Shagreen

From Freepedia

Shagreen is a type of untanned leather, formerly made from a horse's back, or that of a wild ass, and typically dyed green. Shagreen is now commonly made of the skins of sharks and rays. It is unusually rough and grainy, and used as a fancy leather for book bindings, pocket-books and small cases, as well as its more utilitarian uses in the handles of swords and daggers, where slipperiness is a positive disadvantage.

Shagreen was traditionally prepared by embedding plant seeds (often Chenopodium) in the untreated skin while soft, covering the skin with a cloth, and trampling them into the skin. When the skin was dry the seeds were shaken off, leaving the surface of the leather covered with small indentations.

In the 17th and early 18th centuries, however, the term "shagreen" began to be applied to a leather made from sharkskin or the skin of a rayfish (probably the 'Pearl Ray', Hypolophus sephen). These skins are naturally covered with round, closely set, calcified papillae resembling small pearls. In this newer form of shagreen, the surface was ground smooth, leaving only its pattern of small circles.