URL (Internet Archive)
Preface:
The many requests for information about leather that are constantly received by the advertising department of the Pfister & Vogel Leather Co. from merchants of leather goods and teachers and students in schools and colleges prompted the publication a few years ago of "How Leather Is Tanned." This pamphlet in a few mimeographed pages undertook to tell in a simple, concise fashion the essential facts in the manufacture of leather and to fill in some measure the almost total lack of descriptive, non-technical works on tanning. Though a great many copies of "How Leather Is Tanned" have been supplied to interested persons, it has been evident that it went only part way with regard to instruction in leather and its manufacture.
The common experience seems to have been that it is difficult to get a clear grasp of the subject without the opportunity of inspecting typical samples of leather in connection with the reading. It is as an aid in this respect that "The Leather Specimen Book" has been prepared. Used in connection with "How Leather Is Tanned" it aims to give a knowledge of leathers and the process of tanning sufficiently complete for all purposes not connected with practical tanning.
On account of the almost unlimited variety in methods of finishing leather it has been possible to show only the most common and representative types of finishes. In using this book to identify leather it should be kept in mind that a tanned skin may be embossed and finished so as to have its true nature totally disguised.