mossing

1) An obscure term, used twice in the ordinances of the York curriers in <i>c</i>.1425, on both occasions linked with ‘dressing’.

Item for mossyng and for drissyng it clen up als it awe to be, for j dakyr of hose leddyr viijd. The editor was told by a currier that the word was still in occasional use in the early 1900s and referred to the practice of ‘treating the leather with a decoction of Irish and Iceland moss’ in order to glaze it. It had given way to sizing the leather with glue.

places York
dates 1425

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