"The tools needed for this work are few, cheap, and simple. It may be even elegantly effected with only an ivory paper-knife and a stamp made of a stick of any hard wood, the end of which has been cross-hatched with a penknife, like a common office-seal. But for better work a small wheel of metal, the size of a three-cent piece, set in a handle, like the well-known 'pattern-wheel,' is the best to run pattern lines or outlines with; while the stamp can be made of steel for thirty cents.

Fig. 108. - Tin Can decorated

"It is also advisable to have a pattern-wheel, which is like a spur set in a handle, and which is commonly sold by every shoemaker's furnisher for twenty-five cents. Now, supposing that the sheet of leather is already soft (having been in water for at least twenty-four hours), spread it evenly on a board, and lay upon it a design drawn on paper. Then, with the pattern-wheel, trace the design through on the leather.

Fig. 109. - Tin Can doubled and Ornamented.

Fig. 110 - Tools for ornamenting the Leather

The points of the spur or rowel will go through the paper, and leave dotted lines on the leather. Then, with the ivory paper-knife or wheel, draw the outline. Then, with the stamp and a hammer, indent the background.

"Now, if you have an empty round tin can, we will suppose

Fig. 111 -Tin Can with Basket Handle.

that this leather will exactly fit it. Take a piece of tin, or a slip of thin, flexible wood, and make of it, as it were, the handle of a bucket. It may go either within or without the leather cover. Cut it broad where it touches the tin, and narrow at top. Then cover the can with shellac-glue, or glue into which either nitric acid or a little glycerine has been infused to toughen it; or, if you cannot get these, use common glue, or tragacanth, or dextrine gum, and paste the leather firmly on. If you prefer it, the leather may be pasted on the tin, and the pattern worked on it while there. In this case, the work will be very much facilitated by fitting into the can a round cylinder of wood. This will oppose a resistance to the hammering, and render the indenting easier.

Fig. 112 - Tin Biscuit or Cracker Box.

There should be such a margin to the leather as to lap over the edge, and cover the inside. This must be cut into strips, so that one may lay on the other. Also leave sufficient to turn under, and cover the bottom.

"It is not difficult to carve wooden handles, which may be fastened on these tins with screws, and the whole covered with leather. They may be fitted to bases turned of wood, and then ornamented, and used for flowers. Even if covered with only plain leather, and supplied with turned lids, they are practically very useful as receptacles for many objects. Any tinsmith or tinker will, for a trifle, solder a tin handle on a can. He can also fit the end of one inside another, and solder it, thus doubling the length of the can.

"The pattern may be raised in very deep relief by cutting it out of thick pasteboard, and putting it under the wet leather, or between the leather and tin ; then press the leather down on the mould with fingers and a sponge, till it is in shape, and finish with the stamp.

"By similar ornamentation with leather, square biscuit or cracker boxes may be converted into really elegant receptacles for many objects. In some cases, canvas or brown hol-land, and other textile fabrics, may be substituted for leather. The canvas or linen may be very well ornamented by painting on it with the dyes sold for tapestry painting. A very practicable and useful dressing-case, lunch-box, or other box for travelling, may be made of an empty biscuit-box, neatly covered either with leather or canvas. They are in every way preferable to those which are made of wood.

"When the pattern is stamped on the leather, its effect may be greatly improved by painting or staining it either with black dye or lignite ink. Raynald's French ink also answers the purpose of a dye for leather, as it will not rub off. Very fine effects may also be produced by cutting out patterns of colored leather (such as scarlet, orange, etc.), gluing them on the brown ground, and tooling, or running the edges with the wheel. The leather used to cover the tins may be skiver, or split sheep, costing from twenty-five to fifty cents a skin, or russet, of a better quality, costing from fifty cents to eighty. Colored leather is retailed at about one dollar a skin.

"Tin cans covered with vellum, or very thick parchment, which has been soaked and stamped, exactly resemble carved ivory cups. The stamping may be made by cutting a die in any hard wood."

The demand for decorative leather of every sort is steadily increasing. The"illuminated leather,"made by one firm in New York, is considered by the best judges finer than that imported from France or Belgium, as it does not crack, and is much more flexible. It is greatly used for ceiling and wall decoration. Oxhide is preferred to any other, both for walls and furniture.

Many of the fashionable chairs to-day are covered in what is known as Spanish hide; which, however, unless really antique, comes either from France, Italy, or Belgium, and is manufactured in imitation of the Moorish designs which were introduced into Spain in the nineteenth century. From Spain, the art of leather-working travelled to the Netherlands during the occupation of the country by the Spaniards ; and so, in Flemish specimens, we find constant trace of the Moorish influence in which they really originated. These Flemish designs are usually florid and highly colored: those which are more purely Moorish are geometrical, and lower toned in color. The most expensive of all leather is that imported in the rough from Cordova: it is much used for screens and panels, and Flemish designs wrought upon it are especially effective. In early days artists whose fame was made did not disdain to paint upon this material, and it entered largely into the decoration of palaces and large buildings at the time of the earlier renaissance. Although it has played the part of all fashions, and been from time to time almost lost sight of by the general public, it is safe to affirm that there never has been a time when the lovers of the beautiful have not sought to express ideas in this material. It is extremely durable, and has more to recommend it for the purchaser than for the man whose bread and butter depends upon selling it, for the reason that a house once fitted up with it may be considered as needing little restoration. The same is true, of course, of chairs; and the durability of leather-covered furniture is one of its greatest recommendations. Trimmings for leather chairs - whether the material is plain, embossed, or painted - vary according to taste and the dictates of fashion. Just now, oak, mahogany, and ebonized cherry are most in demand. Workmen for embossing leather must necessarily be skilled artisans. As a rule, they are found among English or Americans, although some Germans are employed in the business. The latter are good at imitation, but slow to originate; and, while they follow directions with great accuracy, they seldom aspire to any thing like originality. American girls have attempted this work only in one or two instances. But the same talent that makes a skilful designer comes into play here; and it is not only a beautiful and satisfactory, but very profitable, industry, by means of which a handsome living is insured.