Purse said to belong to the Countess of Bar, 14th century.

Silk, metallic filaments, 36 x 32 cm. Musée de Cluny, Paris.

 

 

Leather and wallpaper

 

We have already seen cowhide used to cover travelling boxes, afterwards given to the leather bag, guaranteeing safety when stowed on the top of coaches. Later on, the practice of decorating leather with the processes of embossing and stamping was introduced, and it was seen adorning the interior of houses. Initially, this was viewed as a refinement of luxury: “Leathers for laying down in the rooms in summertime,” describe the Duke of Burgundy’s inventories. In 1416, Isabella of Bavaria sent for “six leather carpets for the floor”. This was one of the delicate devices of the German coquette, for, although on several solemn occasions the floors had been covered not only with tapestries, but even with the most costly materials, the general practice, continued through the period of the Valois kings, as shown in many paintings, was to scatter the apartments with flowers and foliage. It was only when the shaggy or Oriental rugs were multiplied, and especially when the looms of the West succeeded in imitating them, that the scattered floors gave way for the velvet fabric.

Returning to the 15th century, we find that in the same year, 1416, the Duke de Berry possessed a large piece of red leather emblazoned with several patches with three bands around the shield of Castille. This was one of those highly-prized Spanish “Cordovans” which for a long time gave their name to the hangings known as “cordovan-leather”. At first the leather hangings were painted with a uniform pattern, set off with designs produced by the hot iron on the roller. Large pieces made of square skins, sewn or glued together, formed the principal portions of the hanging, which was completed by means of narrower strips concealing the seams or joinings. We need not dwell upon the style of decoration, identical as it was with the other pieces of furniture, and the very variety of which would, in any case, baffle all description. In subjects of this sort the pen must give way to the pencil. As regards the colours, the imagination could conjure up no visions more brilliant than the reality. The background was most commonly of silver or gold, this last effect being produced by means of a coloured varnish laid over the silver. The arabesques and other ornaments vied in the brightness of their hues with this gorgeous background.

L’Inventair des muebles de Catherine de Médici, published by Edmond Bonnaffé, gives some idea of the richness of these leathers at the close of the 16th century. Here gold and silver hangings on an orange background with the queen’s cipher are mentioned, others with orange mountings, gilded or silvered, on a violet background. Also in sea-green with mountings similar to the preceding, or else red with gold and dove-coloured mountings; blue with gold, silver and red mountings, not to mention the numerous mourning hangings in which the background is relieved by silver alone.

All the leathers described here constituted moveable hangings. But, as early as the 15th century, leather of a different description was introduced for the fixed hangings. The description of work was introduced, or re-introduced, into France at the end of the 15th century by Italian painters and was continued throughout the whole of the 16th and the first years of the 17th century. The painting is raised on a gilded background and keeps well. In the Musée de Cluny is a series of paintings in this manner, from an old house in Rouen, on a sheep-skin gilt and worked with stamped dyes, representing Rome bearing Victory. This kind of hanging was framed with wooden panels.

However, it would almost seem as if these paintings, with all their gold and silver, which sparkled with the play of light on the embossing, were found insufficient for the luxury of the 17th century. Since the beginning of this century the idea of ornamenting leather with stamped reliefs was introduced and the idea of mixing the leather with embossed reliefs by means of a wooden matrix or mould pressed firmly on the leather while softened by heat became popular. These reliefs, consisting of arabesques, foliage, branches, flowers, birds, etc., followed the changes of style specific to each epoch, and at times supplied hangings of a very grand character, the reliefs heightening the effect of the colours and metals employed in their ornamentation.