CRAFTS — 217/262 — Tanners
A tanner was a craftsman who tanned and processed animal hides. Once softened, these hides were handed over to cobblers, saddlers, or other craftsmen who used them to make clothing, bags, dishes, and more. It was not a pleasant job, as the hides needed to be quickly stripped of fat and preserved to prevent spoilage, which involved soaking them in vats of urea. Due to the strong unpleasant odor, tanners were located on the outskirts of towns and belonged to the same reviled group as executioners, knackers, and prostitutes. To transform hides into material for shoes or clothing, they had to be soaked in water after being stripped from the animal. Once softened, they were scraped of any remaining flesh and membranes using a long blunt knife. To remove fur, hides were soaked in lime water for two weeks or smeared with slaked lime. They were then tanned using either alum (handled by a tawer), fats (handled by a chamoiser), or tannins (handled by the tanner) from oak, beech, or other barks. This lengthy process made the hides supple, prevented decomposition, and sometimes changed their color. At the end of the process, hides were soaked in vats or pits of urea for several weeks. The tanned leathers were then dried, sometimes oiled, dyed, and polished.
TRIVIA
— The material of the tanning process – bark, alum or fat – was not just arbitrary. Herbal tanning with bark that red or pit tanners used was applied to large and heavy hides to produce a strong, resilient leather needed for saddles, bridles or soles. Mineral tanning with alum applied by white or vat tanners produced finer, thinner types of leather to be processed into shoes or clothes. Chamois or bag tanners used animal fat (of fish oil, bone fat or brain matter) to create a very fine and smooth product as for shoe lining, book covers or gloves. The actual tanning process – that is the placing of the hides in the respective tannin to loosen the hair and give the leather its desired property – could take anything from three months for white tanning up to three years for red tanning. The work was thus a costly one, also because of the special equipment needed – pits and workbenches, special tannery buildings with up to 12 metre tall roofs of several floors for drying the leather, watermills and sometimes canals specifically dug for the tanning quarters. But tanning was also profitable. Almost every artisan craft depended on them, many towns had legislations that banned cobblers, saddlers, or bag makers from tanning their own leather and required them to buy from local tanners, while tanners would have a pre-emption right for local butchers. Tanners would be present at almost every trade fair, and their products made one of the most important export goods of medieval cities, only exceeded by metal and cloth. This provided tanners both with wealth and influence. Many of them owned multiple plots of land or even entire streets or the canals running through them. They were present in town councils, chosen as mayors, chamberlains or bailiffs. In the annual Corpus Christi mystery play of 14th century York the tanner guild led the whole procession and was responsible for the big opening act of the cycle: the Creation of Heaven and Hell -> -> -> ->
