A Complete Guide to the Ornamental Leather Work

Transcriber’s Notes:
Entered at Stationers’ Hall.
We feel assured that a long introduction is neither requisite to the reader or publisher of a Work like the present, and shall, therefore, merely say, that the great success our former little Works have met with, has induced us to send forth this edition, in which will be found every particular connected with this very useful source of amusement and fashionable department of practical art . The illustrations are furnished by a late pupil of the School of Design, who obtained the highest prize for Flower Painting, assisted by a student of the Royal Academy of Arts. Every example given has been practically tested, and, in most instances, the drawings have been copied from the models executed in leather, and will be found to combine durability with beauty of design. In order to make the leather modelling as durable as possible, we have not departed from nature in the finished form, but in the mode of construction; for example, we make several portions of a flower in one piece of leather. The Narcissus and the beautiful White Lily have each six petals; in both instances, we make the entire corolla of the flowers in one piece; thereby, while losing none of the beauty of the natural form of the flowers, we gain strength and solidity; as, were the petals of the Lily or Narcissus to be composed of six pieces, one, if imperfectly cemented, might fall off and detract from the beauty of the entire piece of work. By our method of proceeding, it is impossible to do so: we mention this, as, in our description of Making and Modelling Flowers in Leather, we differ from the literally botanic construction, while, at the same time, we arrive at perfectly correct and artistic formation.
In some flowers, as in the Hop, Dahlia, &c., we have found it impracticable to combine many petals in one piece of leather; where this is the case, especial care must be taken to have good liquid glue, and fasten each petal securely.