DOI issue:
Nr. 105 (November, 1905)
DOI article:Artistic leather work with oil dyes
DOI Page / Citation link: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.26961#0140
Artistic Leather Work
LEATHER MAT BAISDEN-BRAGDON-WEBB CO.
hides of all the animals you can come by and sort
them by texture, you will find that the zoölogists
have already for other reasons classified the ani-
mals in the very groups into which the skins fall.
So deliberate is the proper design of these textures
themselves that the layman, as has been said, may
rest content with them without the aid of omament.
So he may with the proper design of rock if only he
train himself as a petrologist. In this it might
almost be said that the odds are in favour of the
leather. In short, we hardly put too fine a point
upon it or speak too presumptuously when we say
that though there are many things we cannot do
with leather, its natural beauties could never have
been meant to estop us from its enjoyment. We
spoil the natural beauties of a plum when we make
jam of it.
We may well leave building in leather to the
Esquimaux. We do not attempt statuary in
leather, though a little observation of humps and
bells will show us that filled repousse work is not
without its antecedents. But we all know that
hides have these two qualities: they are almost as
enduring as brass and they are primarily intended
for covering. The attention of our readers has been
callecl from time to time to artistic work in book
binding. In these ephemeral days it would be a sin
to bind all books in leather. By the same token, it
is pity not to hang some walls with it, not to make
some screens of it. We case our feet in leather
without question. We find it, too, delightful to sit
upon. For some sorts of furniture covering it is
admittedly the best material. It is thoroughly
appropriate for table cover, lamp mat or scrap
basket. If any one who will allow it these uses
shares the delusion that it should be left in a
natural state, or worked sparingly, he could do no
better than to make himself acquainted with the
thoroughly worthy and beautiful effects that are
now being attained. Among the practical manufac-
tures of artistic leathers of high merit, we have no
hesitation in recommending a visit to the show
rooms of the Baisden-Bragdon-Webb Company, of
this city. We have spoken of other successes in
leather carving and tooling. We should like at this
time to call attention to the beauty of the oil dyes
here employed, a process which admits of the freest
and riehest measure of colouring without rotting
out the life from the grain and rendering it brittle.
This is perhaps the one department of the art
which is to-day advancing upon anything that has
been accomplished before. Any one who is not
familiär with the progress being made would be
interested if not surprised in noting the brilliant
colouring of even such examples as we are able in
short space to reproduce—the green and bronze of
the basket; the seal brown illuminated with silver
leaf of the circular mal; the green, old copper and
golcl of the small Venetian leather; the green illu-
minated ground of the screen with the Old English
design in gold, blue, crimson and silver.
SCRAP BASKET CARVED LEATHER
BAISDEN-BRAGDON-WEBB CO.
XXIV
LEATHER MAT BAISDEN-BRAGDON-WEBB CO.
hides of all the animals you can come by and sort
them by texture, you will find that the zoölogists
have already for other reasons classified the ani-
mals in the very groups into which the skins fall.
So deliberate is the proper design of these textures
themselves that the layman, as has been said, may
rest content with them without the aid of omament.
So he may with the proper design of rock if only he
train himself as a petrologist. In this it might
almost be said that the odds are in favour of the
leather. In short, we hardly put too fine a point
upon it or speak too presumptuously when we say
that though there are many things we cannot do
with leather, its natural beauties could never have
been meant to estop us from its enjoyment. We
spoil the natural beauties of a plum when we make
jam of it.
We may well leave building in leather to the
Esquimaux. We do not attempt statuary in
leather, though a little observation of humps and
bells will show us that filled repousse work is not
without its antecedents. But we all know that
hides have these two qualities: they are almost as
enduring as brass and they are primarily intended
for covering. The attention of our readers has been
callecl from time to time to artistic work in book
binding. In these ephemeral days it would be a sin
to bind all books in leather. By the same token, it
is pity not to hang some walls with it, not to make
some screens of it. We case our feet in leather
without question. We find it, too, delightful to sit
upon. For some sorts of furniture covering it is
admittedly the best material. It is thoroughly
appropriate for table cover, lamp mat or scrap
basket. If any one who will allow it these uses
shares the delusion that it should be left in a
natural state, or worked sparingly, he could do no
better than to make himself acquainted with the
thoroughly worthy and beautiful effects that are
now being attained. Among the practical manufac-
tures of artistic leathers of high merit, we have no
hesitation in recommending a visit to the show
rooms of the Baisden-Bragdon-Webb Company, of
this city. We have spoken of other successes in
leather carving and tooling. We should like at this
time to call attention to the beauty of the oil dyes
here employed, a process which admits of the freest
and riehest measure of colouring without rotting
out the life from the grain and rendering it brittle.
This is perhaps the one department of the art
which is to-day advancing upon anything that has
been accomplished before. Any one who is not
familiär with the progress being made would be
interested if not surprised in noting the brilliant
colouring of even such examples as we are able in
short space to reproduce—the green and bronze of
the basket; the seal brown illuminated with silver
leaf of the circular mal; the green, old copper and
golcl of the small Venetian leather; the green illu-
minated ground of the screen with the Old English
design in gold, blue, crimson and silver.
SCRAP BASKET CARVED LEATHER
BAISDEN-BRAGDON-WEBB CO.
XXIV