VEGETABLE TANNING - The result of an ancient tradition.
From the long and patient working of the leather a unique, soft and durable product is created. The metamorphosis happens gradually, through a series of stages spanning about thirty days and ending with an innumerable variety of refining techniques, through which the tanners' knowledge and experience of his craft are elevated to a level of authentic artistic expression. This to transform the raw hides into an inimitable material that, with time, becomes even more beautiful to see and to touch. The secret of the vegetable tanned leather lies in the use of tannins, which are vegetable extracts, from the wood and trunk of chestnut and quebracho and mimosa. The extraction of these tannins is done through completely natural processes that guarantee the total respect of the environment and assure the natural re-growth of the trees. This mixture of tannins penetrates into the raw hides during the tanning process which takes place inside large wooden drums. A process that is both prodigious and natural that is based on the slow passage of time and the expert work of the hands of the master tanners.
ITALIAN VEGETABLE TANNED LEATHER CONSORTIUM
In the heart of the Tuscan tanning district, master artisans, heirs to centuries of knowledge and experience, still execute with the same patience and skill the Vegetable Tanning of the leathers: a long process based on the use of natural vegetable extracts. This process transforms the raw hides into finished leather, with total respect for the environment. A precious artisan craft that tanneries of the Italian Vegetable Tanned Leather Consortium have been handing down for nearly 200 years, combining antique traditions with modern technology.
The thirty-one tanneries that are part of the Consortium all guarantee a tanning process executed with complete respect of man and environment. Different companies that share a common philosophy: to produce high quality leather.
THE TRADEMARK OF QUALITY
The trademark that makes the difference. The Italian Vegetable Tanned Leather Consortium is today the holder of the homonymous trademark born to guarantee the quality of the leathers realized by the member tanneries.
From the collaboration with the Stazione Sperimentale Pelli (the Experimental Leather Station) a regulation for the guarantee of the quality of the product was designed, in order to assure the manufacturers' and the customers' satisfaction: a strict technical data sheet for the vegetable-tanning process, today UNI 10885 rule.
As a furher guarantee of their leathers, the member tanneries offer to their clients, by signing a contract, the possibility of distinguish their collections with gurantee labels. The label "Genuine Italian Vegetable-Tanned Leather", progressively numbered, is able to trace both tannery and manufacturer and also certificates that the leather has been tanned only with vegetable extracts, without any use of chemical substances, harmful for man. A distinctive instrument that qualifies the leather and certifies its artisan process, offering the guarantee of the purchase.