[4] Le Cuir d’Art français, par Saint André de Lignereux, Etampes, 1900.
PUNCHES
Punches are steel or brass tools, having at the point a design cut in relief or in intàglio, which are impressed on the leather either by the hand alone or with a hammer The design is thus reproduced on the leather with the impression contrary to that on the tool. For hand pressure only, they should be fixed in wooden handles to afford greater grip and power. They may be used hot; the design will then appear darkened on the leather.
Punches are also employed in tooling with gold leaf, or in burnishing the impression of their surface on groundwork gilded with shell gold.
HAMMERED LEATHER
Leather decorated entirely by means of punches is called hammered leather. It is used in the style of decoration described later under the name of modelled leather with punched background, and can also be employed with great advantage in conjunction with carved leather.
4. Casket covered with embossed leather, cuir bouilli. French, early 15th Century.