Leather Color Help

[Martin Moser]

There are literary references to black, white and yellow shoes (cf. Otto Lau: Schuster und Schusterhandwerk in der griechisch-römischen Literatur und Kunst, 1969), so presumably to leather of that color. White leather is the result of alum tanning, which was known at the time, so no dyeing as such is needed. Possibly the upper layer of the Gommern Belt was alum tanned.
I found that a yellow of sorts (goes a bit towards green) can be achieved with birch leaves and cold dyeing of alum tanned leather:



The color is a bit more brighter yellow than it appears on my monitor at least. The strips show the whiteness of undyed alum tanned leather (goat leather), btw.

And yes, I'd also be interested to hear what sources there are for scabbard leather colors!

Hope that helps,
Martin