Morocco leather

“ Morocco leather is produced from goat-skins. Rough-haired or "blue-back" seal-skins are also used, and produce an excellent article; while an inferior description, called "French morocco," is produced from sheep-skins. The skins are unhaired by liming in the usual way, and are then baited with a mixture of dogs' dung and water. The tanning is done chiefly with sumach, at first in paddle-tumblers, and then in handlers, lasting about a month in all. ”

“ First of all, the right leather to use for binding is morocco. This is best; more durable, and a better choice of colour is given you. Half-morocco is good, but see that you get a good wide strip of morocco, and that it is not all cloth sides with a very narrow spine of leather. Valuable books should never be cut down. In many cases the top edges may be gilded which is a preservative from dust, but there are many other cases where instructions should be given to 'gild on the rough,' the three other sides should be left alone. ”

“ Morocco has an admirable strategic position at the entrance of the Strait of Gibraltar, and is most likely, in time, to become a possession of Spain. There are exported, mainly to Great Britain, beans, almonds, goat-skins, and [Pg 385] wool. The goat-skins are sumac-tanned and are still used in making the best book-binding leather. Only a small part of the so-called Morocco leather of commerce is genuine. There are no railways; caravan routes from the Sahara cross the country. Tangier and one or two other ports are open to foreign trade. Coal-oil is the only import from the United States. ”

“ The making of morocco leather and other leather-work, such as saddlery, harness and boots and shoes, affords employment to a large number of persons. Other industries are cotton-spinning, brewing, tanning, iron-founding, and the manufacture of bricks, tiles, soap, flour, ironmongery and ice. ”

“ When such a stamped sheep skin is new on a book, and finished with gold, no one would for a moment suspect its genuineness, but if in skin form, the back of the leather will at once betray it. Real morocco has a hard close grain, but the back of the imitation will show a loose soft texture. Other leathers are imitated in the same way: pig skin, lizard skin, and others ”

“ The people on the coast near Susa and to the south have a still shorter brown-hooded garment in place of a haik or burnous, and they wear trousers. This costume is convenient for fishermen.
A large broad-brimmed straw hat is worn by the denizens of the plains. Shoes or sandals of morocco leather or hide are worn by many. ”

“ Notwithstanding the exportation of buck-, goat-, and sheep-skins from Turkey, there are still sufficient remaining in the country to form the basis of a very flourishing and entirely indigenous industry. The Turk is very unskilful in the manufacture of sole leather; but the article in which he excels is morocco leather for slippers, tanned exclusively with sumach. The production of tanned buck-skins reaches yearly a total of nearly a million skins, and of sheep half a million ”

“ But the secret of such leather tanning seems to have been lost, and the modern sheep or calf binding cannot be counted on, even under the most favorable conditions, for more than one-tenth that length of time. In certain climates, [Pg 85] parchment or vellum makes a durable binding which, with age, acquires a beautiful, ivory-like surface tone; but these skins will warp the boards unless the book is kept closely set in on the shelf. Turkey morocco is durable when well tanned, as it usually is. The best leather, for appearance and endurance, and also the most expensive, is red levant morocco. ”

“ In Khokand a small light cap used to be worn until twenty years ago, not unlike our clergyman's scapula (skull cap,) but since then it has yielded to Bokhariot civilisation, and has been supplanted by the turban. As to boots, those made in Bokhara and Khokand are the best. The leather is good, the shape rather handsome, but for the ludicrously long and thin heel, the end of which is scarcely broader than a nail's head. People of rank wear a kind of stocking made [123] of morocco leather (mest) , and over these, shoes, of which the best are made in Samarkand. ”

“ The general population is of a very mixed and turbulent kind; crimes of violence are common, and there are many professional thieves. The murder of a Frenchman, Dr Mauchamp, in March 1907, by the rabble of Marrākesh was the immediate cause of the occupation of Udja by France (see Morocco: History) . Almost the only manufacture extensively prosecuted is that of Morocco leather, mainly red and yellow, about 1,500 men being employed as tanners and shoemakers. Scottish missionaries and a few European traders have become established here. ”

“ A grained morocco surface is given to the material by passing it between suitably embossed rollers. Preparations of this kind have a close affinity to cloth waterproofed with indiarubber, and to such manufactures as ordinary waxcloth. An artificial leather which has been patented and proposed for use as soles for boots, &c., is composed of powdered scraps and cuttings of leather mixed with solution of guttapercha dried and compressed. In place of the guttapercha solution, oxidized linseed oil or dissolved resin may be used as the binding medium for the leather powder. ”

“ These white hair seal skins are light but exceedingly close in texture, yielding a very strong tough leather of large area and fine bold grain, known as Levant morocco. The area of the skins renders them suitable for upholstery work, and the flesh splits are dressed in considerable quantity for “japanned” (“patent”) leather and “bolsters,” which are used to grain other skins on, the raised buff affording a grip on the skin being grained and thus preventing slipping. ”

“ This leather, in the hands of an ordinary workman, would make a clumsy covering upon account of its great thickness; for it cannot be shaved down by a skin-dresser without destroying the natural grain of the leather, and, with it, its velvet-like richness and beauty; and yet, under the manipulations of these French artists, it becomes one of the most plastic of materials; rare volumes of the smallest dimensions, containing but one or two sheets, are not only covered on the exterior, but the interior of the boards, and even the joints are of Levant morocco. ”

“ The leather best adapted for ladies’ boots is morocco or goat-skin, which, when properly dressed, is sufficiently strong and durable—kid being the skin of the young goat, is naturally finer and more delicate; the enamel or varnish leather, commonly called patent, is also very suitable, and being made of calf-skin, is strong. For the little toecaps and golashes of ladies’ boots it answers admirably, and as it requires no cleaning, always looks well, and the upper part of the boot is kept clean and tidy. ”

“ Seal skin is finished in the same way as morocco and looks very like it, but it is, I think, not so good. It is softer, more full of oil and has a peculiar, almost fishy, smell. The softness of seal leather makes it unfit for binding books that are likely to have much hard wear, but the oiliness is probably its worst fault, as books standing next to it are apt to be stained. But it is undoubtedly a good-looking and useful leather, and if it can be put upon the market at a less cost than morocco it is sure to have a considerable vogue. Sea-lion skin is only fit for use on big books ”

“ The leather which makes the strongest and most attractive binding comes from the skins of goats and is called morocco, because it originally came from that country. In the course of time goat skins from other countries were tanned with sumac (originally a distinguishing characteristic of a genuine morocco) , but the same name was applied so that we now have the paradoxical terms, Turkey morocco, Levant morocco, etc. Moroccos have a beautiful grain, are flexible, soft and pliable to the hand, and resist hard wear; qualities which contribute to their great popularity. ”

“ The ponderous tomes, whose weight was alone a protection, gradually gave way to smaller-sized volumes, and these were often bound in velvet or silk, beautifully embroidered by lady amateurs, perhaps also by professed binders. At other times the monastic covering of wood and leather is observable, and often the leather gave way to seal and shark skin without any tooling or other ornamentation.
These different styles of binding continued in vogue side by side until the introduction of typography, when the Venetians introduced morocco from the East and found out the virtues of calf. ”

“ Any skin may be used for the groundwork of leather mosaic, but morocco, and especially the kind called Cape morocco, is generally preferred, because of the grained surface which shows up the inlaid decoration to the best advantage. ”

“ Deer skin makes the finer kinds of morocco, while sheep and goat skin make the grades that are used in book-binding. Seal skin makes a superior kind of enamelled leather for boots, bags, dressing-cases, and ornamental articles. Hog skin is so full of oil that it resists the tannic acid, yet saddles are made from it, and it has other uses. ”

“ The skins tanned as above are largely dressed as morocco. Originally “morocco” was produced by the Moors in southern Spain and Morocco, whence the industry spread to the Levant, Turkey and the Mediterranean coast of Africa generally, where the leather was made from a species of sumach. Peculiarly enough, the dyeing was carried out before the tanning, with Roman alum as “mordant” and kermes, which with the alum produced a fine red colour. ”

“ The imitation of fine leather in inferior sheep skin has been for a long time a very important industry, and it is one which is still with us. All fine leathers show a particular and well known grain on their surface, but the most largely imitated is that of goat skin or morocco. ”

“ For wear in tropical countries, I found that boots which have the foot part of patent leather and the leg of morocco, with a thin leather lining to stiffen and keep the leg part in place, are cooler and more comfortable than any other kind. ”

“ Paper becomes quickly frayed at the edges, or is liable to peel where pasted on, though it may be renewed at small expense, and may properly be used except upon the much-read portion of the library. The cloth or paper should always harmonize in color with the leather to which it is attached. They need not be the same, but they should be of similar shade.
One more reason for preferring morocco to other leathers is that you can always dispense with lettering-pieces or patches in gilding the titles on the back. ”

“ The leather that I have found most useful is the Niger goatskin, brought from Africa by the Royal Niger Company; it is a very beautiful colour and texture, and has stood all the tests tried, without serious deterioration. The difficulty with this leather is that, being a native production, it is somewhat carelessly prepared, and is much spoiled by flaws and stains on the surface, and many skins are quite worthless. It is to be hoped that before long some of the manufacturers [279] interested will produce skins as good in quality and colour as the best Niger morocco, and with fewer flaws. ”

“ Paste should be always used for morocco, calf, russia and vellum, in fact for all kinds of leather; but in my humble opinion, all leather with an artificial grain should be glued; the turning-in may be with paste. The glue gives more |94| body to the leather, and thus preserves the grain. White morocco should be covered with paste made without any alum, which causes it to turn yellow, and if the leather is washed with lemon juice instead of vinegar when finishing, the colour will be much improved. ”

“ The inhabitants of Tafilet tan a great quantity of leather; they make excellent morocco, which is much esteemed in commerce, and finds at Fez a ready market. The people of this country are more industrious than I have any where remarked, in the different parts of Africa which I have visited.
Every one brings to the market the fruit of his labour; there may be seen in abundance woollen wrappers, coussabes, tanned leather, pagnes, shoes, mats, wooden trenchers, in short all the manufactures of the country. ”

“ We have found it beautiful in color and texture, easy to work and wearing admirably on large and much-used books. But it does not keep clean as well as a good morocco of coarse grain. It is very expensive, and first-class morocco is probably better where strong, enduring leather is advisable which is only on books which are to be much used. ”

“ Now, in addition to the genuine morocco made from goat skins, we have imitation or French moroccos, for which split calf and especially sheep skins are employed, and as the appearance of morocco is the result of the style of graining and finish, which can now be imitated by printing or embossing machines, morocco can be made from all varieties of thin leather. ”

“ Paint has a tendency in time to crack, and, if acids are used, they will, to a certain extent, rot or destroy the leather; but if leather is used it will always retain both colour and texture. To choose the proper colours that will harmonize with the ground, give tone, and produce a pleasing effect, requires a certain amount of study. Morocco is the leather generally used, but in Vienna calf has been used with very good results. If the pattern to be inlaid be very small, steel punches of the exact shape of the tools are used to punch or cut out the patterns required. ”

“ In Houssa, leather is dressed in the same soft, rich style as in Morocco; they manufacture cordage, handsome cloths, and fine tissue. Though ignorant of the turning machine, they make good pottery ware, and some of their jars are really tasteful. ”

“ Nevertheless the wives of the Sultan as they got upon the backs of his slaves gathered their sulhams up about their knees, displaying part of a leg, in almost every case unstockinged, and always dangling a heelless slipper of red native leather. In Morocco, as I have indicated before, the costumes of men and those of women are practically the same except for fullness and, in the case of nether-garments, colour. ”