Russia leather

“ Russia Leather was originally a speciality of Russia, where it was made from the hides of young cattle, and dressed either a brownish red or black colour for upper leather, bookbinding, dressing-cases, purses, &c. It is now made throughout Europe and America, the best qualities being obtained from Austria. The empyreumatic odour of the old genuine “Russia” leather was derived from a long-continued contact with willow and the bark of the white birch, which contains the odorous betulin oil. ”

“ Following His Nose.
While Marshall Jewell was Minister to Russia, he found out, by the use of his nose, the secret of making Russia leather. Instead of using tallow and grease in the dressings of skins, the Russians employed birch-bark tar. By careful inquiry, and literally following his nose, during a visit to one of their large tanneries, he found the compound in a mammoth kettle, ready for use. He reported his discovery, and the result is that genuine Russian leather goods are now made in America. ”

“ Other noteworthy vegetable tannages are those used in the production of Russia leather, and a large proportion of East India leather. Real Russia leather, of which the raw material consists of small native hides and calf skins, has a characteristic and pleasant odour, which is derived from the birch and willow barks used in the tanning process. Birch bark contains an essential oil, which is permanently fixed on the fibres of the leather during the process of tanning. ”

“ In nearly all samples of Russia leather a very violent form of red decay was noticed. In many cases the leather was found to be absolutely rotten in all parts exposed to light and air, so that on the very slightest rubbing with a blunt instrument the leather fell into fine dust.... ”

“ Some time ago Russia leather got into disrepute because of its rapid decay; this was owing to its being dyed with a very acid solution of tin salts and cochineal, the acid completely destroying the leather in a year or two. The black leather is obtained by staining with logwood infusion and iron acetate. The leather, if genuine quality, is very watertight and strong, and owing to its impregnation with the empyreumatic oil, it wards off the attacks of insects.
Seal Leathers, &c.—The tannage of seal skins is now an important department of the leather industry of the United Kingdom. ”

“ In view of the increasing cost of other kinds of leather, however, more attention may be paid to that made from horse hide, but the supply of this raw material is very small compared to the production on the Continent, where horse flesh is consumed freely. Russia produces large quantities of horse hides and colt skins, most of which are exported to the United States of America, where they are made chiefly into japanned, or so-called "patent," 18 leather, which commands a very high price in relation to the cost of the raw material. ”

“ With the exception of Russia leather--which they import from that country, and employ in fashioning their water-skins--their coverings for the feet, and their harness and accoutrements for horses, are manufactured of native leather. ”

“ Since about 1860 sheepskin as sheepskin is hardly to be found. Sheepskins are grained in imitation of other leathers and these imitation-grained leathers are generally found to be in a worse condition than any of the other bindings, except, perhaps, some of the very thin calf skin. Undyed modern pigskin seems to last well, but some coloured pigskin bindings had entirely perished. Modern leathers dyed with the aid of sulphuric acid are all to be condemned. In nearly every case Russia leather was found to have become rotten, at least in bindings of the last fifty years.... ”

“ The ends are fastened at the back of the neck, or are concealed in the folds; a whalebone stiffener is requisite, but starch is unnecessary.
Cravats with horizontal stripes, or large spots, are preferred. The most becoming colour is that called Russia leather. Black is sometimes worn, but the shirt bosom must then be plaited.
Human life is often compared to a painful journey ”

“ The name usually given to the copy of the lettering on the back of the book, [154] made by holding thin paper tightly over the back and rubbing the paper with a heel-ball or a piece of plumbago.
Run up. When a back has a fillet run from top to bottom without being mitred at each band, it is said to be run up.
Russia leather. A fine leather prepared in Russia, and imitated elsewhere, by very careful willowbark tanning, dyeing with sandalwood, and soaking in birch oil. It is of a brownish red color, and has a peculiar and characteristic odor. The genuine is not often used in binding ”

“ The narrow pieces, &c. left on the sides will do for the backs and corners of half-bound work. The leather must be cut out dry, except russia, which must be well soaked with warm water, care being taken to avoid creasing. It will also require to be well rubbed out on a marble slab with the folder. If the russia is grained properly in the skin, it will not require wetting or rubbing.
Each cover must be pared round the edges with a long knife, called the paring-knife; and great care and skill are requisite in order to do it well. ”

“ It was a bewildering and irritating thing to a hurried man to review those windows, ablaze with diamonds and glowing with rubies, piled with rich-scented russia leathers, clasped and bound and fitted with gold and silver inconveniences of every description, or run the eye over daintily carved ivories, costly bric-à-brac, gorgeous apparel, and priceless lace, in search of something at once exquisite, suitable, and inexpensive. ”

“ It is somewhat remarkable, in view of the good demand that exists for the leather, especially in England and Germany, that no firm outside Russia has thought it worth while to produce the genuine article. The tannage would be particularly serviceable for bookbinding leather, as the oil of the birch has both insecticidal and antiseptic properties. ”

“ Russia is another important country for the production of all kinds of raw hides and skins suitable for leather manufacture. American tanners buy very largely from this market, and a few enterprising firms even send their 15 own representatives to the great annual fair held at Nishni Novgorod, where large quantities of dried hides and skins, besides many other kinds of produce, are offered for sale. ”

“ The timber is sent down the Niemen and Vistula to the Baltic, and to Archangel in the White Sea, in enormous quantities for the supply of western Europe. In Russia itself the larger portion of the houses are built of wood.
[541]
Live Stock and Fisheries.—The steppes of the south are the great pastoral lands of Russia, which possess more than forty-five millions of sheep, about twenty-five per cent yielding fine wool; twenty-five millions of cattle; and twenty millions of horses. Russian leather is famous. ”

“ There are furs of more sorts than the foreign visitor is likely ever to have seen before; iron from the Ural mines by the ton, on a detached sand-spit in the Oka River; dried and salted fish by the cord, in a distant, too odorous spot; goldsmiths' shops; old-clothes shops, where quaint and beautiful old costumes of Russia abound; Tatar shops, filled with fine, multi-colored leather work and other Tatar goods, presided over by the stately Tatars from whom we had bought at Kazan ”

“ There were traders, too, from the northern cities of the Empire, dressed in long dressing-gown-looking coats, more properly described as dirty than clean, and high boots, and low-crowned hats, and beards of considerable length and thickness; while the humbler classes, the mujicks, evidently delighted in pink shirts with their tails worn outside their trousers, and fastened round their waist with a sash or belt. These wore caps, and high boots, and long coats, like the rest; indeed, the inhabitants of Russia may be said to be a long-coated, boot-wearing population. ”

“ And woman has proved her ingenuity. In the damp trenches of the battlefields abroad the men need protection from the dampness and cold, which ordinary clothing will not provide. It was found that the leather-lined huntsmen's coats, and the sort of garments worn by the chauffeur, the aviator and the mountaineer served the men in the trenches well, and particularly along the Russian frontier and in the cold mountainous regions.
But the price of leather soared, with the demand for millions of pairs of shoes, saddles, harness, headgear, and whatnot, and leather-lined coats were at a premium. ”

“ Cloth is not contraband in itself, but if of a quality evidently designed for the manufacture of uniform it would probably be seized. Horses are so useful in war that most nations treat them as contraband—though, oddly enough, Russia has never done so. ”

“ Russian leather is tanned in an infusion of birch bark, and is said to be afterwards mixed with a quantity of birch tar, to give it that odour for which it is peculiar, which renders it valuable for book-binding, on account of preventing it from being attacked by insects. Tawed leather, used for gloves, is made by impregnating the skin with a liquor containing alum and salt, and afterwards washed in a mixture of yolks of eggs and water; the saline and animal matters combine, and give it that peculiar softness, and such leather is afterwards coloured as may be required ”

“ One of the ladies, Princess F——, a slim, handsome brunette, declared there was nothing like the smell of Russian leather; she wore dull brown Russian leather boots, a Russian leather dress suspender, to keep her petticoats out of the dirt and dust, a Russian leather belt which spanned her wasp-like waist, carried a Russian leather purse, and even wore a brooch and bracelet of gilt Russian leather ”

“ The Russian costume of a brown hue being much the most economical wear, the government undertakes to open clothing shops in all towns and villages! The reward of one rouble is offered to those who display the greatest alacrity in donning the Russian dress, and those who oppose themselves are flogged. In short, a vast attempt is made to efface everything that has the stamp of our country, or that can recall her existence. This hapless nationality in the midst of the empire must be made to disappear, and it must be made subordinate to the intentions and the interests of Russia. ”

“ There is no disputing the fact that a coat down to the heels is more comfortable in a cold climate than one ending at the knees, and is likely to be worn in preference. Students in Russia to-day wear the red shirt, the loose trousers tucked into the high boots, and the sleeveless caftan of the peasant, to show that they are Slavs in feeling, while the old Russian costume is the regulation court dress for ladies on occasions of state.
We cannot here name the host of other reforms which Peter introduced. The army was dressed and organized in the fashion of the West. ”

“ Certainly, if the silk and cotton manufactures could exercise a beneficial influence upon the prosperity of the country, if they were necessary to supply the wants of the whole population, in that case we could to a certain extent understand the sentence of exclusion pronounced on foreign goods; but the productions of the Moscow factories are destined only for the aristocracy and the trading classes, and the 40,000,000 of slaves that constitute the European population of Russia, consume but an insignificant portion of them, all their clothes being wrought by their own hands. ”

“ The Chinese have sent in embroidered shawls, table-covers, teas, curious and intricate toys, and specimens of handicraft.
Why, we have even specimens of Russian industry, in the Great Exhibition; and very good specimens they are, too. Russia is not such a pleasant country, in some respects, as any of those I have been telling you of; for in the winter the frost is so severe that many of the poor Russians die from cold. The rich wrap themselves up in warm furs, and ride in fur-lined sledges, instead of the usual carriages ”

“ In France, England, and Germany, when any new manufacture is established, it always rests on other branches already in existence, and about which it has no need to employ itself. In Russia, on the contrary, in order to succeed in any branch of manufactures, it is necessary at the same time to create all the accessories connected with it. Every one knows what a vast quantity of merino and other wools Southern Russia supplies, and it would seem at first sight that of all manufactures that of woollen cloths ought to offer the fairest chances of success in that country. ”

“ In Russia there is a great variety in full dress uniforms, and the effect of the long coat and turban of the Cossack on one hand and the bright plumes and short jackets of the Central European cavalry on the other is traceable. For field service uniforms dull shades of gray-green have become almost universal, and the cold of the long winters has naturally resulted in the use of long and heavy overcoats. The Russian soldiers all wear top boots instead of the low topped laced shoes common for foot troops in the armies of France, England and America. ”

“ They stood, those ladies and gentlemen of Imperial Russia, holding out little articles which they had saved or hidden during the time of revolution. The women carried their underclothing, or their fur coats, tippets, and caps, embroidered linen, old shoes and boots, their engagement rings, brooches, household ornaments. The men—mostly old fellows—held out woollen vests, socks, pipes, rugs, books, many odds and ends of their ancient life. ”