Bookbinding and the Conservation of Books
A Dictionary of Descriptive Terminology

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levant

In general, a descriptive term applied to a leather having a characteristic drawn-grain pattern, originally produced by an astringent tannage, but now produced by hand or machine BOARDING (1) of vegetable or semichrome tanned goatskins and sheepskins, or vegetable tanned sealskin. The traditional "levant" used in bookbinding is a vegetable tanned goatskin. When the pattern is produced by embossing, as it frequently is, it is called "levant grain." The original levant, which during the past one hundred years or so was considered to be the finest of the morocco family, was always goatskin obtained from the Near East. In recent years, however, the best levant has been tanned in the northern and northwestern areas of Africa and usually finished in France. Today the great bulk of genuine "levant" goatskin comes from South Africa and is called "cape levant. See also: GOATSKIN ;MOROCCO . (61 , 69 )




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