Excerpt from The Decoration of Leather: From the French of Georges De RécyIn all ages man has sought to develop to their fullest extent the possibilities of Splendour in the materials of his dress, and an important place in the wardrobes of our early ancestors was filled by Skins shorn of hair, thus lending themselves easily to decoration in many different ways.The nomadic races, described to us as at first riding their horses barebacked to the conquest Of the West, soon adopted ornamental trappings more suited to their position as conquerors, as Shown by the marvellous mosaics of piqué leather which from an early date constituted the foundation of the war-like equipment of the Tartars and Moguls.In addition to magnificently woven materials and damascened arms, the Crusaders brought back with them to Europe, leather ornamented with wool, Silk and precious metals. Europe set itself to imitate this art of working in leather, and found a source of faultless taste and purest models in Spain, then occupied by the Moors.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.