American homes and gardens . of to-day. What does it all mean—this flaunting of the magic leather whereverthere is a demand for art, oddity, antiquity,or strictly new effects in the furnishing of homes or publicinstitutions? A new state capitol building is erected, andthe seals of the state are most elaborately executed in sculp-tured leather for its mural decorations. A palace is builtfor the multi-millionaire, and its stately magnificence dazzlesone with the leather schemes displaying heraldic designswherever there can be found a possible excuse for introducingthem. Armorial bearings are mos
American homes and gardens . of to-day. What does it all mean—this flaunting of the magic leather whereverthere is a demand for art, oddity, antiquity,or strictly new effects in the furnishing of homes or publicinstitutions? A new state capitol building is erected, andthe seals of the state are most elaborately executed in sculp-tured leather for its mural decorations. A palace is builtfor the multi-millionaire, and its stately magnificence dazzlesone with the leather schemes displaying heraldic designswherever there can be found a possible excuse for introducingthem. Armorial bearings are most carefully and artisticallyexecuted in embossed leather for the home decorations ofMr. and Mrs. Newly Rich. A modest home is started in acountry village; even here the leather fad penetrates, and thebride numbers among her most treasured possessions thatwonderful wedding gift—a sofa cushion in leather pyrogra-phy. No college den is quite complete without decorativedesigns in tooled leather. The antiquarian searches the. Panel Designs for Mural Decoration world over for a genuine fifteenth century chair of the sculp-tured leather of Monkish days, or the quaint stamped leatherof the sixteenth century. New? Not at all! Sculptured leather is one of the oldestof artistic decorative materials. The lapse has been so great,however, between its introduction and its revival, that the in-terior decorators of to-day are probably safer in claimingoriginality, and strictly new methods of decoration in leatherwork, than in any other field of decorative art. The earliest trace of the leather work now called Cor-dovan is credited to the African Moors, who, before theeleventh century, introduced the craft into Spain. It was during the early days of the fifteenth century thatsculptured leather became well known and executed. Themonasteries of continental Europe comprised the field ofthese early efforts. The brothers who inhabited these monas-
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectarchitecturedomestic
