Timeline
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Timeline
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Click on a number for the book referenced in each particular date in the timeline.
Genesis III, 21
Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats
of skins and clothed them
5000-2000 BC
Coloured leather, sandals, bags, and cushion and leather clothing found in Nubian tombs. (6)
2000 BC
Egyptian scroll, the earliest known document written in leather. (6)
1370 BC
Red leather gloves presented to Egyptian official Ay. (6)
900-700 BC
Philistine texts in Jordan on parchment made from camel skin.
800 BC
Sumerian recipe for tanning freshly slaughtered ox hide. "This skin you will take it, then you will drench it in pure pulverised Nisaba flour, in water, beer and first quality wine. With the best fat of a pure ox, the alum of the land of the Hittites and oak galls, you will press it and you cover the bronze kettle drum with it". (6)
399 BC
Socrates died by drinking hemlock, after being found guilty
of "impiety". His main accuser was Anytus, who was a tanner.
206 BC - AD 220
(Han Dynasty China) Shoes found in 2002 in the Xuanquanzhi Ruins in Dunhuang, Gangsu Province. Entirely made of pigskin or sheepskin, including the sole. No difference between left and right. Men's, women's, and children's shoes have been found showing shoes were commonplace and durable at that time.
197-159 BC
Parchment (charta pergamena) first made in Pergamum (Asia
Minor - Turkey, now known as Bergama). Used to build a library to match that
in Alexandria. Ptolemy Philadelphus stopped the export of papyrus from Egypt,
necessitating an alternate writing material. The vellum used was much more durable
than papyrus and marked a distinct change in book technology. (Part of this
is extracted from the Encyclopaedia Britannica)
Pliny mentions "green gall-nuts of Aleppo" as best
suited to the preparation of leather
On the arrival of the Moors in Cordoba, in Southern Spain,
two great industries are established silver and leather
"Well known are the skins that arrive white as snow and then
leave here, tanned red, bearing your name, Cordoba" Theodulfi Carmina poem
Knowledge of tanning has spread beyond Cordoba and into Europe.
Three tanning processes exist A) the oil process or chamoising; B) the mineral
(alum) process or tawing; C) the vegetable process or tanning. (2)
The Magna Carta is written in England, on June 15th, a wet Monday afternoon. It sets out a legal framework between King John and his people. It was written on Vellum (parchment from calfskin) and cover one large page in abbreviated Latin. Ink from oak gals was used. 13 copies were written and four remain. One in Salisbury Cathedral, one in Lincoln castle, and two in the British Library. I have seen the one in Salisbury and it is in perfect condition and quite legible. Parts of the Magna Carta were adopted in the American, German and Russian constitutions as well as in those of many Commonwealth countries.
1254-1324
Marco Polo broadcasts the quality of Russian Leather, including
noting the aroma from the birch-bark.
1272
The Cordwainers Company of London received Ordinances, and
their first Charter in 1439. They worked in Cordoba goatskin leather and later
made shoes, leather bottles, and harness. (16)
1272
The Saddlers Company of London received its first Charter,
although it is believed to have its origins in earlier Anglo-Saxon times. The
Saddlers Company was then incorporated in 1395. (16)
The Curriers Company of London received its first Ordinances.
These dealt with price and quality. Further ordinances of 1415 were more general.
Curriers dressed, levelled, and greased the tanned leather.
1327
The Skinners Company received their first Charter in 1327.
They were derived from two religious brotherhoods founded in the 12th and 13th
centuries. The skinners controlled the fur trade and became wealthy because
the wearing of furs was restricted to the upper classes as an obvious indication
of dignity. (16)
1333
After flood destroys the Ponte Vecchio in Florence tanners
are not allowed back on the bridge because of the pollution and smell. They
move down river to Santa-Croce sull Arno.
1340
First written details of tanning in Igualada Spain.
1349
The ordinances for the Guild of Glovers in London were made.
Joined with the Pursers in 1498 and then in 1502 the Glovers company merged
with the Leathersellers, but they separated later and the Glovers Company were
granted a Charter (Letters Patent) from King Charles I in 1638. (16,
2).
Apprentices written contracts still preserved in Igualada.
1350
Igualada begins as a tanning centre near Barcelona in Spain.
In the 14th century a group of ten tanners called "La Dena" takes
the decisions of approving tanners qualifications to work.
1372
The Leathersellers Company of London received its first Ordinances
for the dyeing of leather.
1392
The butchers of London ordered to deposit skins and offal
in the Bermondsey Leather Market. The industry there made use of the tidal streams
and the nearby oak bark. (16)
1395
Nottingham (England) borough records blame tanners for polluting
the River Leen by laying their skins in the water "to the great detriment
of the whole people aforesaid. (21)
The Worshipful Company of Leathersellers granted Charter of
Incorporation in London from Henry VI.
Two strangers, Roger Heuxtenbury and Bartholomew Verberick
were granted a seven years' monopoly patent in England for the manufacture of
"Spanish or beyond sea leather" on the condition that the patentees
should employ one native apprentice for every foreigner in their service. The
supervision of this was entrusted to the "Wardens of the Company of Leathersellers
in London". From "Leather for Libraries" by Hulme and others,
1905. This is important as it implies that the process was new to England. The
tannage being introduced was sumach tanning from Spain, which had been developed
in Cordoba. It was also important as later there was a view that oak tanning
was the only vegetable tannage used in the UK. See also 1584.
1570
John Shakespeare, the father of William Shakespeare was a
"whittaner" - a worker of kid, dog and deerskin. At the family home
in Stratford on Avon, a room is dedicated to showing the work he did in it to
tan leather and make gloves. Nearby Woodstock was a centre of glove making,
on account of the plentiful supply of deerskins. Shakespeare was himself born
in 1564. His father who was a tanner and wool merchant was also sometimes money-lender.
The year 1570 is memorable as in this year he was charged with money lending
at illegally high rates.
1573
The Punchmakers join the Leathersellers Company (16).
1584
Queen Elizabeth of England settled her doctor's bills by granting one of her physicians, a Spanish Jew by the name of Roderigo Lopez, an exclusive license to import sumach and aniseed for ten years. This is revealed in Leather for Libraries by Hulme, Parker, Seymour-Jones, Davenport and Williamson, 1905. Dr Lopez was also a translator for the Portuguese pretender, Don Antonio, when he visited the UK. As a result of some misunderstanding Lopez joined a conspiracy nominally against Antonio but actually directed against the Queen. Consequently Roderigo Lopez was executed at Tyburn in 1594. Shakespeare based the character Shylock on Roderigo Lopez.
1563 and 1604
The Leather Acts. English parliamentary laws were passed which
stipulated, amongst other things, that leather intended for the outer soles
of shoes should be tanned for at least a year and other shoe leather for at
least nine months. By the Act of 1563 curriers were forbidden to buy leather
(shoemakers were intended to buy crust from tanners and take it to curriers
for processing for them). The shoemakers had first asked for this and obtained
legislative support for it in 1548. The Company of Cordwainers and the Company
of Curriers lobbied heavily on this issue but the Curriers were unsuccessful,
although between 1548 and 1563 five acts alternately allowing and prohibiting
curriers from dealing in leather. The shoemakers had the upper hand in 1563
and the curriers were not successful in getting a further change in the act,
although a number of them did obtain a license in 1567 allowing them to buy
leather. (Discussed in "The Organisation of the English Leather Industry
in the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries" by L.A.Clarkson) (13).
In the 1604 Charter of the Leathersellers' Company "Spanish leather and
other leathers dressed or wrought in sumach or bark" are mentioned.
Experience Miller, a tanner, arrives in New England, USA,
town of Plymouth.
1630
Francis Ingalls, from Lincolnshire, England, founds the first
tannery in the USA in Lynn, North east of Boston.
1660
The Richardson family begins tanning in Great Ayton, North
East England, starting the tannery which would evolve into Edward and James
Richardsons of Newcastle.
1664
The Swamp established in Manhattan.
47 distinct tanneries to be found in Nottingham (21).
1664-1665
100,000 people died in London from the Great Plague. Citizens
are said to have fled to the Bermondsey Leather Market area believing the smell
from the works would protect them. (16)
This is also recorded in Nottingham: "in particular it seems that the smell
of the tan was believed to be an invaluable defence against the Plague, and
whenever this malady made its appearance the wealthier citizens used to take
up their residence in the vicinity of Narrow Marsh, in order to avail themselves
of its protection.. (21)
1680
William Richardson of Great Ayton, North East Yorkshire started
tanning. Based on local sheepskins and hides, this was rather a part-time business
linked with farming. In 1701 he moved to Whitby on the North Sea and added tanning
of seal-skins brought in by whalers. They continued to expand and moved to Newcastle
in 1780. The tannery was eventually to become famous as E&J Richardson.
1693
Igualada's tanners Guild was set up, made up of the tanners, the curriers, the glove and the belt makers.
1697
The Glovers of Worcester (England) stated that their employees
were "decrepit and unfit for any other employment" (Commons Journals,
XII, 16).
The leather industry in London was granted a Charter by Queen
Ann and Bermondsey became the major leather-making centre. The Bermondsey Leather
market was a large roofed square piled high with skins in the centre of a large
block of buildings. (16)
1727
In 1727 the Irish Parliament presented William Maple, chemist,
of Fishamble Street, with £200 "as an encouragement for discovering
a new method of tanning leather by a vegetable, the growth of this kingdom;"
on which he published in 1729 a pamphlet of 39 pages, under the title of "A
Method of Tanning without Bark." The proposed substitute for bark was the
root of tormentilla erecta, or septfoil, called [two old Irish words missing.
KF] by the native Irish, who appear to have been acquainted with its chemical
properties long previous to Maple's era. Maple was subsequently one of the originators
of the Dublin Society, to which he acted as Secretary and Registrar till his
death in 1762, at the age of 104 years.
Partly from history of Dublin (1766) and partly from J. T. Gilbert, Vol.1. I
of his Dublin Chronicles (1854).
1754
The RSA (The Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts,
Manufactures, and Commerce) was founded in London. "On the formation of
this Society, most of the manufactures of the kingdom, which depended upon chemical
knowledge, were at a very low ebb in comparison with their present state; and
the first attention of the Society was directed towards ….. the tanning
of leather, and the invention of substitutes for oak bark in this process; to
the preparation of Morocco leather of different colours"
The Dictionary of Arts and Sciences, Vol. 3 article "morocco" describes
the process of sumach tanning skins by sewing them up into bottles and allowing
the fluid extract to penetrate the fibre by pressure.
1740
The Richardson family of Newcastle upon Tyne, England, build
their first tannery in Great Ayton.
1760
Sir William Johnson brought 60 tanners and glovemakers to
the Gloversville area of New York State from Perth in Scotland
1768
Dr McBride of Dublin (Phil trans 1778) introduced sulphuric
acid for heavy leather tanned with vegetable tannins in place of the organic
acids derived from fermenting bran or rye. He argued that it gave more precise
control, that the skins were better plumped, thus less susceptible to bacterial
damage, and that the whole process could be shortened. After the Dublin tanners
adopted this, the Bermondsey (London) tanners soon followed. Sulphuric acid
then began to expand into lighter leathers tanned with vegetable and when aniline
dyes were introduced about 1870 sulphuric acid was universally used to clear
the skins before dyeing.
This was a big issue for book-binders as this acid created a tendency for book
bindings to rot. Another problem was the use of catechol tannins (hemlock, larch,
gambier) which color red and disintegrates when rubbed - called 'red decay".
1768
British patent 893 from 29th February 1768 is the first patent
for a "Tanning drum". From leather manufacture through the ages".
1770
Iron Tannage. J.Johnson, an Englishman, patented a process
of tanning, using ferrous sulphate with an acid (sulphuric acid, hydrochloric
acid, or nitric acid). The pelt was tanned in three operations, in the middle
of which a vegetable tannin was used. (12)
1792
Leathermakers Guild of Vic (Barcelona) awarded the professional
diploma permitting Colomer Company to begin activities.
29 saddlers and harness makers in Walsall, England.
1805
Discovery of catechu by Humphrey Davy. Davy did not patent
his inventions or technology but viewed it as a donation to the benefit of mankind.
1808
Invention of the splitting machine by Samuel Parker. Mr. Parker
was from Billerica, MA, USA. The patent date (July 9th) is 1808, but most references
take 1809 as the date of invention.
1809
Talmadge Edwards begins manufacture of leather gloves in Johnstown,
NY.
1813
Walsall (England) Curriers described as "producing the most beautiful brown and jet black colours…(they) have the pre-eminence in this particular branch of their manufacture"
1820
Sir Humphrey Davy elected President of the Royal Society.
Most famous for his invention of the safety lamp for miners, Sir Humphrey (knighted
in 1812) also did considerable research in tanning, particularly related to
the use of gambier. "A special study of tanning: he found catechu, the
extract of a tropical plant, as effective as and cheaper than the usual oak
extracts, and his published account was long used as a tanner's guide."
(From adventures in Cybersound, Sir Humphrey Davy 1778-1829 www.cinemedia.net).
The work of Sir Humphrey was published in 1805 and showed that mimosa, chestnut,
and hemlock amongst others could be used in addition to oak. This greatly aided
the development and expansion of the American tanning industry.
1823
William Walker and Sons Ltd. Founded in Bolton as tanners
and curriers, manufacturing leather belting and leather accessories. They closed
in the 1970's after being bought by the Barrow Hepburn Group.
1826
First written records of the Pittard Company in Yeovil, Somerset,
UK.
1840
A glove maker from Grenoble, France brought about a revolution
in glove making. Xavier Jouvin invented a system which "consisted of the
establishment of rational methods adapted to the different sizes of hands, thus
enabling the maker to produce exact fitting gloves. The scissors were replaced
by the "main de fer" (iron hand), the proportions of which were carefully
calculated for each size. From The Leather Trades Review, 11th August 1948.
p 287.
1842
Child workers in the UK Leather Industry earn between two and eight shillings per week.
1849
Freudenberg tannery begins in Germany, with the purchase of
a tannery in Weinheim by Carl Joann Freudenberg.
1854
The invention of the sewing machine changes the nature of
the leather using industries.
1856
William Henry Perkins discovered the first synthetic dye "mauve" and created the basis of dyestuff manufacture from coal tar products. He had actually been trying to synthesize artificial quinine. The dye went on sale in 1857, and started a fashion craze for the colour in France and the UK. His father was a leather merchant. Read: Mauve: How One Man Invented a Color That Changed the World by Simon Garfield.
1858
The action of chromium salts upon hide substance was first studied by Knapp, but his investigations led him to conclude that their application was of no practical value. (12)
1860
Walden (USA) and Alfred Booth (Liverpool, UK) founded company
to export light leather from UK to USA.
1861
Dr Frederick Knapp, Professor of the Polytechnic School of
Braunschweig, Germany made a thorough investigation of mineral tannages. His
British patent 2,716 (1861), through John H. Johnson, covered iron, chrome,
manganese, and other metallic salts in combination with fatty acids to form
insoluble metallic soaps, so that the iron in the pelt might not be washed out.
(12)
Edward and John Turney, brothers, founded the Tannery on the River Trent in
Nottingham which flourished to become a limited company, Turney Brothers Limited,
in 1881.
1863
Walden becomes incapacitated and Walden and Booth dissolved
Alfred Booth and Company, Liverpool and Booth and Company, New York established.
(7)
Edward and James Richardson build their Elswick Tannery on the River Tyne in
Newcastle. In 1890 Henry R. Procter joined them and worked there until being
asked to establish the Chair of Tanning at Leeds University. Richardsons were
one of the first to manufacture chrome leather in the UK. They called this Grained
Chrome hide, and it was on this basis that Scotch and other important Grained
Chrome leathers were patterned.
1874
Vienna Research Institute - the first leather research institute
was founded.
1880
Augustus Schultz, chemist, of New York, USA starts development
of chrome tannage using bichromate, subsequently patented (two bath process)
in 1884.
1881
3492 saddlers and harness makers employed in Walsall (England) plus 430 tanners and curriers
1885
Kopenhagen Leather Research Institute was founded, Also Napoli
Leather Research Institute.
1886
Booth and Company purchase Messrs Kent and Stevens In Gloversville, New York, exploiting John Kent's invention of the Dongola tannage on Ceara goatskins (shipped from Brazil by the Booth Line) and kangaroo. Extended details of the tannage are contained in the glossary section.
1889
Henry Richardson Procter establishes his laboratory in Edward
and James Richardson Ltd. in Newcastle-on-Tyne, England. (23)
1890
First serious marketing of chrome tanned leather under the
brand name "Surpass" by Booth and Company in a joint venture with
J.P.Mathieu of Philadelphia USA.
1891
The Leather Industries Department was instituted at the Yorkshire
College in Leeds. To become the Procter Department in the University of Leeds
Between 1891 and 1911 BASF set up their leather dyeing laboratories.
Walsall (UK) Tanner E.T.Holden elected as Walsall MP (Member of Parliament).
1893
Martin Dennis patented the "single-bath" chrome
tanning process in the USA. In 1999 we had the opportunity to correspond indirectly
with Mrs. Van Liew of Long Island who was a tanner's wife (West Winfield Tannery)
and whose father in law worked as a partner in the Martin Dennis Company Chrome
business. The Martin Dennis Company was based in Newark. They imported the ore
from Africa and had twelve ovens making the tanning agent. The Schultz patents
were owned by the Tannage Patent Co of Philadelphia who worked a system of licenses
and royalties, and the Dennis patents were owned by the Martin Dennis Company
who made the material under the brand name "Tanolin" and sold it out
right to tanners without royalty.
1897
Dr Gordon Parker becomes a founder member of the International
Association of Leather Trades Chemists. Described as a leading commentator on
the leather trade he lectured to the British Association in Bristol in 1898,
referring to the backwardness in the British Industry compared to both Germany
and the United States (14). The other founder members were Prof. H.R.Proctor
and Alfred Seymour Jones. At a three day leather industry meeting in London
(September 28-30) Procter, Seymour-Jones, Parker, and C.E.Parker also established
the UK Society of Leather Trades Chemists (later to be renamed the Society of
Leather Technologists and Chemists). Dr Perkins, who discovered synthetic dyes
chaired the meeting.
Frieberg Leather Research Institute was founded.
A 15% duty was imposed on hides imported to the USA. Called the Dingley Tariff.
(13)
1899
Joseph Turney Wood discovers artificial bates.
1900
R Foerderer and E.L. White perfect the Schultz method of chrome
tanning.
Dr Otto Rohm got involved in the replacement of natural bates
after getting ill from the tannery smell. Developed "Oropon" (juice)
and started Rohm and Haas. Later to be more famous for Plexiglas (polymethylmethacrylate).
1909
The Leathersellers Company of London equipped and built the
National Leathersellers College in London. (It had previously organised from
1895 a technical school for leather at Herald's Institute in Bermondsey).
1913
Edmund Stiasny invented the first syntan in Darmstadt, where
he was Professor.
1914
Glove cutters strike for more pay in Gloversville, New York.
1920
British Leather Manufacturers Research Association Founded.
1921
Alfred Booth and Company purchase the Pavlova Leather Company
of Abingdon, England.
1922
Tanners Council of America established in New York.
1930's
The process of homeworking came to an end in the US Glove
Industry, after about 100 years. Homework continues in the UK and Germany on
a small scale into the year 2000.
1945
Kaiser Wilhelm Institut fur Lederforschung Dresden destroyed
by bombs.
1948
After being destroyed in 1945 the Kaiser Wilhelm Institut
fur Lederforschung Dresden was reopened as the Max Planck Institute in Regensburg
and moved to Munich in 1957.
1950
Westdeutsche Gerberschule in Regensnburg was founded and relocated
in Reutlingen in 1954.
1958
Igualada Tanning School opens.
1963
Du Pont launches Corfam to replace shoe leather.
Karl Toosbuy founds ECCO, the Danish casual footwear company.
1969
Pou Chen, one of the largest shoemakers in the world, and important supplier to Nike and Adidas, founded in Taiwan as a maker of PVC sandals and slippers.
1970
Du Pont sells off Corfam plant to Poland.
1971
Edward and James Richardson, Elswick Leather Works, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne,
England closes the door for the last time.
1988
Walsall Leather Museum (UK) Opened by HRH The Princess Royal, in former Lorinery Facor of J.Withers and Sons (opened in 1891).
1998
At an ITC sponsored meeting in Cape Town, South Africa, the
Pan-African Leather Industries Association is established.
1999
With 95 leather companies, of which 65 are saddlery manufacturers, Walsall has greatest concentration of saddle makers in the world.
Pearces of Northampton, UK, closed their doors for the last
time.
In December 2001 Salz Leather of S.Cruz, California ceased production. They
were founded in 1861.
2002
Freudenberg of Germany announces the termination of all their
leather manufacturing.
In February 2002 Prime Tanning of US sold its remaining 50% in Prime Asia to
Pou Chen, its Taiwanese partner.
ECCO open their new Leather Research and Development Centre in Dongen, alongside
the Corle wet blue operation which they bought in 2001, renamed ECCO Tannery
Holland and expanded and modernised.
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