Customer Reviews

Craft, Industry and Everyday Life: Leather and Leatherworking in Anglo-Scandinavian and Medieval York (The Small Finds)

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4 star:		(1)
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This is a really excellent compliment to the medieval London excavation books. However, It gives a much more rounded impression of the leatherworking industry, including tanning, tools, and peripheral industries revolving around leather. For people trying to understand the industry of Medieval England and indeed most of continental Europe, as well as those who want a glimpse into the daily life of a medieval European, this book gives a great deal of bits and pieces that allow one to come away with a much fuller understanding of the structure of medieval society.

This is a fabulous book but you must want a very technical, detail-oriented book on medieval English shoes. It may be a little more than most people want in terms of detail. Patterns for shoes are also included in this book, which would make reproducing such shoes a lot easier. It is a great book for documenation of an SCA Arts and sciences project. It is not the most exciting read in the world though because it describes every scrap of leather found at the excavated sites and gets a little tedious after a while because it is a very detailed, scholarly job. The excavation process and the way the leather scraps were salvaged, reconstituted and reconstructed so that we can see what these shoes were really like is absolutely fascinating, and I don't know much about archaeology. You definitely want to look at this book if you are interested in making any shoes from this time period, but you may not want to read every word. A great reference book though.

If I was looking for information on shoes and knife sheaths and scabbards from these finds, this is the book I'd want. It's amazingly complete in that regard.

Unfortunately, I'm looking for information on girdle pouches and bags, which is not really present here.

I may keep this book in case I develop an interest in making period footwear (there's even a fold-out timeline of what sort of shoes was found where and from what time period!), but I may sell it on to someone who wants it more than me, too.