jan 1, 1662 - red leather

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References date from the fifteenth century: 1435 <i>unam tunicam rubeam de rubeo corio</i>, York (SS30/46); 1444 <i>my litil Sauter coveryd with reed ledir</i> (SS30/114). In 1476 the ordinances of the York tanners included the following paragraph: <i>the sersours </i>[searchers]<i> of the saide craft shall yerely … receive of every foreine barker that commyth to this citie and accustumably sellith rede ledir or byeith rouch … that they paie unto the sustentacion of the pageaunt … yerely, iiijd</i> (SS125/167). It is one of several references to ‘red leather’, a term that I have not seen mentioned elsewhere in accounts of the industry’s history. In 1491, for example, the cordwainers paid <i>xiijs iiijd to have ther old ordynaunces agayn delivered with serche of blake and rede lether</i>, York (YRS103/74) and in 1546 it was <i>agreyd that the cordyners shall bring to my Lord Mayer ther graunts whiche they have for licence to serche red ledder</i>, York (YRS106/143). The York cobblers’ ordinances of 1582 stated that they must mend only <i>old bootes with read leather … and not with blacke leather </i>(YRS119/60). Evidently the distinction between the two had to do with more than just the colour. Nevertheless it seems safe to assume that tanned leather was dyed red using a colouring agent, possibly the ‘rouch’ referred to above in 1476. If this is a spelling of French ‘rouge’ it may have been a solution in which there was iron oxide, although natural red dyes from plants and insects had long been used on textile fibre: kermes or grains was a scarlet dyestuff brought into Hull: 1490 <i>½ dos’ graynes</i> (YRS144/204). In the Act of 1558 it was said that<i> tanned leather red and unwrought </i>should be sold only<i> in open fair or market </i>(SAL7/137) and by the Act of 1662 persons buying <i>any red tanned leather within the city of London or three miles thereof</i> were required to give notice of their purchase <i>to one or more of the company of curriers</i> (SAL8/70).

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