JVrought Leather 
A MEDI/EVAL GARMENT OF WROUGHT LEATHER 
“Cordovan”came to lie applied 
to all work of this character. 
Once proven, the industry 
spread rapidly from country 
to country. In Italy, the 
Venetians especially were so 
successful with the work that 
at this day it is difficult to 
distinguish between their 
leathers and the Spanish pro¬ 
ductions of the same period. 
From Italy the contagion 
spread to France—in Paris a 
whole quarter of the city was 
given over to the work; thence 
to the Netherlands, and so on 
to England. Large quantities 
of the leather were exported from Spain to 
the Spanish American Colonies, Mexico and 
the West Indies. 
During its supremacy, in the fourteenth 
and fifteenth centuries, the craft was under 
the protection of the Spanish guilds. Their 
regulations provided that inspectors be ap¬ 
pointed by the members from among their 
number, who under solemn oath and heavy 
penalty were detailed to examine into the 
merits of the shop-keeper artisans who were 
not allowed to produce nor sell their work 
except as approved by the inspectors. If 
judged sufficiently skillful, the artisan was 
brought before the guild, acknowledged a 
master and given a certificate with permis- 
AN XVIII CENTURY CHAIR 
Coveted with Italian Embossed and Gilded 
Leather 
sion to practice the handi¬ 
craft. The guilds provided 
also against the use of im¬ 
proper skins — that is, of 
animals too young or dead 
from disease—the use of tin 
or pewter instead of silver 
leaf in the gilding, and other 
frauds and disorder in the 
craft. According as the 
stringency of these rules re¬ 
laxed in time, the art de¬ 
generated and finally died 
out entirely before the dawn 
of the nineteenth century. 
There are still quantities 
of fine old leather hangings 
in existence, but vandalism 
and the stress of poverty 
have long since allowed 
most of them to be re¬ 
moved from their original 
settings. In the hands of 
dealers and collectors, in 
museums or in the houses 
of wealthy Americans they 
may still be admired as 
AN XVIII CENTURY CHAIR 
Covered with Italian JVrought Leather 
In the Collection of the Pennsylvania Museum 
