Morocco binding
Morocco bindings are expensively made of a goatskin hand-processed to show up the grain of the leather, which is glazed and polished. Originally made of goatskin from Moroccan goats, such bindings are now made mainly of Cape goatskin from South Africa. Since the skin is very thick, the leather must be pounded to make it thinner before it can be made into bookbindings. Its toughness makes morocco leather one of the best materials for bookcovers. Morocco is particularly important for the making of bibliophile editions, art books, etc, because it can be exquisitely worked and is extremely well suited for use as a ground for hand-tooling or stamping in gold. Further, since morocco leather is subjected to a special tanning process (using sumach), it takes on vegetable dyes particularly well so that saturated hues can be achieved in it.
