Shagreen Shagreen Shagreen is a type of rawhide consisting of rough untanned skin, historically from a horse's or onager's back, or from shark or ray. In modern times, shagreen is produced from the skins of commercially-farmed Asian sting rays. The word derives from the French "chagrin" and is related to Italian "zigrino" and Venetian "sagrin", derived from the Turkic "sağrı" / "çağrı" 'rump of a horse' or the prepared skin of this part. The roughness of its texture led to the French meaning of anxiety, vexation, embarrassment, or annoyance. Shagreen has an unusually rough and granular surface, and is sometimes used
Russia leather been remarkably hard-wearing and examples have lasted in use into the 19th century, without recovering. When finally worn out, this was often by the surface of the leather having worn right through into a hole, still without any structural cracking of the leather, as a less flexible hide would fail. Russia leather was (and still is) commonly used for production of footwear. In Russia itself, it was usually used to make high boots (sapogi). In this craft, Russia leather was usually divided into two sorts: the more expensive "yalovka" (produced from calf skin) and the cheaper "yuft" (from all other