Tags: [[Leather Work]] - [[Viking Age]] Title: [[& Craft Industry and Everyday Life Leather and Leatherworking in Anglo-Scandinavian and Medieval York]] Author: [[@Quita Mould]], [[@Ian Carlistle]], [[@Esther Cameron]] Keywords: ISBN: `978-1-874454-50-2` Reference: Publish Date: 2003-05 Reviewed Date: [[2020-04-12]] --- ```latex @book{mould2003, author = {Quita Mould, Ian Carlisle, \& Esther Cameron}, year = {2003}, title = {Leather and Leatherworking in Anglo-Scandinavian and Medieval York}, publisher = {Council for British Archaeology}, ISBN = {978-1-874454-50-2}, } ``` ## General Introduction Leather was one of the most important materials used by pre-industrial societies. The raw materials, hides and skins, were readily available as a by-product of meat provision. One of York's principal trades was leather. It was a major component of the local enonomy for a duration of at least 600 years. By the late 13th century the leather trades were numerically the most important in York in terms of admissions of freemen of the city Everyday life leather products found included principally: - Footwear - Knife Sheaths - Sword Scabbards ## Introduction to the Sites and their Dating ## The Nature of the Assemblages **Period 5B: c.975-early/mid 11th century - Tenement C** Leather working was performed on an industrial scale due to the sheer amount of manufacturing scraps that were discarded en masse in certain areas. **Excavations at Bedern - Bedern Foundry** A leather strap (15874) with decorative baluster-shaped copper alloy mounts was found in an early-mid 14th century context. ## Conservation of the Leatherwork **Introduction** All leather finds were vegetable tanned as opposed to brain tanned, and animal sources of found hides include: - Cow - Calf - Sheep - Goat - Pig **Assessment of the condition of the treated leather** Example of reconstructed leather shoes: ## Craft and Industry ### The Surviving Evidence Shoe-makers or cordwainers made footwear (shoes and boots), while cobblers both repaired shoes and bought old shoes, refurbished them and sold them on. Girdlers, belt-makers, purse-makers, sheathers, harness-makers, bottle-makers and parchment-makers were all en-gaged in making the finished products. Other crafts-men such as the scabbard-makers, bucklers (shield-makers), saddlers, bookbinders and cofferers (makers of leather-covered travelling trunks) used leather as one of their principal raw materials. Glov-ers both processed sheepskin and made it into gloves. Leathersellers processed the skins of roe deer and regulated all those who produced anything other than the ‘heavy leathers’ of the tanners. They also sold the wide range of small leather articles made from these ‘light leathers’. #### The Leatherworking trades Some of the listed items that could be made by leather workings (those taking leather and making it into sellable goods) are as such: - Shoes (see figure \ref{fig:leathershoes) - Belts - Purses - Bottles - Saddles - scabbards - Bookbinders - Gloves - Leather Covered Traveling Trunks #### Current Documentary knowledge #### The street-name evidence #### The Physical evidence #### Environmental evidence #### The Osteological evidence #### The Leatherworking Tools Recovered **Iron leatherworking tools from Anglo-Scandinavia and medieval york** Awls were common instruments, but could also have been used in wood and bone work as well. A number of iron tools associated with various stages in the manufacture of leather objects were found in both Anglo-Scandinavian and medieval contexts at the sites included in this fascicule. A tool used in the early stages of the leather-working process is the slicker (or sleaker) of which an incomplete example comes from a late 14th-/early 15th-century context at Bedern Foundry. It originally had a flat blade with at each end tangs for wooden handles at 90 degrees to the back. Slickers were employed during tanning to force out the dirt retained under the hair roots just below the grain layer and to shave the flesh side until the sur-face was smooth and the leather was of even thick-ness. - If an awl tip broke, it could often be reversed and used again if not just ground back down to a point. - Wooden handles for awls were found - some awls were fitted with a bone or antler handles Iron shears were also recovered but were a rarity in the medieval period **Wooden artefacts used in leatherworking** For shoe making, lasts were found #### The Waste Leather **The Distribution of Leather Waste** Leatherworking was just one activity which was carried out by the occupants of the four properties on the site; other activities in-cluded wood turning, blacksmithing, non-ferrous metalworking, textile production, antler and bone working and glass working, as well as minor crafts such as amber and jet working. ### The Craft of the Leatherworker #### The Shoe-Maker #### Shoe Construction "half moon" a.k.a. round knives were used in this period for leather work **The sewing medium** Many of the shoes of Anglo-Scandinavian date were sewn with a fine thong of leather, fragments of which sometimes remained. A few shoes had large, round stitch holes and it is assumed that they were sewn with animal fibre thread. When the sewing medium did not survive it was often difficult to be certain whether thong or thread had been used, and for this reason quantification of this feature was not attempted. Observation suggests, however, that the use of thong as a sewing medium. #### The Sheath and Scabbard Maker sheaths and scabbards were made from single pieces of leather with only 1 seam. The seam for scabbards was never on the edge but on a face of the blade and made with the leather either butted up or beveled to be sewn together it was concluded that alum-dressed leather made the most suitable thongs for lashing together the wooden frame of a leather-hulled boat which subsequently crossed the Atlantic. seax sheathes were sewn with thong along the edge using a tunnel stitch and then metal was fitted over the seam then riveted. **Moulding** moulded leather artifacts of note include: - Armor - Masks - Containers of various sorts #### Decorative Techniques Employed on Leather decorative techniques include: - impressed patterns - incised patterns - scraped patterns - raised embossing or modelling - decorative thonging/stitching/lacing - painting some of the most decorated items were sheaths and scabbards. **Tooling and incising** Two small triangular cut-outs were present at one end of this piece and ap-pear to be the only example of cut-out decoration to be found. Tooling was the most commonly used decorative technique through the use of a blunt point. the corner torn from a bookbinding, was decorated with tooling and stamped floral mo-tifs. The use of stamped decoration is best seen on the heavily decorated knife sheaths of late and post-medieval date, but this was not a major feature of the sheaths studied here this method was used on: - Footwear - Knife Sheaths - Sword Scabbards viking girdles (belts) appeared to also have lines of decorative stitching as did the medieval flap-closing purses Decorative stitching was also noted on the vamp of a boot of Anglo-Scandinavian date. The small frag-ments of medieval girdles found appear also to have had lines of decorative stitching, as did the later medieval flap-closing purses. A girdle found at Bedern Foundry. Punched and tooled decoration, and was painted red with cin-nabar. **Decorative Techniques seen on sheaths and scabbards** Impressing (also called tooling and engraving) is so amenable to expression that it has always been the most commonly used decora-tive technique on leather. Some of the most frequently use motifs for tooling decoration were - cross-hatching - chevrons - interlace later in the 13-14th century the decoration of scabbards became increasingly elaborate and formalized with crisply executed and crowded decoration consisting of beasts, birds, and foliage Some sheaths used stabbing and incising as a method of decoration. These methods have been in use since the late roman period. Decoration via incising seems to be a timeless practice. Another decorative technique introduced in the 11th to 12th century was modelling, by which means a design would be finely outlined and left in low re-lief, the surrounding surface having been reduced by tooling. Early and later examples of modelling may be seen on the Armagh budget and on a fragment of 14th-century armour in the British Museum. #### Teeth Marks bite marks on the leather requiring signifigant pressure to produce are found frequently on secondary waste pieces of leather suggesting that these marks are the result of some aspect of leather production that has yet to be established. ### Conclusion ## Everyday Life ### Introduction ### Shoes The vast majority of the footwear recovered was of turnshoe construction. #### Constructions Shoe seams were sewn with leather thong or waxed thread of wool or flax #### Anglo-Scandinavian Styles #### Medieval Styles #### Sizes #### Decoration #### Refurbishment and Repair #### Foot Pathologies ### Sheaths and Scabbards Knife sheaths of the 7th century were made of animal skin, generally 1–1.5mm thick, of which the species of some have been identified as calf, but the method of tannage is unknown. There is some evidence to suggest that sheaths normally enclosed handles as well as the blades of knives and that they may often have been decorated with tooling on the front face. The sheath is seamed along the cutting edge and has a narrow, tapering suspension flap with a rectangular hole for suspension. A suspension flap is an element of sheath design involving an extra al- lowance of leather essentially for suspension of the sheath by strap or thong, or (on sheaths of seaxes) where metal fittings are positioned. Eight scabbard leathers carry upon their front faces the impressions of strap-slides. Each slide oc-cupied a central, longitudinal position and to either side of its mid-point is a vertical slit in the leather, giving access to the strap. The slide was evidently not fixed to the leather, and previous tradition sug-gests that it would probably have been attached to the wooden scabbard beneath. Type A are those that are seamed along one edge, apparently continuing the Anglo-Saxon tradition, whereas the others, Type B, are seamed at the back and conse-quently have a different outline and appearance. Both categories have a suspension flap to one side and are subdivided according to differences in the design of this feature. Made of substantial leather, up to 3mm thick, these sheaths are folded over the back of the blade and joined along the cutting edge, after the fashion of ear-lier sheaths of the 7th century. The natural shape of the folded leather is modified along the fold by being stretched to accommodate the back of the blade. A com-mon feature is a moulded ridge which runs along the back of the blade-part to add strength where stretch-ing has weakened it. The sheaths were all closed along the cutting edge, usually by rivets at intervals of about 40–50mm, traces of which suggest that they were nor-mally of iron, some with disc-like heads and washers. One sheath from York and another from Berkeley Street, Gloucester, were fitted with rectan-gular iron platelets associated with rivets at either end of the handle part, presumably to reinforce these two positions for strap attachment. All the sheaths of seaxes of Late Anglo-Saxon date are elaborately decorated. Decoration was applied within a maximum of seven designated fields upon the sheaths, namely handle (front and back), blade (front and back), suspension flap (front and back) and spine. The most common technique used to execute linear designs is the impression of the leather by tool-ing. Punched decoration in the form of ring-and-dot is also used. One of the more elaborate designs, in acanthus scroll, is executed by a technique known as embossing. They were made of wood, lined with lamb-skin, and their leather covers were seamed at the back. There is some evidence to suggest that the scab-bards of Viking swords were lined with woollen tex-tile instead of fleece, but remains of scabbard linings (of any description) were not found at York. Both cultural groups had adopted the downward curving lower guard and the mouths of scabbards were con-sequently convex in plan. ### Other Leather Objects In addition to the large number of shoes found, other dress acces- sories included pouches and purses, fragments of girdles, belts and spur leathers. Surprisingly, perhaps, no fragments of leather garments were recognised, though it is likely that the leather from which they were made would be subjected to repeated recycling before eventually being discarded. Evidence for rec- reational activity such as the playing of ball games and archery was found, along with a possible frag- ment of bookbinding. Many of the straps found are likely to come from horse harness, amongst which the browband from a bridle may be positively identi- fied. Domestic items included handles, various fastenings, washers, vessel bases and a possible water carrier, though no examples of costrels were repre- sented. A wide range of leather items from both Anglo-Scandinavian and medieval contexts could be clas- sified under the general heading of ‘straps’. Several types were present and were distinguished by their method of construction: flat straps, either plain or stitched, and folded straps, some strengthened by an internal lining. Functions for the straps have been suggested whenever possible; however, for many their original use cannot now be identified with cer- tainty. The punched trefoil dot and impressed linear decoration had been painted red with cinnabar The London girdles had a one, two or four rows of decorative stitching sewn with a double thread, and where preserved the thread was found to have been of silk. Remains of a drawstring pouch were re-covered from a 12th-/13th-century context. Now fragmentary, the pouch appears to have been made from a rectangular panel of sheep/goatskin folded in half, seamed along both sides and closed with a drawstring at the mouth. Fine stitching present sug-gests that it may have been internally lined. A small number of drawstring pouches of leather have been found in London, two of which, dating slightly later to the late 13th/ early 14th century and the late 14th century, are of similar construction. Others of comparable date have been found further afield. Two of differing size were found at Svendborg, Denmark, the larger dating to 1200, the smaller to 1270–1300. ### Wealth and Status Reflected in the Leather from York Despite their high status, swords of 9th- to 11th-century date were generally housed in plain scab-bards expressive of function, conformity and restraint. A scabbard depicted on a stone frieze from the late Saxon Old Minster at Winchester is undecor-ated, as are those of Normans and Saxons alike illustrated in the Bayeux tapestry. Although it is unusual to find sur-face decoration on Anglo-Scandinavian and medi-eval sword scabbards, it is a feature of 9% of the total found at York. In or- der fully to appreciate the significance of the seax in late Anglo-Saxon society a backward glance at the role it played in the late 6th- and 7th-century burial rite shows that the practice of sword burial was then in decline, its place being taken by the seax. A small number of Anglo-Scandinavian and medi-eval shoes were decorated but the majority appear to be the everyday shoes of the common man. A group of shoes from York dating between the 11th and the 13th century were decorated, principally with silk embroidery down the centre of the vamp and along the top band running around the top edge of the shoe. Embroidered toe stripes are shown on the shoes of Edward the Confessor depicted on the Bayeux tapes-try, and on the shoes of figures of high standing in early medieval illustrations. This form of decoration occurs, in small numbers, on shoes in contemporary assem-blages throughout Britain. It is likely that embroi-dered shoes were also worn by the wealthier merchant classes rather than exclusively by those of high rank. Items recognised as being of deerskin were extremely rare. ## The Wider Picture ### Anglo-Scandinavian and Medieval Leather Found at York ### Comparable Assemblages from Elsewhere in Britain ### Possible Cultural Influences ### International Relations ### The Signifigance of the York Assemblage