Deterioration in leather bookbindings - our present state of knowledge

DETERIORATION in leather and the mechanism by which deterioration proceeds has been a subject for investigation by the British Leather Manufacturers' Research Association over a number of years. Leather is widely used, not only for clothing, upholstery, and bookbinding, but in industry for machinery drive belts, hydraulic seals, etc. and each one of this wide variety of end uses imposes a particular set of conditions which can bring about deterioration in the leather.