Calfskin

Description

A fine-grain leather made from the hide of a calf. Milk-fed calves have a softer, smoother skin than cattle that have eaten grass and they sometimes have fat wrinkles that cannot be removed by tanning. Calfskins are usually vegetable tanned or chrome tanned. The strong durable leather was commonly used as a bookbinding leather from 1450 to 1800 (Roberts and Etherington 1982). Currently, calfskins are primarily used for shoe uppers, handbags, and gloves. Calfskin that has been waxed is called French calf. Russia calf was tanned with willow bark and rubbed with birch bark oil.

Piedmontese-Hereford calf

Synonyms and Related Terms

piel de becerro (Esp.); piel de ternero (Esp.); cuir de veau (Fr.) velin (Fr.); kalfsleer (Ned); pele de vitela (Port.); calfe (Port.); French calf; Russia calf; calf leather;kipskins; French calf; Russia calf

Additional Information

M.Roberts, D.Etherington, Bookbinding and the Conservation of Books: a Dictionary of Descriptive Terminology, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC, 1982.

Additional Images

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  Calfskin

Authority

• G.S.Brady, Materials Handbook, McGraw-Hill Book Co., New York, 1971 Comment: p. 447

• Matt Roberts, Don Etherington, Bookbinding and the Conservation of Books: a Dictionary of Descriptive Terminology, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington DC, 1982

• Random House, Webster's Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language, Grammercy Book, New York, 1997

• The American Heritage Dictionary or Encarta, via Microsoft Bookshelf 98, Microsoft Corp., 1998

• Art and Architecture Thesaurus Online, http://www.getty.edu/research/tools/vocabulary/aat/, J. Paul Getty Trust, Los Angeles, 2000

• Edward Reich, Carlton J. Siegler, Consumer Goods: How to Know and Use Them, American Book Company, New York City, 1937

• Website address 1 Comment: American Leather Chemists Association Glossary at www.leatherchemists.org