What Do You Have in Burgundy?

From time to time, we're asked what we have in a certain color -- like ... Burgundy! :-)

Other times, a customer just says, "I want my Bible rebound in burgundy leather," but has no idea what the different leathers look like, and didn't know that we'd have more than one choice. (Kind of like asking for tomato sauce at one of those big super stores!)

Well, I understand! Being around Carroll County Indiana 4-H a lot has given me more than a passing familiarity with goats, sheep, hogs, cows, ... and even llamas, actually ... but until I began working with Eric in this business, I didn't know what their skins looked like under all that hair. (I still don't know what llama leather looks like.)

The fact is, we've now collected quite a few different options in burgundy, and I can tell you what they're like, but seeing the leathers and the grains may help a lot more. So let's do some comparisons. I'll show you some of these choices and you can decide for yourself what would be best for you.

First off, let me tell you we've just gotten in a shipment of very nice burgundy pigskin. Remember, "genuine leather" = pigskin on modern Bibles. So, if one or more of the following applies to you:

• If you want a good budget choice in genuine leather.
• If you just really don't want black or brown.
• If you believe burgundy is the new black in the realm of Bible covers
• If your original cover was a mission grain burgundy and you want it to look just like that
  

... then you'll like this leather. It has a semi-glossy mission grain texture and it's about the best we've seen. Yes, the linear texture is embossed into the leather, which hides irregularities and those visible pores unique to pigskin, that not everyone likes.

Here's a before picture of a burgundy Bible. It's nasty cardboard with an impressed grain.

Voilà! Here's an after picture of the same Bible, now covered in our nice burgundy pigskin. (It's a little hard to see the grain, but you can see how nice it looks.)

This leather is just the right size -- thicker than the "genuine leather" on many factory made Bibles, so it will last longer, but it's thinner than other pigskins and flexible so it won't be too stiff on your Bible. It's good for Bibles of all sizes.

Now, here's a pic so you can compare the grain on 4 burgundy hides. From the top left, clockwise, we have smooth grained lambskin, deep burgundy calfskin, mission grain pigskin, and sculptured Italian cowhide.

Here's another pic. These are three different colors of goatskin, none of them called "burgundy." From left to right, we have maroon and crimson Harmatan wild-grain goatskin, and deep red premium soft tanned goatskin.


And here are some more Bible pics:

Burgundy lamb. The picture's a little too bright, but this is good leather for a smaller, thinner Bible.



Deep burgundy calf. Better for average to large sized Bibles.



Itallian sculptured cowhide. (Also a little too bright, but you can see a good representation of the color on the previous pic.) This is better on medium to large Bibles -- soft, thick, and flexible.

Here's a crimson Harmatan goatskin Bible. The maroon is much darker. Harmatan goat is good for larger Bibles.

And here's the deep red soft-tanned premium goatskin. It's good for all sizes of Bibles and is very soft and flexible. (See our recent posts for information on this goatskin.)


Here's another choice in red (not technically burgundy, but close):

Red calfskin. See how flexible it is?


We also have an imitation leather (cloth with a leatherlike finish) in an antique burgundy. (Sorry, I don't have a pic of that.)

And one more idea -- hand-dyed leather. Here's a hand-dyed, antiqued deerskin Bible. Blind-stamping and tooling is a favorite technique on this kind of leather.



We can also hand-dye natural grain pigskin; rustic goatskin (as on our Poor Man's Geneva Bible style), rustic calfskin (American West style), or kangaroo (Outback style). This is what it burgundy looks like on calfskin:

And here it is on kangaroo:


There you have it! We can encase your Bible in burgundy in many different ways. What looks good to you? If you have any questions, I'd be glad to help you with your selection. Click here for a free price quote,

Or go straight here for detailed ordering information.

Grace and Peace,

Margie L. Haley, Administrative Assistant
Leonard's Book Restoration Station
(574) 652-2151
http://www.leonardsbooks.com/