Our Leather Library

Being almost the last independent leather goods shop in the UK, we pride ourselves with our extensive knowledge and expertise. With a back catalogue of four decades of leather swatches, ranging from traditional British Bridle Hide and soft supple Lambskin, to resilient Ostrich in an abundance of classic and beautifully vibrant colours; it is part of our heritage and history.

Our reputation of offering a myriad of colours and leathers, alongside our years of experience, gives us the authority to advise customers within our bespoke service, the suitability for its application.

The leathers we use like our product is made specifically to our specification hand-finished using traditional vegetable tanning methods (which involves natural ingredients such tree bark). This process can take up to 40 days to complete.

We are proud to say that all our leathers are by-products of the meat and fishing industries.

Calfskin Leather

'Calfskin, is for us a wallet leather, that we can achieve a fine raffiné feel that slides effortlessly into the pocket' - Trevor Pickett

Box Calf is a smooth, finest quality soft calf hide with a subtle sheen on its surface. Calf is a classic, hardwearing leather, but it can be vulnerable to surface marks with initial use. Any minor marks on the leather should eventually fade over time. We tend to use this leather for men’s wallets and some small leather goods, as the skins are relatively small, and so not suitable for larger items. We generally do not use this leather for products that need more resilience to the day-to-day wear and tear, such as ladies’ purses, as these items are more prone to getting marked in handbags etc.



Our Calfskin products include classic wallets such as our Calfskin Short Wallet, Calfskin Compact Wallet and our Classic Tall Wallet.

Goatskin Leather

Our gently naturally grained Calfskin, usually referred to as Mellis or Parham is beautifully fine, very durable and takes colour extremely well, resulting in a gentle two-tone effect. Goatskin is akin to pigskin but has a finer grain. It is thus very hard-wearing and resistant to marks, resulting in a very neat and fine quality to all the products in this leather.

It tends to be used for smaller leather goods due to the size of the skins such as Horseshoe Boxes, Credit Card Cases, Purses, Wallets or Jewellery Boxes,  but it is equally useful for any larger items (where skin size makes it possible) such as our, Games selection and Homeware range.

Bridle Hide Leather

'The classic British leather, the tallow makes for a deep patina - its  the signature of this traditional hide. Time reveals its reputation as quality that has longevity.'
-Trevor Pickett

We use a top grade, hand finished, British Bridle hide to make a wide range of our larger products. It is a traditional, quintessentially British leather that has been used over the centuries and is a stalwart member of leather goods industry. Naturally tanned using vegetable products and with a tallow-waxed finish, Bridle hide will develop a rich patina and natural sheen with use.

This natural tanning process ensures a hard-wearing leather that improves with age, making it ideally suited to products that are used daily such as briefcases and belts.

Natural markings on the surface of the leather

You may well notice small irregularities and marks in the surface of this leather. These are natural scars that the animal has incurred during its lifetime, and do not in any way compromise the strength or quality of the leather. Rather, they confirm that this is the uppermost surface of the hide, which is the strongest and tightest grained part of the leather. Some Bridle Hide leathers are from the lower part of the leather and have a plated finish, so although they don’t have the natural scars, the leather is not nearly as strong.

We are proud to say that our bridle hide is of a quality that there is no need to use any re-enforcements in our products and it is nearly as smooth on the reverse of the leather as it is on the front. It is for this reason that we don’t use lining fabric on many of our bridle hide products, ensuring that the full quality of the leather is appreciated.

Due to the thickness and heavier nature of this particular leather it is not suitable for small items as reducing the thickness of the leather can compromise its natural strength.



Bridle hide products include Bridle Hide Attaché case, Traditional Bridle hide Briefcase, C11 Bridle hide Belt, Book Cover.

Shadow Hide Leather

'Shadow Hide has a matt appearance, this leather is resilient, wear enriches and builds up veneers with age.' - Trevor Pickett

Shadow hide is a naturally tanned cow hide leather. Similar to bridle hide Shadow Hide is tanned using an oil rather than wax, so the consequent leather has a more flexible finish. This leather develops a rich patina and natural sheen with use, which also improves with age.

We use this leather for most of our small products and box work as the oil in the tanning process gives Shadow Hide a suppleness without compromising on strength. Whilst suitable for smaller work, Shadow is generally too light to use for our large products, lacking the rigidity to be made into a briefcase. As with Bridle hide, there may be small natural marks in the surface of the leather. Once again, this doesn’t in anyway compromise the quality or strength of the leather, but rather confirms that the leather is from the surface of the skin; the portion that constitutes the highest quality leather.



Our popular Shadow Hide products our classic men's Short Wallets and Tall Wallets.

Stonham Leather

Stonham is a soft-grained cowhide leather. The grained, soft finish to the leather is created during the tanning process, wherein this leather is tumbled in a large drum. This process creates a product that is creased and soft to the touch, yet exceptionally durable, remarkably lightweight, easy to work with. This resilient leather is well suited to handle the wear and tear of day to day use, making it ideal for luggage and handbags.



Examples of Stonham leather products include Washbags and our popular full-leather luggage collection.

Want to know more about our exotic selection? Take a look over at Our Leather's.