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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoPlainText><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Palatino Linotype","serif";color:#215868'>Most of you will perhaps have seen this, but for those who haven't: it's one of the reasons I advise catalogers against using the binding descriptor "morocco." It has meant a number of things over time. In addition, there is a species continuum between sheep and goats. I am all anticipation of the binding glossary promised by NP.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#31849B'>__________<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#31849B'>Deborah J. Leslie, M.A., M.L.S. | Head of Cataloging, Folger Shakespeare Library<br></span><span style='color:#31849B'><a href="mailto:djleslie@folger.edu"><span style='color:#31849B;text-decoration:none'>djleslie@folger.edu</span></a> </span><span style='color:#31849B'>| 202.675-0369 | <a href="www.folger.edu"><span style='color:#31849B;text-decoration:none'>www.folger.edu</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Palatino Linotype","serif";color:#215868'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>-----Original Message-----<br>From: Rare book and manuscripts [mailto:EXLIBRIS-L@LISTSERV.INDIANA.EDU] On Behalf Of Nicholas Pickwoad<br>Sent: Monday, July 18, 2011 04:20<br>To: EXLIBRIS-L@LISTSERV.INDIANA.EDU<br>Subject: Re: [EXLIBRIS-L] Seeking leather bookbinding ID references<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>I would like to inject a small note of warning into the discussion <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>about using modern samples of leather for the identification of <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>historic leathers used on books. The animals whose skins were used <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>have changed over the centuries, and the hairsheep that was one of the <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>most common sources of leathers for the booktrade will not feature <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>among modern samples. This is important for the identification of <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>skins on books, as it is these skins that are the hardest to identify <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>(calf and pig are, by comparison, quite straightforward) as the skins <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>of animals bearing coarse wool hairs as well a fine ones produce skins <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>that are virtually identical to goatskin. The modern sheep, bred <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>increasingly to eliminate the coarse wool hairs, has a skin that is <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>entirely different in appearance.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>The problem is compounded, not simplified, by the term 'morocco'. In <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>France the term 'maroquin' was used to describe the highest quality <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>skins of the type today found in northern Nigeria. Following the <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>traditional habit of the European leather trades, the skin was named <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>after the country from which it was shipped, in this case Morocco, <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>where the native-dyed skins or possibly undyed crusts, were given <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>final treatments, including dyeing, before export. It was for this <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>reason that the same skins were known as 'Turkey leather' in Britain, <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>as British merchants were only allowed to trade with the Ottoman <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>empire through the port of Smyrna (modern Izmir). The British leather <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>trade used the word 'morocco' for the skins traditionally thought to <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>have been procured in the 1720s for Edward Harley in Fez in an attempt <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>to make good the short supply of Turkey leather in the early <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>eighteenth century. The skins were bright and colourful and were <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>imported directly from Morocco (hence the name), but were taken from <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>hairsheep, not goats, and they have proved much less durable. The <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>English booktrade maintained the distinction between 'turkey' and <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>'morocco' leathers until at least the 1780s.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>Any sample book must, if it is to be helpful, use macro-photographs of <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>genuine period skins identified by experts in such matters, but when <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>Ronald Read (author of Ancient Skins, Parchments and Leathers, already <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>cited in this correspondence and still far and away the best book on <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>the subject currently available) admits that telling goat from <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>hairsheep skins can be impossible by visual examination only, we need <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>to be very careful in jumping to conclusions. Our ongoing work in the <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>Ligatus Research Centre on a glossary of bookbinding terms is to <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>include a set of such photographs, but that is, I am afraid, a year or <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>two away as yet.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>Nicholas Pickwoad<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>Professor Nicholas Pickwoad, River Farm, Great Witchingham,Norwich, <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>NR9 5NA.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>E-mail: npickwoad@paston.co.uk<o:p></o:p></p></div></body></html>