Leather Embroidery pre-1600 CE
Last updated: Nov. 2, 2025, by Ken Stuart (kps1@cornell.edu)
This site presents an ongoing effort to catalog every known embroidered leather item up to about 1600 CE. Pending publication, the catalog is not yet available publicly, although a list of items that can be found online is. Check back or contact the author to be informed when it opens.
To-date, over 430 potential articles, books, and on museum catalogs have been consulted while tracking down details of artifacts and looking for additions to this knowledge base. Some museums and authors have helpfully provided modern high-resolution, colored photos of various items, greatly clarifying details not apparent in old publications.
The catalog currently contains over 875 items. Most of these are shoes, but there are also sheaths, belts, purses, shields, doublets, hats, and miscellaneous artifacts some of whihc unknown nature and purpose.
Criteria for inclusion / exclusion
- + Items generally before CE 1600 (but may date to a bit later).
- + Provenance: Europe, Scandinavia, Britain & Ireland, the Middle East, Northern Africa, Western Asia.
- + Any leather artifact that has direct embroidery or decorative stitching in silk, linen, wool, or metal (e.g., gold, silver, tin).
- + Evidenced by surviving threads and/or holes that (probably) once held thread.
- + If in doubt, it is included... some authors' definitions and use of the word embroidery are more inclusive than others.
- - Appliqué, inlaid leather, other embroidered material such as silk or velvet that is itself attached to the leather.
- - Repairs made to parchment or vellum manuscript pages.
- - Later related items: many pieces of embroidery on velvet or silk over leather are known; these include Ottoman quivers and bow cases, English gloves, various kinds of footwear, book coverings, etc., from 1600 on.
- - "Gilt-leather embroideries" (from Scandinavia; thin strips of gilt leather overlaid on seams between woolen design elements).
- - "Lamellar embroidery" that uses wide metal strips woven through slits in leather (e.g., from the grave of bishop Severus of Prague).
Table of helpful terms
When researching scholarly articles, it can be helpful to have a table of words and phrases that might be useful in searching them for relevant discussion. So far, articles in the following non-English languages are included. Note that this is only a basic Google translation - actual words used can vary greatly in any given language.
| Language | Embroidery | Leather | Decorative thread / seam |
|---|---|---|---|
| Czech (cs) | výšivka / vyšívané | kůže | ozdobná nit |
| Danish (da) | broderi | læder | dekorative syninger |
| Dutch (nl) | borduurwerk / borduursel / geborduurde | leer | decoratief stiksel |
| French (fr) | broderie | cuir | coutures décoratives |
| German (de) | stickerei / bestickung / bestickt | leder | Ziersteppereien / Ziernaht |
| Italian (it) | ricamo | pelle | cuciture decorative |
| Latvian (lv) | izšuvumi | āda | dekoratīvais dūriens |
| Lithuanian (lt) | siuvinėjimas / siuvineta | odą | dekoratyvinis siūlės |
| Norwegian (no) | broderi / broderte | lær | pyntesøm / dekorative sømmer |
| Polish (pl) | haft / haftem | skóra | ozdobne przeszycia |
| Portuguese (pt) | bordada / bordado | couro | fio decorativo |
| Russian (ru) | вышивк[*] | кожа | декоративный шов |
| Spanish (es) | bordado | cuero | costuras decorativas |
| Swedish (sv) | broderi | läder | dekorsöm / dekorativa sömmar |
| Turkish (th) | nakış | deri | dekoratif dikiş |
Copyright 2023-2025 Ken Stuart (kps1@cornell.edu)