What Is Shagreen Leather?
Stingray Skin
Shagreen sounds an odd name to say the least almost like some form of shaggy rough material.
Shagreen Leather today is mainly made from farmed Asian stingrays.
Shagreen is rough raw hide that’s untanned, onager’s, back, shark, horses back or that of a ray. Some people may not know what an onager is, this is an ass, like a donkey / pony.
Shagreen was traditionally from a horse or an onager’s back.
Shagreen has a bobbly finish to its surface, this is more evident with ray.
Stingray Close Up Of Bobbles
These skins were always left natural and used mainly for small items like cases, toilet cases, glass cases it was for hard and robust items, as they could withstand hard uses from oils on the skin from hands constantly touching and handling this.
Shagreen shark skin case
Early shagreen skins of horses were covered in seeds and trod on with cloths, while the skins were soft to give an impression in them to represent the ray skins, they are famous for. Once these skins were dry these plant seeds were then shaken off.
Stingray Body Showing Bobbles
Stingrays are a cartilaginous fish which are related to sharks, there are around 22o species of stingray in the world, these are categorised into 29 genera.
From a deepwater stingray, to a whiptail ray and a round stingray there are many variations that are all different looking.