From Offenbach.
Leather goods by Kreis.

Since 1968, purse-maker master Kreis produces leather goods of the highest quality. We have leather products made for us there that are manufactured with a very high effort: a briefcase, a wallet, a watchband and belts of excellent vegetable tanned cowhide. Also something of a rarity: a belt made of Shell Cordovan, a vegetable-tanned horse leather. All the products by Kreis are made with raw edges, these being carefully smoothed and dyed in the appropriate colour. The fine, matte de luxe surface is accomplished by „glazing“ – a procedure in which the leather surface is gently rubbed with a glass or polished metal.

Please note:

Horse leather contains a lot of wax due to the production process. Additional greasing (for instance with shoe polish) will make the leather dull. The belts may simply be polished with a wool cloth.

Shell Cordovan Leather belt. By Kreis.

Leather goods made of horse leather are such a rare luxury because only certain very small parts of the skin (the oval shells on the horses’ croup) of a very special race of cold-blooded horses can be used for really excellent leather products. Because of the small size of these shells, this belt is made from three pieces. Purse-maker Kreis orders the pit tanned Shell Cordovan for the top layer of our belt from the Horween tannery in Chicago who specialise in horse leather since 1905. The leather is of an unusual durability, the fibre structure being especially dense and strong. The Oxblood colour is applied by hand. It is the classic Shell Cordovan shade, a deep burgundy red. The lining is made of equally rare and very complicatedly tan pit tanned cowhide. Both leathers are carefully sewn with raw edges, which are waxed and polished.