Produced by Stephen Hutcheson and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net









                                  THE
                             LEATHERWORKER
                         in Eighteenth-Century
                             _WILLIAMSBURG_


  Being an Account of the Nature of Leather, & of the Crafts commonly
                  engaged in the Making & Using of it.


                      _Williamsburg Craft Series_


                             _WILLIAMSBURG_
                  Published by _Colonial Williamsburg_
                               MCMLXXVIII




                           _The Leatherworker
                  in Eighteenth-Century_ Williamsburg


    [Illustration: Illustrated capital]

Once upon a time there lived in France a poet-bureaucrat by the name of
Charles Perrault, who wrote fairy tales. He called one of them
_Cendrillon ou la Petite Pantoufle de Verre_, and ever since 1697, for
that was the date of Cinderella’s appearance in modern literature, her
glass slippers have been a puzzle.

Not to children, of course. Generations of youngsters have
matter-of-factly accepted as the most natural thing in the world that
magic slippers should be of glass (_verre_). Their elders, however,
being less sophisticated about such things, have learnedly quibbled over
whether the slippers weren’t really supposed to be of _vair_, the costly
white squirrel fur once worn only by royalty.

After all, logic and reason and custom and tradition say that footwear
has been made of leather since time unknown. And who ever heard of
making shoes out of glass?

Well, who ever heard of making bottles out of leather, for that matter?
Or of fire hose made of leather? Or of leather cannons?

Yet leather has been put to these and many other uses over the centuries
of recorded history. A list of them would be almost endless, and so
would a list of the sources of leather. The following compilation,
doubtless far from complete, could have been (it was not) drawn up by an
English eighteenth-century or colonial American leatherworker:

  _SOURCES_

  cow
  ox
  calf
  horse
  sheep
  lamb
  goat
  kid
  pig
  dog
  wolf
  deer
  elk
  antelope
  moose
  buffalo
  bear
  wildcat
  rabbit
  muskrat
  beaver
  alligator
  rattlesnake

  _USES_

  Clothing
    shoes, boots, moccasins, galoshes
    leggings, breeches, aprons
    shirts, coats, caps, hats, gloves
    belts, suspenders, points and laces
    fur items, fur trim
  Shelter and furnishings
    tents, tepees
    wall hangings, door curtains
    chair seats and backs, beds
    upholstery, cushion covers
    fur rugs, fur bedding
  Transportation
    saddles, bridles, harness (including that for human porters)
    carriage upholstery, wagon covers
    scupper leathers, antichafing binding on sailing gear
  Containers, liquid
    wineskins, waterbags, bottles
    jugs, mugs, buckets
    inkwells and inkhorns
    hoses, pipes
  Containers, dry
    bags, purses, food pouches
    trunks, boxes, caskets, coffers
    snuff boxes, dice cups
  Military items
    shields, scabbards, sheaths
    bowcases, quivers, gun buckets
    helmets, cartridge boxes
    powder horns and buckets
  Other
    bookbinding, parchment, vellum
    hornbooks, bellows, hinges
    pump washers, airtight floats
    spinning-wheel belts
    cricket balls, drumheads, banjos
    surgical trusses

Leather differs not only according to the species of creature it comes
from but according to the age and sometimes the sex of the animal, and
also the part of the animal’s body it once covered. Its characteristics
vary depending on the type of processing it undergoes—whether by liming,
tanning, tawing (mineral tanning), or shamoying (oil tanning)—and
depending on how these processes are varied and combined.

Leather can be stiff as bone or supple as silk, nearly as waterproof as
rubber or capable of sopping up water like a sponge, tough and
unyielding or resilient and stretchy, smooth and translucent as paper,
deeply grained in many patterns, or softly napped. It may be snowwhite
or range through hues of tan and red to dark brown. It may be molded,
carved, and colored in endless array. As leatherworkers for many
centuries have been fond of reminding the world, “There’s nothing like
leather.”




                     _THERE’S NOTHING LIKE TANNING_


Homer’s _Iliad_ contains what may be the earliest surviving literary
reference to leathermaking. Describing the swaying fight for possession
of Patroclus’s corpse, the author (in Pope’s translation) wrote:

  As when the slaughter’d bull’s yet reeking hide,
  Strain’d with full force, and tugged from side to side
  The brawny curriers stretch; and labour o’er
  The extended surface, drunk with fat and gore....

The untidy process here alluded to as currying was doubtless one of
man’s first methods of making leather. It consisted of laboriously
working into a hide or skin such greasy and albuminous substances as
animal fats, brains, blood, milk, and so forth. The product, although
technically not “leather,” had many of leather’s characteristics; this
is a paradox that calls for some definitions. In the terminology of the
trade:

  Hides are the pelts of the larger animals—cattle, horses, buffalo,
              elephants, and so on;
  Skins come from smaller animals—calves, sheep, goats, pigs, deer,
              beaver, etc.—and from birds, fish, and reptiles;
  Leather is any hide or skin _after it has been tanned_.

As the legislature of colonial Virginia put it in 1691 (in an act that
will shortly engage our attention again):

  And for the avoyding of all ambiguities and doubts, which may and doe
  grow and arise upon the difinition and interpretation of this word
  leather, _Be it enacted and declared_, that hydes and skinns of oxe,
  steer, bull, cow, calfe, deer, goats and sheep being tann’d shall be,
  and ever hath been reputed and taken leather.

The key word is “tanned.” Like any organic matter, skins and hides will
soon begin to decay unless they receive some kind of preservative
treatment. They may be simply scraped and sundried—or salted or smoked
or soaked in brine or in slaked lime. From some of these processes may
come extremely tough and durable products—rawhide, parchment, and vellum
are limed—but they are not leather because they have not been _tanned_.

    [Illustration: _Taneur_ _This illustration from Diderot’s great
    eighteenth-century French encyclopedia shows the essential
    operations in a tannery: A) washing hides in a stream; B) scraping
    hair or flesh from a hide on the “beam”; C) soaking hides in a
    series of lime pits; D) bedding hides in a tanning vat with a layer
    of shredded bark between each hide; E) stirring lighter hides in a
    hot water tanning solution._]

Tanning brings about within the fibrous structure of a pelt certain
chemical and physical rearrangements that are still imperfectly
understood. Their effect, however, is to render the pelt permanently
imputrescible, pliable when dry, and capable of sustaining repeated
wetting without hurt. The agents responsible for the transformation,
known as “tannins,” are found in almost all plants, in certain minerals,
and in various readily oxidizing oils.




                         _TANNING AND CURRYING_


The ancient Sumerians, Babylonians, Assyrians, Egyptians, central
Asians, and Chinese all knew tanned leather and used it. But who first
discovered how to tan it, when that happened, and where, must remain
forever unanswered, since the invention of tanning came before the
invention of written records. Primitive leatherworkers probably stumbled
on different processes at different times and places, and quite possibly
a number of widely separated workers discovered the same processes
independently.

Until the invention of chrome tanning in the second half of the
nineteenth century, little change had taken place in the three basic
tanning methods for at least two thousand years. The most widely
practiced method involved the use of vegetable tannins. Occidental
tanners employed oak bark, gallnuts, and sumac leaves among their chief
sources; other plants rich in tannins are found in every continent.

Mineral tanning with alum, called “tawing,” has been in use since
earliest time in Babylonia, Egypt, and probably China. Because the
leather so made is snow white, workers in this specialty gained the name
of “whitetawyers.” Tawed leather, although soft and stretchy, is very
strong; quite appropriately, one of his eighteenth-century
contemporaries described Richard Bland, the Williamsburg lawyer and
political pamphleteer, as “staunch & tough as whitleather.”

Currying—whatever it may have meant to Homer (or to Alexander Pope)—is
not a method of preparing hides and skins from fresh-slaughtered
animals, but a complex of processes for treating leather already tanned.
These processes include smoothing the leather, paring it down to even
thickness overall, especially working fatty matter into it for pliancy
and water resistance, and giving it whatever surface dressing, color,
and finish its intended use calls for. Prominent among such uses in the
eighteenth century were shoe uppers, harness and saddlery, upholstery,
trunkmaking, and bookbinding.

    [Illustration: _Two styles of carriage harness, one quite elaborate,
    the other fairly simple; both of the “breast-collar” rather than the
    now more familiar “neck-collar” type._ Diderot.]




                         _CHIEF LEATHER CRAFTS_


A list compiled in London in 1422 recorded 111 groups or guilds of
merchants and craftsmen then active in that city. Fourteen of these
concerned themselves with leather or with articles made of it in large
part:

  cofferers
  cordwainers
  curriers
  girdlers
  glovers
  leather dyers
  leathersellers
  loriners (or lorimers)
  malemakers
  pouchmakers
  saddlers
  skinners
  tanners
  whitetawyers

Of these, only tanners, curriers, cordwainers, and saddlers showed up
prominently in colonial Virginia—although always as individual
craftsmen, not as members of an organized craft or guild.

Cordwainers—the word comes from cordovan, a kind of sumac-tanned leather
much favored in medieval England and made originally in the Spanish city
of Cordoba—were shoemakers. The craft is to be carefully distinguished
from that of cobbling, which is the mending of shoes. Although
practically all colonial Virginia shoemakers also did shoe repairing,
the trade of cobbling was looked on, especially by cordwainers, as
inferior in status.

Curiously, the initial groups of colonists sent to Jamestown by the
Virginia Company lacked any leather craftsmen. Somehow the London
“adventurers” thought that the real adventurers to America could get
along without tanners, curriers, or shoemakers. Just how the colonists
were expected to acquire shoes grows even more puzzling in light of the
English law that forbade exportation of goods made of English leather.

In a few years, however, some tanners and shoemakers had been sent over
and were at work in Jamestown. But not enough of them came or else (as
is more likely) they abandoned their trades to grow tobacco. A 1625
report declared that an extreme shortage of shoes and other apparel
endangered the health of the population. Soon thereafter the Virginia
Assembly took the first of many steps to promote leathermaking and other
manufactures in the colony.

Sometimes with the support of the home government, sometimes without,
the assembly passed laws in 1632, 1645, 1658, 1660, 1662, 1680, and 1682
forbidding the export from Virginia of hides, skins, and certain other
commodities. They hoped in this way to assure ample supplies of the raw
materials and thus encourage colonial craftsmen to make more of the
needed products.

The legislation, in actuality, had less effect in Virginia than in
England. Colonial craftsmen continued to prefer leathers imported from
England, reputed to be the best of their kinds, for quality work—and to
prefer tobacco growing to leatherworking anyway. But English merchants
and craftsmen repeatedly protested the threat of competition in a market
they felt belonged solely to them, so each colonial law in turn was
either repealed on orders from London or simply allowed to lapse.

The 1662 effort, somewhat more elaborate than the others, had no greater
success in the end. At Jamestown the legislature that year passed three
laws intended to increase local manufactures. One barred the export of
hides, wool, and iron; another exempted from taxation any craftsman who
followed his trade and did not plant tobacco; the third required each
county in the colony of Virginia to erect “one or more tanhouses, and
... provide tanners, curryers and shoemakers, to tanne, curry and make
the hides of the country into leather and shoes.” The manager of this
trade for each county was to allow the people two pounds of tobacco for
each pound of dry hide they brought to the tannery, and “sell them shoos
at thirty pounds of tobacco [for] plaine shoos, and thirty five pounds
of tobacco for [shoes with] wooden heels and ffrench falls of the ...
largest sizes, and twenty pounds of tobacco per pair for the smaller
shoos.”

    [Illustration: _Cordonier_ _As the shoemaker needed an assortment of
    lasts on which to make shoes of differing sizes and shapes, so the
    bootmaker needed “boot legs” resembling his customers’ calves. The
    engraving also shows a variety of eighteenth-century boot styles,
    the more formidable being heavy military boots._ Diderot.]




                        _BEFORE FREE ENTERPRISE_


The seventeenth century ended with legislation of a different tenor. “An
act declareing the dutie of Tanners, Curriers and Shoemakers,” passed in
1691, regulated working procedures and set quality standards to an
extent remarkable even at a time when detailed governmental regulation
of economic activity was normal.

Tanners, this law decreed, were not to leave hides too long in the
lime-pits, nor put them into the tan-vats until they had been thoroughly
cleansed of lime; curriers were not to work “any hyde or skin not being
thoroughly dry,” and were not to skimp on the amount or quality or
freshness of the grease they used in currying; cordwainers or shoemakers
were to use only leather that was “well and truly tann’d and curryed,”
and were to make their boots, shoes, and slippers “well and
substantially sewed with good thread well twisted and made, and
sufficiently waxed with wax well rosined, and the stitches hard drawn
with handleathers.”

The law further required each county to appoint searchers to examine all
hides, skins, leather, and leather goods produced in that county. They
were to stamp their seal of approval only on items that met quality
standards in the “true intent and meaning of this act,” and to
confiscate all wares that were “insufficiently tann’d, curryed, or
wrought.”

Perhaps even more interesting than these regulations are the reasons
given for enacting them: “Forasmuch as divers and sundry deceits and
abuses have been hitherto committed, and daily are committed and
practiced by the Tanners, curriers, and workers of leather in ...
Virginia, to the great injury and damage of the inhabitants ...; And
forasmuch as no leather can be so well tann’d but it may be marred and
spoyled in the currying ...; and forasmuch as leather well tann’d and
curryed may by the negligence, deceit or evill workmanship of the
cordwainer or shoemaker be used deceitfully to the hurt of the occupier
or wearer thereof.”

These phrases (and similar phrases in other laws both colonial and
English) make evident that shoddy materials and slipshod workmanship
issued from the shop of many a craftsman of the eighteenth century. A
recognition of this will help balance the romantic tendency to see every
old-time craftsman as a humble artistic genius with impeccably high
standards of workmanship.




                  _THE DIFFICULTY OF MAKING A LIVING_


For all its great length and detail, the act of 1691 seems not to have
had much effect. Governor Edmund Andros in 1697 asserted, “There are no
manufactures setled in Virginia Except Inconsiderable tanning and
shoemaking (bad Leather).” And in 1705 Robert Beverley wrote of the
Virginians:

  They have their Cloathing of all sorts from _England_, as Linnen,
  Woollen, Silk, Hats, and Leather.... The very Furrs that their Hats
  are made of, perhaps go first from thence; and most of their Hides lie
  and rot, or are made use of, only for covering dry Goods, in a leaky
  House. Indeed some few Hides with much Adoe are tann’d, and made into
  Servents Shoes; but at so careless a rate, that the Planters don’t
  care to buy them, if they can get others, and sometimes perhaps a
  better manager than ordinary will vouchsafe to make a pair of Breeches
  of a Deer-Skin.

Nearly a half-century later, as Williamsburg’s era of greatest affluence
began, a merchant of Louisa County, Francis Jerdone by name, lamented
that “the Virginians have most of their shoemakers in their own
families, and have no occasion for any but stuff [i.e., cloth] shoes
from Britain.” He referred to members of the well-to-do planter class,
who customarily maintained on their plantations one or more skilled
workmen. Among these there was almost sure to be included a cordwainer
to make and repair the footwear of the plantation “family,” a term that
included the slaves. The shoemaker might be a slave himself, or an
indentured servant, or a journeyman receiving wages.

However, Francis Jerdone could just as well have been writing of another
kind of Virginia planter, the small farmer who built his own house and
barns, made his own crude furniture, coopered his own hogsheads, ground
his own corn, sheared his own sheep, and made the family’s shoes while
his wife spun and wove their clothing. These small farmers, far
outnumbering the great planters, would not have ordered cloth shoes from
London, to be sure. But neither would they have ordered very many
leather ones, either from England or from Williamsburg shoemakers.

Documentary records—fairly full in a few cases, fleeting in most—name 24
men who worked in leather in Williamsburg during the eighteenth century.
The ghostly existence of others can be discerned in references to
unnamed indentured servants, journeymen, slaves, and a few apprentices
who were leatherworkers. Among Williamsburg slaves having some craft
skills, the second greatest number were shoemakers, the greatest number
being carpenters.

A few of these Williamsburg leatherworkers seem to have done fairly well
at their trade. Most of the others probably had little success and moved
elsewhere or into farming; at any rate they left no trace of a
continuing career.

    [Illustration: _The conjectural drawing at the right shows how
    pieces of metal, wood, and cloth found in 1961 at the bottom of an
    eighteenth-century well in Williamsburg could have formed parts of a
    lady’s sidesaddle of that day. To the left, partially completed, is
    such a saddle copied by today’s master saddler in Williamsburg from
    surviving examples._]




                       _THE ROBERT GILBERT STORY_


Eleven advertisements placed in Williamsburg’s weekly newspaper, the
_Virginia Gazette_, from 1768 to 1783, remain the sole evidence of the
business venture of Robert Gilbert, boot and shoemaker. The story they
tell reveals the hazards faced by most craftsmen in eighteenth-century
Williamsburg: debts piling up, excess stock on hand, shortage of capable
and reliable help, and a market that dried up when the capital moved to
Richmond in 1780.

  ROBERT GILBERT, BOOT and SHOEMAKER, &c. HEREBY acquaints the publick
  that he has opened shop near the Capitol in _Williamsburg_, where he
  intends carrying on his business in all its branches, _viz._ shoe or
  channel, calf or buckskin boots, jockey do. and splatterdashes, mens
  plain, stitched, spring, and wood-heeled, shoes and pumps, calf or
  dogskin; campaign, single, double, or turned channels, slippers, blue
  or red turkey, cork soles, galloches; womens leather, stuff, silk, and
  braided shoes and pumps, slippers, cork soles, galloches, and clogs.
  As he imports the whole of his materials from _Great Britain_, where
  punctual payments are required, he proposes supplying Ladies and
  Gentlemen with any of the above articles on the most reasonable terms,
  for ready money. Those who please to favour him with their custom may
  depend on their work being speedily executed, in the genteelest and
  newest fashions, and in such a manner as he hopes will merit a
  continuance of their favours.

                                     (_Virginia Gazette_, June 30, 1768)


  JOURNEYMEN SHOEMAKERS, who are well acquainted with womens or mens
  wood heeled work, will meet with good encouragement by applying to the
  subscriber in Williamsburg.
                                                          ROBERT GILBERT

  ⁂ He has a large quantity of fine _English_ CALF SKINS on hand, _part_
  of which he would dispose of, on very reasonable terms, for ready
  money.

                                      (_Virginia Gazette_, May 25, 1769)


                                            WILLIAMSBURG, _Dec._ 6, 1770

  I HAVE a parcel of CALF SKINS, and SOLE LEATHER, both back and crop,
  which I will sell, for ready money, on reasonable terms.
                                                          ROBERT GILBERT

                                 (_Virginia Gazette_, December 13, 1770)


  Just IMPORTED from _London_, and to be SOLD by the Subscriber at his
  Shop in _Williamsburg_, cheap, for ready Money,

  A VARIETY of _Williamson_ and Son’s best SATIN SHOES and PUMPS; white,
  blue, and black CALIMANCO SHOES and PUMPS; also CHILDRENS MOROCCO and
  CALFSKIN SHOES and PUMPS.
                                                          ROBERT GILBERT

                                      (_Virginia Gazette_, May 28, 1772)


  A JOURNEYMAN SHOEMAKER, who is sober, and understands making of Boots,
  will meet with good Encouragement by applying to me, in
  _Williamsburg_.
                                                          ROBERT GILBERT

                                   (_Virginia Gazette_, August 13, 1772)


                                            WILLIAMSBURG, _May_ 13, 1773

  I THINK it necessary to give this publick Notice, to all Persons who
  are in Arrears to me, that if they do not, without Fail, discharge
  their Accounts by the _July_ Meeting of the Merchants, they will most
  assuredly be put into a Lawyer’s Hands.

  _N.B._ In the mean While, from the many Disappointments I have met
  with in collecting my Debts, I am obliged to stop Trade, till I can
  receive the Money due to me to carry it on.
                                                          ROBERT GILBERT

                                      (_Virginia Gazette_, May 13, 1773)


  ROBERT GILBERT, SHOEMAKER, Has opened Shop in the back Street, at the
  Place where he formerly lived, opposite to Mr. _Richard Charlton’s_,
  and intends carrying on his Business in all its Branches, having on
  Hand a very neat Assortment of Leather proper Boots and Shoes. The
  many Disapointments he formerly met with obliges him for the future to
  sell entirely for Cash.—He returns his sincere Thanks to those who
  were his former Customers, and shall endeavour to render Satisfaction
  to all those who may please to employ him.

  ☞ _Good Encouragement will be given to a Journeyman who understands
  making of Boots._

                                   (_Virginia Gazette_, January 7, 1775)


                                        WILLIAMSBURG, _October_ 10, 1776

  GOOD encouragement will be given to journeymen shoemakers, especially
  those who understand making of BOOTS by
                                                         ROBERT GILBERT.

                                  (_Virginia Gazette_, October 11, 1776)


                                           WILLIAMSBURG, January 3, 1782

  Best English made SHOES, To be SOLD, by wholesale or retail, on
  reasonable terms, by
                                                         ROBERT GILBERT.

   (_Virginia Gazette or Weekly Advertiser_ (Richmond), January 5, 1782)


  ROBERT GILBERT Boot and Shoemaker, BEGS leave to inform the public,
  that he has removed from Williamsburg, to this city, in order to carry
  on his business as usual. Those Gentlemen who please to favour him
  with their custom, may depend upon having their work executed as
  expeditiously and reasonable, as the times will admit of, for cash
  only, as it is by that means alone which materials are procured.

  _N.B._ He has on hand a few boxes of English made SHOES, which he
  would dispose of on very reasonable terms, for cash, tobacco, or good
  merchantable flour.

  Richmond, February 7, 1782 [sic]

      (_Virginia Gazette and Weekly Advertiser_ (Richmond), February 15,
                                                                   1783)




                 _WILLIAM PEARSON, TANNER AND CURRIER_


Prominent in the list of known Williamsburg leatherworkers are the names
of William Pearson, tanner and currier, Alexander Craig, saddler and
harnessmaker, and George Wilson, boot and shoemaker. As usual in
colonial Virginia, each of these men—while primarily occupied in his own
special phase of the leather trade—did more or less work in other
phases.

    [Illustration: _Corroyeur_ _The shop of a currier and the tools used
    by his workers. Against the wall at the left a man is scraping a
    skin with the “moon knife” (figs. 7 and 7 no. 2), holding the skin
    taut by means of pincers and a thong (fig. 6) around his seat. In
    the background workers are treading, slicking, and graining skins.
    In the foreground one man uses the “head knife” to work over the
    skin on the beam, while another softens a skin with the currier’s
    mace._ Diderot.]

William Pearson first appears in surviving records as the godfather of
Alexander Craig’s daughter Lucretia. At about the same time he was
Craig’s tenant in a house adjoining the latter’s tanyard, and shortly
thereafter he purchased from Craig the land occupied by the tanyard. The
two men seem to have been in partnership for a while, but Pearson—under
circumstances now unknown—eventually became full owner of the tanyard.

This establishment lay just to the east of the town, its location
recalled to this day in the name of Tanyard Street. It had been founded
in the early 1750s by Craig in partnership with Christopher Ford,
carpenter, and Nicholas Sim, tanner. Craig bought out his partners in
1758, and two years later Pearson came on the scene. At that time the
tannery consisted of “Tan Vatts ... New and Old Bark Houses, Mill House
and Fleshing House ... and all other Houses and Buildings ... used in
the Business of Tanning and making Leather.”

When Pearson died in 1777, his estate included “four Negro men Tanners
and Curriers, two shoemakers” and three other slaves, indicating that
the late master tanner operated a considerable business. The tanyard
continued in the possession of Pearson’s widow and descendants for
nearly sixty years, being operated at least part of the time by William
Plume, tanner and currier from Norfolk.

It is hardly a secret that the processes of tanning and currying infuse
the surrounding air with a symphony of odors—a circumstance that helps
to explain why a tannery was generally located on the far edge of a
town, and usually on the downwind side. As if hides and skins were
themselves not fragrant enough, eighteenth-century tanners, curriers,
and leather dressers made use at various stages or for special purposes
of such delectable commodities as fish oil, sour beer, urine, barley
mash, and the fermented dung of chickens, pigeons, and dogs.

Sketchily described, the procedures employed by the tanner and currier
(separate crafts in England but often combined under one roof or in the
same man in colonial America) were as follows:

1) Preparing the pelt included the removal of accumulated dirt and
stable trash, removal of the hair and epidermis from the outer or grain
side (except for furs), removal of shreds of flesh and adipose tissue
from the inner side, and plumping up of the fibers of the remaining
middle layer, or corium, to be more receptive to the tanning solution.
The tanner accomplished all this by repeated washings, followed by a
sequence of soaking in solutions of lime, and then by draining, and
scraping. The scraping process, known as unhairing and fleshing, he did
laboriously with a blunted knife, the pelt being stretched over a wooden
horse or beam. He might repeat the liming, draining, and scraping if
necessary, and he followed it up with more rinsing and scraping to
remove most or all of the lime.

2) Tanning proper involved soaking the hide or skin in a series of
tanning vats, each containing a stronger solution—called “ooze”—than the
one before. Careful and complete tanning, a slow process, required from
several weeks for a light skin to eighteen months for a heavy hide.
During this period the hides or skins were many times “hauled and set,”
that is, removed from the vat and piled beside it to drain for a time.
The same sort of processing took place in tawing, except that alum
rather than oak bark supplied the tanning agent.

3) Finishing included trimming, currying, and coloring (if called for)
in whatever combination of processes was needed for the intended use of
the finished leather. Readers with uneasy stomachs should be satisfied
if some of these processes are here left undescribed, only named, to
wit: trampling, scouring, blooming, slicking, stricking, shaving,
stuffing, dubbing, boarding, graining, bruising, staking, waxing,
blacking, sizing.

Altogether, William Pearson might have subjected a hide to as many as
two hundred separate steps (repetitions included in the count) in its
passage from the animal’s back until delivery as finished leather to a
shoemaker, saddler, bookbinder, or other leather using craftsman. The
total time consumed would have been anything from a few months for a
lambskin, for example, to more than two years for a thick ox hide.




              _ALEXANDER CRAIG, SADDLER AND HARNESSMAKER_


A craftsman who had financial resources large enough to buy a lot in
Williamsburg and build a shop on it would seem to have been in business
already at another location. Such may have been the case when Alexander
Craig, just before midcentury, acquired a lot on the road out of
Williamsburg to Yorktown—not far from where the tanyard would soon
thereafter be established.

A saddler and harnessmaker, Craig was the town’s most successful leather
craftsman, possibly its most successful craftsman in any line. He
acquired a number of properties in and near the colonial capital city
over the years from 1749 until his death in 1776. Among them were the
tanyard and two choice lots on the main street near the Capitol. One of
the latter may have become his shop location, and the other did become
his residence. His eldest daughter, Judith, married John Minson Galt,
the promising young physician and apothecary.

Two of Alexander Craig’s account books survive. They reveal that he
carried on a thriving trade, kept several indentured servants and
slaves, and employed at least three journeymen leatherworkers—although
not all of these at the same time. He bought and sold skins and hides,
did tanning and currying for himself and for others, purveyed leather to
other craftsmen, made and sometimes mended shoes, and sold shoes that
had been made in his own shop, imported from London, or possibly made in
other colonial shops. A wide variety of other leather goods issued from
his shop, including cushions for couches, for chairs, and even for
billiard tables, sword belts, gun buckets, leather pipes for a fire
engine, razor cases, cartridge boxes, trusses, and once a “strong Coller
for a Bear.”

    [Illustration: _Bourlier_ _Harnessmaker’s shop, in which workers
    (left to right) are cutting leather into straps with a round knife
    (fig. 6); waxing thread (background); sewing a piece of leather held
    in the clamp or “clam” held slanted between the legs; and using an
    awl to pierce a hole in a strap, also held in a clam (fig. 3 and
    fig. 4)._ Diderot.]

But the making and mending of horse furniture—saddles, bridles, and
harness—was Craig’s specialty. In a colony where everyone rode
constantly, saddlery was a vital craft. And where horses, oxen, and
human beings hauled, lifted, and carried every burden, harnessmaking was
no less important.

The account books show that Alexander Craig valued his labor and sold
his products at a good price. He charged Humphrey Hill £7 for “a Harness
for a Shaft Chair” and Thomas Atkinson £5 for “a Harness for a Single
Horse.” He billed Colonel William Byrd III £25 for harness for six coach
horses, and Colonel Benjamin Harrison £16 to make harness for “four
Charriot Horses.” For making a side saddle with cover and studded
trappings for Robert Hutchins, a tailor of the town of Blandford some 40
miles away, Craig charged £6, 10 shillings.

Some idea, albeit only an approximate one, of the purchasing power of
those sums may be gained by comparing them with prices for house
furnishings at about the same time. Colonel Robert Carter of Nomini
Hall, for instance, bought eight mahogany dining chairs, upholstered and
trimmed with brass nails, for £16 from Williamsburg cabinetmaker
Benjamin Bucktrout. Four “Elbow Chares” bought at the same time cost him
£11. A desk and bookcase—now called a secretary—brought £16.




                     _THE SADDLE AND HARNESS SHOP_


Elkanah Deane, carriagemaker of New York, removed his business from that
city to the little metropolis of Williamsburg shortly before the
Revolution. Both in New York and in the capital of the Virginia colony
he enjoyed the patronage of His Lordship Governor Dunmore. Deane’s house
in Williamsburg looked out upon the same green as did the Governor’s
Palace, along with the mansions of the wealthy Robert Carter and the
learned George Wythe.

This was heady company for “an Hibernian Cottager,” as one rival
coachmaker called him, and perhaps Deane deserved the label of “Palace
Street puffer” conferred on him by the same fellow citizen. Be that as
it may, the carriagemaker advertised that he also made, repaired, and
sold harness, although the actual work was probably done by another
craftsman in his shop.

Perhaps this was Edward Roberts, who gave notice in 1775 that he
“continues to carry on the business of Saddling, Cap and Harness making,
at the late Mr. Elkanah Deane’s shop.” The shop, it is to be presumed,
was primarily devoted to the varied specialties that were needed in the
manufacture of wheeled vehicles, of which blacksmithing was one of the
more vital. Deane’s forge, to the rear of his property, is a favorite
attraction in restored Williamsburg, especially for children.

    [Illustration: _Exterior view of the Deane Forge and Harnessmaking
    Shop in Williamsburg today. The sign before the door is the coat of
    arms of the Saddler and Coach Harnessmakers’ Company of London.
    Redrawn from a photograph._]

Adjoining the forge, the saddlery and harnessmaking shop of two hundred
years ago has again resumed operation. There the visitor may see
examples of saddle and harness work done in the eighteenth-century
manner with tools and equipment resembling those shown in the great
eighteenth-century illustrated encyclopedia of Denis Diderot.

The basic operations in the making of harness were only two: cutting the
hides into appropriate strips and shapes, and stitching the pieces
together as needed. Simple as it sounds, skillful choice of the
leathers, flawless cutting, and thorough stitching made the difference
between good harness and poor. Finish and ornamentation, although not
essential to the task of attaching a draft animal securely to its load,
made the product distinctive and handsome, and no doubt gave the
craftsman more pleasure in the making.

The harnessmaker’s knife had a semicircular or half-moon shape to its
blade, with the handle sometimes at right angles to the back of the
blade and sometimes with a right-angled tang that put the handle
parallel to the back of the blade. For sewing he possessed an assortment
of punches and awls and a very important holding device called a “clam.”
This last was a hinged wooden clamp with jaws somewhat resembling the
shell of a clam. Holding it between his crossed thighs, the harnessmaker
used it to hold fast the straps he was sewing, thus freeing both of his
hands for the tough job of stitching through heavy leather.

In most essentials, and indeed in most details, the harness of the
eighteenth century looked like and functioned like that of today—or of
the not-so-distant yesterday before the motorization of everything on
wheels. Saddles, at least some of them, were slightly different in shape
and detail from the present-day English riding saddle. For their making,
as well as for the making of collars, the saddler-harnessmaker needed a
variety of tools to pack and shape the stuffing of pads. By and large,
however, the result would seem to have been less comfortable to both
horse and rider than the modern saddle.




                  _GEORGE WILSON, BOOT AND SHOEMAKER_


George Wilson came originally from Norfolk, where his older brother—or
perhaps it was his uncle—John Wilson, did boot and shoemaking on a large
scale. In May 1771 the _Virginia Gazette_ of Williamsburg carried this
advertisement:

  I TAKE this Method to acquaint the Publick, and my Customers in
  particular, that Mess. _James Campbell_ and Company have resigned the
  SHOE FACTORY in Favour of me, by which Means I carry on double the
  Trade I did formerly. Gentlemen who may please to favour me with their
  Orders for Negro Shoes, or others, are desired to send them soon, that
  I may be capable of supplying them better than it was in my Power last
  Fall, on Account of the Scarcity of Leather. Ladies and Gentlemen may
  depend on being supplied with as neat Shoes, either Leather or
  Calimanco, as any from _London_; as I have on Hand _London_,
  _Philadelphia_, and _New York_ Calf Skins, red, green, and blue
  _Morocco_ Leather, Calimancoes of all Colours, and of the best Kinds.
  Those who choose to favour him with their Custom shall be served on
  reasonable Terms, by applying to him at the Sign of the _Boot_ and
  _Shoe_ in _Norfolk_.
                                                             JOHN WILSON

Just five months later, announcing his death, the _Gazette_ described
John Wilson as a tradesman of “Credit and Reputation in Norfork, whose
Industry, Integrity, and whole Deportment, were truly exemplary.”
Shortly thereafter the same paper carried the notice that Wilson’s
estate would be auctioned and that “The Shoemaker’s Business, in all its
Branches, is carried on by George Wilson, Junior, and Company.”

The “Company” here seems to have been John’s widow, for the next
advertisement to appear in the _Gazette_ disclosed that her partnership
with George Wilson having been dissolved, Mary Wilson “still carries on
the Shoemaking Business, in all its Branches.” She was one of
innumerable colonial widows whom fate threw into the awkward position of
being master craftsmen, at least until they found another man to take
over the shop—and very often the household, too.

    [Illustration: _Cordonnier et Bottier_ _A shoemaker’s shop and an
    assortment of his most important tools. Note the rows of lasts on
    the wall and the customer whose foot is being measured with a size
    stick, also shown as fig. 14._ Diderot.]

George Wilson promptly turned up in Williamsburg, announcing to the
public that he had just imported a “choice Cargo of the best sorts of
English LEATHER for all Manner of Mens Shoes and Pumps, and excellent
LONDON DRAW-LEGS for BOOTS.” Underscoring the ambitious size of the
business he hoped to establish, he again signed himself “George Wilson &
Co.,” and appended a notice that “Two or three JOURNEYMEN SHOEMAKERS,
who understand making BOOTS and Mens WOOD HEELS, will meet with good
encouragement by applying immediately to me, next Door to Mr. Greenhow’s
Store in _Williamsburg_.”

Like other colonial shoemakers, George Wilson not only made shoes but
also repaired them. Put another way, they all did both _cordwaining_ and
_cobbling_. But George Wilson seems not to have catered to the ladies;
his advertisements mention only footwear for gentlemen, and when his
shop was broken into in March 1774 the thief took away nineteen or
twenty pairs of men’s shoes.

Whether his earlier ad failed to bring him the desired journeymen or
whether he needed still more help cannot be said, but he advertised
again that “Two or three journeymen shoemakers will have a good set of
summer work, by applying early, at the rate of 3s. 6d. for plain shoes,
5s. for stitched work, and 10s. for boots.” Before the end of the year
George Wilson, too, had died.




                        _LESSER LEATHER CRAFTS_


Among the many crafts that produced articles partly or largely of
leather, those of glover, breechesmaker, cabinetmaker, upholsterer,
coachmaker, and bookbinder were known in eighteenth-century
Williamsburg.

Two centuries ago William Keith, a Williamsburg tailor, “having lately
purchas’d an ingenious Workman in Leather does hereby give Notice to all
Gentlemen, and others, That they may be supplied with Buck-skin
Breeches, and Gloves, made after the neatest Fashion, and as Cheap as
anywhere else.” At about the same time the _Virginia Gazette_ carried
this announcement of a newcomer to the colony:

  EDWARD MORRIS, Breeches-Maker, and Glover, from _London_, IS set up in
  Business, near the College in _Williamsburg_, where he makes and sells
  the best Buck Skin Breeches, either of the common Tann’d Colour, or
  dy’d Black, or of Cloth Colours, after the _English_ Manner: Also Buck
  Skin Gloves, with high Tops. He also makes and sell Bever-Skin
  Breeches, which are very strong and servicable, fit for Servants or
  Slaves, and are very cheap. He also dresses Leather after the
  _Philadelphia_ manner, not inferior to Oil’d Leather Dress, for
  Goodness and Fineness, upon the Flesh or Grain. Likewise dresses all
  Sorts of Fur-Skins, for Muffs, for Gentlemen or Ladies, or for
  Saddle-Housings. Also dresses Calf-Skins, Sheep-Skins, and White
  Leather, fit for the use of Sadlers, Shoemakers, and Others. Any
  Persons that have Occasion to make Use of him in any of the Above
  Particulars, may depend on kind Usage, and at very reasonable Rates.

Inasmuch as Morris did not advertise again in the _Gazette_ (so far as
surviving copies show) it may be presumed that so few persons found
occasion to call on him that he moved elsewhere or found some other way
to make a living. Several bookbinders lived and worked in
eighteenth-century Williamsburg; their craft is described in another
pamphlet in this series and is represented today in an operating craft
shop on Duke of Gloucester Street in the historic town.




                         _THE SHOEMAKER’S SHOP_


Visitors to restored Williamsburg can identify another operating craft
shop by the overhead sign of the “Boot & Shoemaker.” The little building
not far from the foot of Palace Green represents the shop of George
Wilson & Co. “next Door to Mr. Greenhow’s Store,” and stands on
foundations of an eighteenth-century structure. In the absence of
documentary or archaeological evidence as to the appearance of George
Wilson’s shop or its contents, the architecture and furnishings of the
shop follow traditional precedents.

    [Illustration: _Cordonier_ _An illustration, again from Diderot’s
    encyclopedia, showing some European styles and techniques of
    shoemaking. Colonial American styles and methods were similar.
    Unfortunately no one on this side of the ocean wrote or illustrated
    any descriptive books on the subject, so we must rely heavily on the
    French source._]

A working shop that demonstrates shoemaking and the general skills of
leatherworking, the shop’s size and contents are typical and authentic.
One sees in it numerous boots and shoes in various stages of
construction, a full set of lasts, other articles of leather, including
belts, mugs, and black jacks, and an assortment of knives, awls, and
other leatherworking tools of the eighteenth century.

In contrast to this small shop in Williamsburg, the “Shoe Factory”
operated by John Wilson, George’s predecessor in Norfolk, included these
items presumably found there by the appraisers of his estate:

  304  pairs of “Negroe Shoes” valued at 5 shillings per pair
  103  pairs of men’s shoes, some at 6/ and some at 9/ per pair
    6  pairs of boots at 20/ per pair, and four pairs of boot legs
   15  pairs of women’s shoes at 5/ and 6/; one of silk at 10/
   79  pairs of children’s shoes at 3/ and 3/9
  235  lasts; 60 or more hides and skins; 6½ dozen heels; 3 dozen
       blacking balls; 17 shoemaker’s seats; “4 Gross Tax”; and “a sise
       stick.”

The “tax” in this case is easy to evade by changing it to tacks. The
“sise stick” was almost certainly the same sort of device that is used
in shoe stores today to measure the size of the customer’s foot. But
what really strikes one about this inventory is the magnitude of the
operation it reveals. With an indicated seventeen workers, it was
doubtless one of the few mass-production factories colonial Virginia
could boast.

The ratio of boots to shoes for men—6 to 103 pairs—seems out of line for
Virginia where, as one observer wrote, “even the most indigent person
has his saddle-horse, which he rides to every place, and on every
occasion.” Virginians being “excessively fond of horses,” one would
expect them to have worn boots most of the time, and this expectation
would seem to be corroborated by Robert Gilbert’s repeated
advertisements for the services of a journeyman bootmaker. The evidence
indicates that in the latter part of the century boots appear to have
sold better than shoes.

Boots (sometimes listed as “ffrench falls”) as well as shoes for men,
women, and children were imported from England—and from New England—as
well as being made in the colony. Among the London makers, Didsbury &
Co. enjoyed first preference for orders sent from Virginia and paid for
with shipments of tobacco. The wives and daughters of planters, in
particular, preferred to wait six months or a year for the arrival of
fashionable shoes from London rather than buy what the local shoemaker
offered, or they sometimes patronized the milliner for “stuff” shoes.

A good shoemaker could average two pairs of shoes, welted, turned, or
stitched in a twelve-hour working day. In any shoe the sole would be
heaviest cow or ox hide, cut from that part of the hide over the
animal’s hind quarters called the “bend.” Uppers would usually be of
calfskin, sometimes of goat, sheep, or dogskin. Women’s shoes with
leather soles very often had uppers of fabric, such as calimanco,
ticking, silk, damask, satin, or poplin.

Black was the color of men’s shoes, although an occasional example might
be in color, especially the heels. For women’s leather shoes, red,
white, blue, green, or purple prevailed. Children’s footwear was made in
bright colors or black. Lacing, apparently the usual fastening method in
the seventeenth century, gradually gave way in the eighteenth to straps
and buckles, the latter tending to become larger and fancier as time
passed. Buckles of brass and steel served for everyday wear, silver and
paste for dress-up occasions. The Geddy family in Williamsburg made
copper alloy buckles as good as could be had from London, while
silversmith John Coke made them in gold. Ties, however, did not lose out
completely.

Pointed toes held first place in fashion for both men’s and women’s
shoes. Again, this does not mean that round- or square-toed shoes were
not made; on the contrary, they were not uncommon on the feet of those
persons who put other considerations before style. But style was a
potent governor for the well-to-do among colonial Virginians, who {...}

Both men’s and women’s shoes, as well as children’s and slaves’ shoes—,
were made on straight lasts. That is, shape and construction were the
same for left and right shoe, and either one of a pair could be worn on
either foot. This situation resulted not from some primitive crudeness
or ineptitude on the part of colonial cordwainers, who could and if
called upon did make paired left-and-right shoes. Rather, it embodied an
aesthetic preference. Symmetrical shoes pleased the eighteenth-century
eye more in themselves and left a more pleasing pattern of tracks than
did unsymmetrical shoes.

If that seems a curious judgment, just remember that your own preference
for paired shoes would strike your style-conscious colonial forebears as
quite unthinkable.

    [Illustration: _Riding horse, fully equipped, with reins, saddle,
    and a “horse pistol” in its holster just in front of the saddle._
    Diderot.]




                     _WILLIAMSBURG LEATHERWORKERS_


The list below includes the known leatherworkers who engaged in business
in Williamsburg during the eighteenth century. The dates following the
men’s names indicate the years the men are known to have worked in the
city.


_Thomas Allen—shoemaker_ (_1710-1716_). The first record of Thomas Allen
is in 1710 when the death of his daughter was recorded in the Bruton
Parish register. In 1716 Allen purchased a lot in Williamsburg. No other
information concerning Allen has been located.


_John Coulthard—saddler_ (_1734-1756_). John Coulthard’s name is first
mentioned in Williamsburg in 1734 when he did saddlery work for Thomas
Jones. In 1751 he announced in the Virginia Gazette that he had moved
his shop “from next Door to the Printing-Office to the back Street, next
Door to the house of Mr. Walter King.” Coulthard died in 1756.


_Alexander Craig—saddler_ (_1748-1776_). Alexander Craig, who owned a
saddle shop and tannery, is first mentioned in Williamsburg in 1748. His
business was quite extensive. Craig made and sold shoes, saddles,
harness, and other leather goods, and he employed several journeymen
leatherworkers. Craig died in 1776 and left a large estate.


_Robert Gilbert—shoemaker_ (_1768-1783_). Robert Gilbert announced in
1768 that he had “opened Shop near the Capitol in Williamsburg,” where
he advertised leather and shoes for sale. Gilbert continued his business
in Williamsburg until 1783 when he moved to Richmond.


_Henry Gill—tanner and shoemaker_ (_1707-1720_). Henry Gill, tanner and
shoemaker, arrived in Williamsburg from Charles City County in 1707. He
established his shop on Duke of Gloucester Street, where he soon opened
an ordinary. Gill died in 1720.


_Daniel Groome—tanner and collarmaker_ (_1713-1719_). Daniel Groome
purchased a lot in Williamsburg in 1713. At that time he was described
as being from James City County. By 1719 Groome had left Williamsburg
and settled in Henrico County.


_James Hern—harnessmaker_ (_1762-1764_). James Hern worked as a
journeyman harnessmaker with Alexander Craig from 1762 to about 1764.


_Gabriel Maupin—saddler and harnessmaker_ (_1752-ca1800_). Gabriel
Maupin was born in Williamsburg and probably learned his trade from
Alexander Craig. He carried on the saddle and harnessmaking business,
but was primarily a tavern-keeper. He died about 1800.


_Edward Morris—leather-breeches maker and glover_ (_1739_). Little is
known of Edward Morris. He announced the opening of his business “near
the College in Williamsburg” in June 1739. In his advertisement he
stated that he was from London. In addition to making breeches and
gloves, he dressed leather “after the Philadelphia manner.”


_William Pearson—tanner_ (_1760-1777_). William Pearson appeared in
Williamsburg in 1760. He worked with Alexander Craig and may have been
in partnership with him. Pearson later became owner of Craig’s tannery
in Williamsburg, which he operated until his death in 1777.


_William Plume—tanner_ (_1777-1783_). William Plume came to Williamsburg
from Norfolk in 1777 and leased Pearson’s tannery. He operated the
tanyard until 1783 when he returned to Norfolk.


_William Quirk—leatherdresser_ (_1745_). William Quirk was either an
indentured servant or journeyman who worked with Robert Simpson,
leather-breeches maker of Williamsburg. In 1745 Simpson advertised that
Quirk had “absconded from his Habitation” in Williamsburg.


_Edward Roberts—saddler and harnessmaker_ (1775-1777). Edward Roberts
evidently established his business in Williamsburg before 1775. In that
year he advertised that he “continues to carry on the business of
Saddling, Cap and Harness making, at the late Mr. Elkanah Deane’s shop.”
He left Williamsburg in 1777 to settle in Maryland.


_John Rolleson—shoemaker_ (_1750-1784_). Very little is known of John
Rolleson. He is mentioned as being in Williamsburg in 1750, and he
purchased leather from Alexander Craig during the 1760s. Rolleson’s
estate was settled in York County Court in 1784.


_John Sclater—shoemaker_ (_1774_). John Sclater is mentioned as being of
both Williamsburg and York County in 1774, when Matthew Evans was
apprenticed to him. Sclater offered “good Encouragement” for “a Sober
Journeyman Shoemaker who understands Mens and Womens work.”


_John Shepherd—harnessmaker_ (_1761-1787_). John Shepherd worked as a
journeyman harnessmaker with Alexander Craig from 1761 to 1762. About
1772 he apparently established his own business and advertised himself
as “Coach, Chaise, and Harness Maker from London.” Shepherd died in
Williamsburg sometime in 1787.


_Nicholas Sim—tanner_ (_1758_). Nicholas Sim was a partner with
Alexander Craig in a tannery in Williamsburg. When Craig bought out his
partners in 1758, Sim left Williamsburg to settle in Petersburg.


_Robert Simpson—leather-breeches maker_ (_1745_). Robert Simpson of
Williamsburg advertised for a runaway indentured servant or journeyman
in 1745.


_Thomas Skinner—shoemaker_ (_1765-1777_). Thomas Skinner came to
Williamsburg from Henrico County sometime before 1765. He engaged in the
shoemaking business until 1777 when he dropped from sight.


_James Swain—leather-breeches maker_ (_1763_). Little is known of James
Swain. He is mentioned in Alexander Craig’s account book in 1763. In
that year Swain made a shot bag for Craig. He may have been the same
James Swain who is mentioned in Henrico County in 1777.


_James Taylor—shoemaker_ (_1742-1775_). James Taylor is first mentioned
in 1742. He may have been in business with William Wilcox, shoemaker. In
1751 Wilcox and Taylor advertised for two runaway indentured shoemakers.
Taylor engaged in business in Williamsburg until 1775 when he dropped
from sight.


_George Wells—shoemaker_ (_1738-1753_). George Wells came to Virginia in
1738 at the age of 21 as an indentured servant. He was engaged to work
for seven years. In 1751 he advertised lodgings for rent in
Williamsburg, where he worked at the trade of a shoemaker. He died in
1753 and left a fairly large estate.


_William Wilcox—shoemaker_ (_1748-1757_). William Wilcox is first
mentioned in 1748. He may have been in business with James Taylor by
1751. Wilcox died in 1757 and left a large estate.


_George Wilson—shoemaker_ (_1773-1774_). George Wilson was probably a
brother of John Wilson, shoemaker of Norfolk. After John Wilson’s death
in 1771, George carried on his shoemaking business in Norfolk until he
moved to Williamsburg in 1773. George Wilson operated a shoemaking
business in Williamsburg until his own death in 1774.


_The Leatherworker in Eighteenth-Century Williamsburg_ was first
published in 1967 and was reprinted in 1973. Written by Thomas K. Ford,
editor of Colonial Williamsburg publications until 1976, it is based
largely on unpublished studies by Harold B. Gill, Jr., and Raymond
Townsend of the Department of Research.




                          Transcriber’s Notes


—Retained publication information from the printed edition: this eBook
  is public-domain in the country of publication.

—Silently corrected a few palpable typos.

—Marked one lacuna in the printed text with an ellipsis in brackets:
  {...}

—In the text versions only, text in italics is delimited by
  _underscores_.