House and Garden 
THE PRESIDENT’S LIBRARY OF THE NEW YORK LIFE INSURANCE CO.’s HOME BUILDING 
The Walls and Chairs cohered with Wrought Leather executed by Charles R. IT an dell 
the old master workers and in making special 
designs in hand tooled and modeled relief 
effects. Some of these reproductions are 
now on the walls and ceilings in residences 
belonging to William C. Whitnev, George 
W. Vanderbilt, Whitelaw Ried and other 
prominent men besides which his leather is 
to be found in many public buildings in 
New York, Boston and Albany. 
That in all this great country there are so 
tew workers in the legitimate craft that we 
may name them upon our fingers, and that 
the craft in its purity is practically unknown, 
even to cultivated people, is a sad com¬ 
mentary upon the commercialism of the age. 
The real craft worker dreads alike the am¬ 
ateur dabbler and the purely commercial 
producer who in every way does violence to 
the true spirit of craftsmanship. His work 
is protected by secret processes; the acci¬ 
dents of the old hand work are imitated by 
steel dies worked by machinerv and the effect 
of age simulated, so that the work looks its 
best only the day it is done, from that time 
on losing its beautv until time utterly ruins 
it instead of enhancing its loveliness. Yet 
the present results of some of this work are 
surprisingly beautiful, and as such form, per¬ 
haps, a step in the progress of culture. 
Of an entirely different nature from the 
Cordovan process is the embossed leather of 
Germany, known in that country for the 
past fifteen years. The embossed or sculp¬ 
tured leather work done by Henry Busse, 
while undoubtedly inspired by the old meth¬ 
ods, is entirely modern and without tradi¬ 
tional precept. 
In this work the design is sketched upon 
the surface of the leather with a blunt tool; 
then with a sharp tool the lines of the design 
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