is necessary. Much of the success of this kind of work must depend on the skill and ingenuity of the worker.
But there is another much more satisfactory kind of work to be done in leather. It is an ancient art revived. Like repoussée work it owes this recognition to Mr. Leland, so far at least as amateurs are concerned.
In the Art Union for 1847, a long and interesting account is given of what is called a patent process of working in relievo leather practised by Messrs. F. Leake & Co., of London, and several of the illustrations here given are copies of work done by that firm. To quote from the article in question:
"It will scarcely be believed that leather thus prepared is a material sufficiently tractable to assume all the sharpness and nicety of touch which distinguish these works; but in the flowers, fruits, and animals—figures which are executed in profusion, there is discoverable, with the liberal and mellow breadth to which we have alluded, a sharpness and fineness of outline all sufficient for the closest imitation of nature; and it might be supposed, from the tenacious quality of the material, that the assumption of delicate form might only be temporary—that the necessary tension might yield to time, to damp, or to some of the numerous fortuities to which furniture and interior ornament are exposed, but there is no reason to apprehend changes of this kind, since it is found to maintain incorruptibly every form confided to it, and with age, to acquire a superior quality of durability.
Fig. 30 is the cover for a book, designed by Owen Jones, and to any one who has learned to carve in intaglio will not prove difficult of execution. Of course, another title could be substituted for the "Gray's Elegy," or the center might be filled with an "all over" design, the whole work being used as a panel, or, the border alone being used, a remarkably beautiful frame would be
