A Leather Table Carpet (gathering materials)

Before Research, gathering materials.

There is something intriguing about falling down a rabbit hole.  This one has two sources, a copy of "The Connoisseur's Complete Period Guides to the Houses, Decoration, Furnishing and Chattels of the Classic Periods" and a friend with a club membership for Tandy Leather that he would allow me to make use of.

I bought a deer hide and some leather-friendly paint, to see if it's possible to make something out of it.  Not gloves (though the leather is butter soft and almost hole free.

Many years ago I bought a book, a compilation of the styles in furnishings in the years between 1500 and 1860 reading in the section about the Tudor (1500-1603) and Stuart (1603-1714) I read about a leather tablecloth/covering/carpet that someone of a later age threw on a fire for the gilding on it, the person who did it got, if I recall correctly, 5 pounds gold (I don't know if it was the monetary unit or the weight).  Feel free to creeble, bemoan, or curse the destruction of something unique, I'll wait.

Not the copy I bought,
(mine has no dust jacket)

By the way, in the early 19th century, people used to take medieval ecclesiastical vestments and pick the gold embroidery off of it, because it was just old stuff, and hey, gold!

I've not found any other reference to leather table-coverings in the Tudor era or earlier, and I've misplaced the book, so before I wanted to start making anything, I went hunting on Amazon.  The book cost less than the shipping.  Not bad considering the copy I had many-many years ago was more.  A lot more.