Not only are you able to your leather item decorate, leather itself can be the decoration. Book binding is a good example, that has lately enjoyed replenished recognition. How you look at this project depends upon the disposition of the book. Bookbinding in leather was meant to have been practiced by the Copts in Egypt.
Surviving examples of Coptic bindings in brown and red leather from the 8th and 9th centuries, show a selection of methods that would indicate experience in bookbinding that probably developed over centuries.
Unlike Western european bindings of later times, experts must have executed them in various sorts of leather decoration. They display a good range of dexterity including tooling, piercing, and working with a stylus. In Europe, the earliest decorated leather bookbinding is that of the Gospel, which is clearly a British binding of the 7th or 8th century.
Western european binding took on its own characteristics by the tenth century and had progressed along completely different lines from that of the Levant. Some of the key differences were in the style of stitching and embellishment that was developed along different lines, always being in the shape of blind tooling executed with individual tools. By 1538, Morocco leather was being utilized in France. The tools utilized in this time of French bookbinding were derived by way of pattern books for embroidery or metalwork from Oriental or Arabesque models. The majority of these designs incorporated interlacing strap-work.
From about 1840 to 1880 there had been more stress on delicacy and precision in tooling. The 19th century witnessed a serious decline in the standard of both paper and leather produced for the creation of books. This is as of the deterioration of leather due to quality and age of the first skin as well as the tanning process by which the stability of the leather was achieved. Leather produced prior to the 17th Century was of fine quality and exceedingly long lasting but that produced since the late 17th Century often showed rapid and dreadful degradation. A few limited firms still handle leather bookbinding. One the hottest is the Felton Bookbinding. They concentrate on fine numbered edition binding and the conservation of precious volumes. These books are housed in both private and non-private libraries across the planet. The hand made results of their works became the standard that many established book collectors like for presenting their classics.