John Lever
One Too Many
- Messages
- 1,819
- Location
- Southern England
The late Andrew Tinnion the owner of the Fenland Tannery told me personally that the relationship ended when there was a dispute over flaking top coat causing customers to ask to return jackets back to Eastman. The tannery refused to replace the batch of skins so the relationship ended. Some of these flakey jackets come up for sale occasionally.Yes, horse hide trim did come out about 1990-91 simply because customers in the USA were asking for it (and had no knowledge of goat and steer use on AAF jackets), but the finish on the sheepskin was polyacrylate lacquer. The old ELC color B-3 promo page from 1989 and before states this, I do believe (I'd have to hunt for one of these), and we took in our first ELC B-3's in 1989, which certainly appeared to have had the finish. I do not know what you have/had that makes you think it was not this finish, but if you still have the coat I'd love to see what you are describing.
It is possible that ELC had the finish refined in the timeframe you reference, so maybe there is some noticeable difference from these early years, or maybe the finish just changed from a particular consignment. Now I'm curious ...