Oort Cylinder Bags in Hermann Oak Harness Leather
Two cylinders in rustic harness leather, named for the cloud at the edge of the solar system
The Oort is a pair. One cylinder is long and one is short, the same leather and the same hand in two sizes, and they stand together as a family.
Video: “Oort English bridle leather case in British racing green, small handbag, case,” Marcellino NY Briefcase Maker on YouTube, June 7, 2018. This is a different Oort, in green English bridle leather. It shows how the line started.
The name
In 1950 the Dutch astronomer Jan Oort proposed that long-period comets come from a vast cloud of small bodies far beyond the planets, now called the Oort Cloud. Nobody has photographed it. NASA describes a thick, bubble-like shell of icy bodies with no direct images, and puts its inner edge at 2,000 to 5,000 astronomical units from the Sun. Pluto sits at about 30 to 50.
I named the line for him. In the 2018 video I say it is a handbag line named after the Dutch astronomer Jan Oort, round, a cylinder, with my latch and some sort of unusual handle. A cylinder is a shape that wants to roll away from you. The name fit.
Harness leather versus bridle leather
I started the Oort line years before that video, and I put it aside. In the video I say I once made it mostly in harness leather and that I wanted to make it in English bridle leather and other thick, stiff leathers. The reason was the handles. An antique brass handle needs a body that behaves like a case, not a handbag, and stiff leather gives you that.
These two cylinders are harness leather, cut from Hermann Oak. The St. Louis tannery was incorporated in 1881. In my video on the hide, I say it is thick steer leather with no dye, stretch marks showing, and a color that deepens to gold as it ages. In a second video I call it filled with waxes and oils, durable and tolerant of water, and hard to work even in the thinner weights.
Bridle leather is the opposite temperament. It is smoother and more refined, and it holds its shape a little differently. Harness leather scratches and darkens fast. That is why I use it for rustic pieces.
The short one
The short cylinder is the small barrel you carry by the handle. The handle is the part people ask about: a brass handle in the shape of a sitar, finished black and silver. Black edges, a round top stitched in a line, and under the flap a green plaid lining.
The long one
The long cylinder closes with two Marcellino latches in brass, each on a stitched strap, with thick waxed saddle stitching on the seams and unpainted edges that show pale against the tan. The flap is left rough on the inside.
The shape is always the question for me, how far a bag can move from the box before it stops being useful. Open the flap and it takes a rolled sweater, a shirt and a pair of socks. Nothing else needs to be said about it.
Sources
- Oort English bridle leather case in British racing green (Marcellino NY Briefcase Maker, YouTube, June 7, 2018)
- Old World Harness Leather American Made Hermann Oak (Marcellino NY Briefcase Maker, YouTube, March 17, 2018)
- Close Up Harness Leather Hide by Hermann Oak (Marcellino NY Briefcase Maker, YouTube, March 17, 2018)
- Jan Oort (Encyclopaedia Britannica)
- Oort Cloud (NASA)
- Oort Cloud facts (NASA)
- A Conversation with Shep Hermann (Shop Talk Magazine)
How it is made
The latch is the Original Marcellino Latch, which I developed with attorney clients as a strong, quick alternative to a buckle.
The bridle leather is described on my leather page, and the journal explains it in What English Bridle Leather Actually Is, and Why Briefcases Are Cut From It.
The seams are hand stitched; see The Saddle Stitch Explained: Hand-Sewing Leather Step by Step for the method.
