History

The tanning industry is probably one of the oldest practiced by man.

The raw hide of a freshly slaughtered animal is a fibrous tissue containing about 70% water, and very putrescible. Through the drying process, it turns into a hard, horny consistency, which can not be used as leather, because even after drying, it retains a greater or lesser flexibility. Immersed in water, the leather absorbs much less water than untanned and does not reproduce the extreme softness; wet, it does not rot. These properties acquired by tanning are due to the combination of the constituent substance of dermal fibers, collagen, with certain products so-called "tanning agents".

Some prehistoric tools were probably used to work hides. it is possible that these skins were exposed to smoke or treated repeatedly with fat content or with pods of Acacia nilotica. We still tan leather with some pods of Acacia Arabica of Senegal, whose tannin content is similar. The leathers of the Roman legionaries from the camp of Vindonissa were vegetable tanned, mostly in pine bark. Until the late nineteenth century., the tanning methods did not differ essentially from those used by the Romans. By 1880, tanning by the chromic salts began to develop. Between 1910 and 1916, Professor Procter studied chrome tanning, which supplanted completely vegetable tanning and tanning with alum for all leathers.

The leather has been used since ancient times, to make beds and clothing; the Arabs were the first to use it for decorative purposes, then they transmitted their processes to the Spaniards, who manufactured the "leathers Cordoba ", or leather decorated with large reliefs with gold, embossed, carved and painted, and used as wall hangings and in the manufacture of seats. Flanders, Holland, Venice (specializing in painted leathers), France have produced since the Middle Ages leathers for covers of books, binding; since the Renaissance and from the sixteenth century., for furniture .

To some, leather is not optional. This is a "must have" associated with the image of excellence and to the world of luxury.