03-05-2009, 12:14 AM
I may start a thread on leather. I just found a really excellent source, all very nicely documented by quotes from Classical Greek literature.
"Greek Shoes in the Classical Period," by Alexis Bryant, published as an article in "Harvard Studies in Classical Philology," Vol 10 (1899) p. 57-110.
I've been looking at this subject for five months, and this one article about doubled my knowledge. Man, those Victorians really read Greek.
Perhaps most important, he presents quite a bit of literary evidence for vegetable tanned leather with a golden brown "bronze" appearance. He brings to our attention the works of Theophrastus, whose book "On Plants" (3.9.1) includes all sorts of useful information on tanning and it's popularity in Athens.
Theophrastus also apparently mentions alum-tanning in another book, but I haven't chased the reference down. And I'm going to introduce an element of doubt here, after a telephone call to an alum tanner in Scotland, who says that my "tawed" leather isn't really tawed, it is vegetable tanned and then alum has been used to whiten it. This, by the way, is probably what the folks using both alum and gall were doing above in Paul's example.
Why is everything so complicated?
D D
"Greek Shoes in the Classical Period," by Alexis Bryant, published as an article in "Harvard Studies in Classical Philology," Vol 10 (1899) p. 57-110.
I've been looking at this subject for five months, and this one article about doubled my knowledge. Man, those Victorians really read Greek.
Perhaps most important, he presents quite a bit of literary evidence for vegetable tanned leather with a golden brown "bronze" appearance. He brings to our attention the works of Theophrastus, whose book "On Plants" (3.9.1) includes all sorts of useful information on tanning and it's popularity in Athens.
Theophrastus also apparently mentions alum-tanning in another book, but I haven't chased the reference down. And I'm going to introduce an element of doubt here, after a telephone call to an alum tanner in Scotland, who says that my "tawed" leather isn't really tawed, it is vegetable tanned and then alum has been used to whiten it. This, by the way, is probably what the folks using both alum and gall were doing above in Paul's example.
Why is everything so complicated?
D D
Qui plus fait, miex vault.
