, having nearly the same form as the skins. On these the skins are extended in as smooth and even a manner as possible by means of cords; and during the operation of extending them, they are several times befouled with water, that no part of them may be dry, and occasion an unequal tension. After they have been all extended on the frames, they are again moistened, and carried into the house, where the frames are deposited close to each other on the floor with the flesh side of the skin next the ground. The upper side is then thickly befouled with the black exceedingly smooth and hard feeds of a kind of goose foot (Chenopodium album), which the Tartars call alabas, and which grows in abundance, to about the height of a man, near the gardens and farms on the south side of the Volga; and that they may make a strong impression on the skins, a piece of felt is spread over them, and the feeds are trod down with the feet, by which means they are deeply imprinted into the soft fibre. The frames, without shaking the feeds, are then carried out into the open air, and placed in a reclining position against a wall to dry, the side covered with the feeds being next the wall, in order that it may be sheltered from the sun. In this state the skins must be left several days to dry in the sun, until no appearance of moisture is observed in them, when they are fit to be taken from the frames. When the impressed feeds are beat off from the hair side, it appears full of indentations or inequalities, and has acquired that impression which is to produce the grain of the shagreen, after the skins have been subjected to the last smoothing or scraping, and have been dipped in a ley, which will be mentioned hereafter, before they receive the dye.

"The operation of smoothing is performed on an inclined bench or board, which is furnished with an iron hook, and is covered with thick felt of sheep's wool, on which the dry skin may gently rest. The skin is suspended in the middle of the bench or board by its iron hook, by means of one of the holes made in the edge of the skin for extending it in its frame as before mentioned; and a cord, having at its extremity a stone or a weight, is attached to each end of the skin, to keep it in its position while under the hands of the workman. It is then subjected to the operation of smoothing and scraping by means of two different instruments. The first used for this purpose, called by the Tartars "aror," is a piece of sharp iron bent like a hook, with which the surface of the shagreen is pretty closely scraped to remove all the projecting inequalities. This operation, on account of the cornous hardness of the dry skin, is attended with some difficulty; and great caution is at the same time required that too much of the impression of the alabata feed be not destroyed, which might be the case if the iron were kept too sharp. As the iron, however, is pretty blunt, which occasions inequalities on the shagreen, this inconvenience must afterwards be remedied by means of a sharp scraping iron or "urak," by which the surface acquires a perfect uniformity, and only faint impressions of the alabata feed then remain, and such as the workman wishes. After all these operations, the shagreen is again put into water, partly to make it pliable, and partly to raise the grain. As the feeds occasion indentations in the surface of the skin, the intermediate spaces, by the operations of smoothing and scraping, lose some part of their projecting substance; but the points which have been depilated, and which have lost none of their substance, now swell up above the scraped parts, and thus form the grain of the shagreen. To produce this effect, the skins are left to soak in water for 24 hours; after which they are immersed several times in a strong warm ley, obtained by boiling, from a strong alkaline earth named "sebora," which is found in great abundance in the neighbourhood of Africane. When the skins have been taken from this ley, they are piled up while warm, on each other, and suffered to remain in that state several hours; by which means they swell, and become soft. They are then left 24 hours in a moderately strong pickle of common salt, which renders them exceedingly white and beautiful, and fit for receiving any colour. The colour most usual for these skins is a sea-green; but old experienced workmen can dye them blue, red, or black, and even make white shagreen.

For the green colour nothing is necessary but filings of copper and sal ammoniac. Sal ammoniac is dissolved in water till the water is completely saturated; and the shagreen skins, still moist, after being taken from the pickle, are washed over with the solution on the ungrained flesh side, and when well moistened a thick layer of copper filings is thrown over them; the skins are then folded double, so that the hide covered with the filings is innermost. Each skin is then rolled up in a piece of felt; the rolls are all ranged together in proper order, and they are pressed down in an uniform manner by some heavy bodies placed over them, under which they remain 24 hours. During that period, the solution of sal ammoniac diffuses a quantity of the copperous particles sufficient to penetrate the skin and to give it a sea-green colour. If the first application be not sufficient, the process is repeated in the same manner; after which the skins are spread out and dried.

For the blue dye, indigo is used. About two pounds of it, reduced to a fine powder, are put into a kettle; cold water is poured over it, and the mixture is stirred round till the colour begins to be dissolved. Five pounds of pounded "alakar," which is a kind of barilla or crude soda, prepared by the Armenians and Calmucans, is then dissolved in it, with two pounds of lime and a pound of pure honey, and the whole is kept several days in the sun, and during that time frequently stirred round. The skins intended to be dyed blue must be moistened only in the natrous ley "sebora," but not in the salt brine. When still moist, they are folded up and sewed together at the edge, the flesh side being innermost, and the shagreened hair side outwards; after which they are dipped three times in the remains of an exhausted kettle of the same dye, the superfluous dye being each time expressed; and after this process they are dipped in the fresh dye prepared as above, which must not be expressed. The skins are then hung up in the shade to dry; after which they are cleaned and paired at the edges.

For black shagreen, gall-nuts and vitriol are employed in the following manner:—The skins, moist from the pickle, are thickly besprinkled with finely pulverized gall-nuts. They are then folded together, and laid over each other for 24 hours. A new ley, of bitter saline earth or "sebora," is in the mean time prepared, and poured hot into small troughs. In this ley each skin is several times dipped; after which they are again besprinkled with pounded gall-nuts, and placed in heaps for a certain period, that the galls may thoroughly penetrate them, and they are dried and beat, to free them from the dust of the galls. When this is done, they are rubbed over, on the shagreen side, with melted sheep's tallow, and exposed a little in the sun, that they may imbibe the grease. The shagreen makers are accustomed also to roll up each skin separately, and to press or squeeze it with their hands against some hard substance, in order to promote the absorption of the tallow. The superfluous particles are removed by means of a blunt wooden scraper ("urak"); and when this process is finished, and the skins have lain some time, a sufficient quantity of vitriol of iron is dissolved in water, with which the shagreen is moistened on both sides, and by this operation it acquires a beautiful black dye. It is then dressed at the edges, and in other places where there are any blemishes.

To obtain white shagreen, the skins must first be moistened on the shagreen side with a strong solution of alum. When the skin has imbibed this liquor, it is daubed over on both sides with a paste made of flour, which is suffered to dry. The paste is then washed off with alum water, and the skin is placed in the sun till it is completely dry. As soon as it is dry, it is gently beflowered with pure melted sheep's tallow, which it is suffered to imbibe in the sun; and to promote the effect, it is pressed and worked with the hands. The skins are then fastened in succession to the before-mentioned bench, where warm water is poured over them, and the superfluous fat is scraped off with a blunt wooden instrument. In the last operation the warm water is of great service. In this manner shagreen perfectly white is obtained, and nothing remains but to pare the edges and dress it.

But this white shagreen is not intended so much for for remaining in that state, as for receiving a dark red dye; because, by the above previous process, the colour becomes much more perfect. The skins destined for a red colour must not be immersed first in lees of bitter salt earth (schora), and then in pickle, but after they have been whitened, must be left to soak in the pickle for 24 hours. The dye is prepared from cochineal, which the Tartars call kirmite. About a pound of the dried herb tchagana, which grows in great abundance in the neighbourhood of Afracan, and is a kind of soda-plant or kali (foliola cricoides (a)), is boiled a full hour in a kettle containing about four common pailfuls of water; by which means the water acquires a greenish colour. The herb is then taken out, and about half a pound of pounded cochineal is put into the kettle, and the liquor is left to boil a full hour, care being taken to stir it that it may not run over. About 15 or 20 drams of a substance which the dyers call filter (or chilla) is added, and when the liquor has been boiled for some time longer, the kettle is removed from the fire. The skins taken from the pickle are then placed over each other in troughs, and the dye-liquor is poured over them four different times, and rubbed into them with the hands, that the colour may be equally imbibed and diffused. The liquor each time is expressed; after which they are fit for being dried. Skins prepared in this manner are sold at a much dearer rate than any of the other kinds.