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Conference: Footwear and Leather from the Middle Ages and Modern
Times -
25 May, 2018
This conference is being organised by the Heritage Department in the Dutch city of 's-Hertogenbosch,
together with leather specialist Marquita Volken. Participants will be able to share their knowledge, methods and
experience of the subject and 8 speakers will communicate the results of their research.
The following link will take you to more detailed information and to a page listing
the speakers and their lecture subjects:
's-Hertogenbosch Conference
The 2018 Annual General Meeting
Our AGM will be held on Saturday, 28 April in Northampton.
Full details can be found on the 'Meetings' page (see menu opposite).
Two recent books on gilt leather:
F. Pereira (2017), De Córdoba para Portugal: el comercio de guadamecíes en el siglo XVI, Chiado books
looks at 16th century contracts in which ornate gilt leather wall hangings, cushions and altar frontals
were traded from Córdoba to the Portuguese court.
A. Caldas and F. Pereira (2017), Pele com Pele, Transfiguraçao & Transcendência, Chiado Books
illustrates the authors' creative work in producing gilt leather artefacts to their own designs,
as well as showing what these owe to the medieval and later craft traditions of the Iberian peninsula.
De Córdoba para Portugal
Pele com pele
Recent ALG Publication
The Proceedings of 'Leather in Warfare', a joint conference held by the
ALG and the Royal Armouries, Leeds in 2014 is now available to purchase from the Royal
Armouries website at £30:
Leather in Warfare
ALG members will receive a 25% reduction on entering a discount code
which can be found in the Members' section of our website (see menu
opposite).
Due to be published in December 2017 is Chariots in Ancient Egypt:
The Tano Chariot, A Case Study, by André J. Veldmeijer, Salima Ikram,
Ole Herslund, Lisa Sabbahy & Lucy Skinner. The book will be available in
print form and as an e-book (pdf), it will also be free to browse online. More
advance details, including an Abstract and List of Contents appear here:
Chariots in Ancient Egypt
Papers from a well-attended conference held by the ALG in 2011 are now published with the title Why Leather?
The Material and Cultural Dimensions of Leather. They are available in printed form or as an e-book
from the Sidestone Press website and can also be browsed there for free:
Why Leather?
Northampton Museum's Cinderella Project
is currently exploring new ways of displaying shoes, with the aim of securing a wider
audience for its internationally renowned shoe collection:
more details here
Chasing Chariots. Proceedings of the First International Chariot Conference
(Cairo 2012) edited by André J. Veldmeijer & Salima Ikram, Sidestone Press,
2013.
This volume contains the proceedings of a conference jointly organised by the Netherlands-Flemish
Institute in Cairo (NVIC) and the American University in Cairo (AUC)
and held between between 30 November and 2 December 2012. A paper by Salima Ikram,
André Veldmeijer and Lucy Skinner presents the first results of research into the
Tano chariot (the leather casing and other trappings of a chariot, recently discovered
in the Cairo museum), together with a report on its conservation. The book
can be read online for free, or purchased as an e-book or in printed form:
Chasing Chariots
ALG now on Facebook
The Leather Group now has its own page on Facebook where news, photos, queries
and details of events can be posted. ALG members and others with shared interests are invited to contribute.
Thanks to Lucy Skinner for setting it up:
Facebook page
A CD is now available containing copies of all the ALG Newsletters, from the first issue
(Summer 1986) up until September 2017. The Newsletters contain articles on archaeological
and historical leather of many periods and these are often well illustrated, particularly in
more recent issues. If you are interested in purchasing a CD, it can be ordered online here:
Collected Newsletters.
André Veldmeijer's book, Leatherwork from Qasr Ibrim (Egypt). Part I:
Footwear from the Ottoman Period is now available to purchase as a print
volume or as a download from Sidestone Press:
Qasr Ibrim. Part 1.
It can also be read for free online.
"Sandals, shoes and other leatherwork from the Coptic Monastery Deir el-Bachit"
This report by André Veldmeijer on leatherwork from a site near Luxor, Egypt, is available to purchase as a print volume or ebook
from the publishers, Sidestone Press. It can also be read online for free:
Deir el-Bachit.
Waterlogged Organic Artefacts – Guidelines on their Recovery, Analysis and Conservation
The 1995 English Heritage Guidelines on the care of waterlogged archaeological leather have been
reviewed (2012) in the light of new developments in conservation treatments and planning changes
affecting the heritage environment. The new guidelines cover other waterlogged organic materials
as well as leather and can be freely downloaded from the English Heritage website:
Waterlogged Organic Artefacts – EH Guidelines
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“Leather Trades in medieval Lisbon: from the 12th until
the 16th century” by Franklin Pereira (2012).
This book, the fruit of many years of documentary
research into the history of leatherworking and its
artisans is now published on a 'print on demand' basis
by Lambert Academic Publishing. It is available from
Amazon.co.uk for £41 including free postage within the
UK. In the US, Barnes and Noble have it for $54 including postage.
It covers the development of this important Portugese industry from
the time when it was dominated by Muslim influences to
the Renaissance period. As well as looking at the
leather trades from an artist's viewpoint, the study aims
to shed light on the development of local and national
legal frameworks to regulate the trade of saddlers,
shoemakers, bag and belt makers and those producing
the wall hangings and leather upholstery for which the
Iberian peninsula has long been renowned.
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The German Leather Museum/German Shoe Museum, Offenbach
In March 2011, members of the Leather Group visited this wonderful museum, which is
not as well-known as it should be. Nowhere else will you find such a wide-ranging
collection, which has a significance for social and folk history and for the
history of the decorative arts which goes way beyond its special concern with
leather and shoes. We defy any visitor not to find its collections fascinating!
On this page, Jutta Göpfrich describes its recent refurbishment and future expansion:
Offenbach Museum
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Recent ALG Publication
Papers from the Leather Group's 2008 Conference at Walsall Leather Museum have now been published:
Leather Tanneries: The Archaeological Evidence is edited by Roy Thomson and Quita Mould and
can be obtained from the publishers, Archetype Books
(www.archetype.co.uk)
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A downloadable .pdf of A. Veldmeijer's recent article on leather from Ancient Egypt can be found here:
Part X. Leather Composite Sandals
This presents 15 well-made and well-preserved sandals, many in bright colours and decorated, from New Kingdom
contexts. It forms part of the Ancient Egyptian Footwear Project.
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John Parrott's book on the history of the tanning industry in Wantage, Oxfordshire,
has just been published. Details can be found here:
The Largest Tanyard in the Kingdom
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please let us know:
