Historical French Tannery Traditions in Restoration

DOI: 10.33876/2311-0546/2023-2/105-111

Abstract

Leather products appeared in the history of mankind before textiles — and these were clothes and objects of labor of paramount importance. The relevance of the use of leather does not decrease to this day — and these are more likely luxury items including accessories. Accessories are either entirely made of leather or have leather elements. The importance of accessories as elements of costume and in everyday life was great in the history of mankind, as apart from being essentials (bags, covers, belts, shoes, etc.) they always denoted the social status of the owner. Leather tanning technologies go back centuries; with relatively satisfactory storage they often reach our days in a fairly acceptable state. At the same time, a lot of items require restoration, since the main enemy of leather products is water or wet storage conditions. For the most optimal restoration process, it is necessary to approach historical technology that allows restorer to reproduce or reconstruct the process of leather tanning and processing. This work presents an ancient European technology for working with leather, which made it possible to solve a number of issues in the accessory restoration.