Hunting scenes and scenes of religious life are usually found on these early German cut leather bindings, now and then, as in the case of the splendid sixteenth century copy of Ranierus de Pisa’s _Pantheologia_, now in the British Museum, showing a monk at his desk; the borders are ornamented with small stamps. Cut leather bindings are done with consummate skill, and must always have been very costly, so we find that they were, and are, very cleverly imitated by skilfully cut stamps. An example of this is so well done that it has over and over again been described as hand work, but in fact it is only a stamp. German leather workers are still pre-eminent in this small cut manner. At the St. Louis Exhibition of 1904, in the German section there were several examples of cut leather work done in exactly the same way as the fifteenth century work--and quite as good. It is not only used for book bindings but also to cover boxes and small articles, but as we have noted in the case of earlier work, many modern apparently hand-cut German leathers are really only impressions from large panel stamps. [Illustration: FIG. 97.--English blind stamped binding, with the arms of Henry VIII.] Notable among German bindings are those made by John Richenbach, of Gyslingen, who lettered and dated many of his fine volumes. The dates run from 1467 onwards. There is one fine example in the British Museum; it is like all the rest, in pig skin, and stamped in blind, a little transparent colour being put over many of the stamps. Round the outer borders of the boards runs the inscription in large black letters: ILLIGATA PER ME IO. RICHENBACH CAPELLANU IN GYSLINGEN, 1475. [Illustration: FIG. 98.--German binding, by J. Richenbach. Dated 1475.] All Richenbach’s bindings are still thoroughly strong and good, and the small touch of colour upon them redeems them from the monotony of colour which is so marked in the later German bindings in white pig skin. German blind tooled bindings are very numerous, as the art was always much liked by German binders, and whereas both in England and in France blind tooling and stamping quickly gave way before the more beautiful and popular art of gold tooling, in Germany the quieter blind work has retained its supremacy. German binders never took kindly to gold tooling, and when they had to do it they generally used bad metal. Most early German gold tooled work is now badly discoloured for this reason. [Illustration: FIG. 99.--German stamped leather binding with portrait of Charles V. Dated 1570.]