Leather Cluster Barcelona received from the Andrés family an important legacy of technical books and magazines on the leather sector from the early 20th century.

It was Xavier Andrés who, on behalf of his family, handed over the donation to a delegation from Leather Cluster Barcelona made up of Miquel Vila, Bernat Vilarrubias, Xavier Badia, Jordi Vidal and Mònica Santamans.

The bibliographic collection handed over by the Andrés family to Leather Cluster Barcelona consists of technical magazines and books on the leather sector dating from between 1915 and 1930.

Of particular note in this bibliographic legacy are a textbook of the Barcelona Tannery School dated 1922, publications in English from various years by the Society of Leather Trades Chemists and publications in French from the magazine Le Cuir Technique, published in Paris.

The material donated by the Andrés family is of incalculable historical value. The collection of books and magazines from the early 20th century deals mainly with technical subjects related to leather, such as tanning in the different phases of the process, materials for tanning hides, dyes, fatliquors, finishes and published patents on machinery and processes.

The technical level of the bibliographic collection is very high, which shows that more than 100 years ago the Catalan tanning industry was eager to learn, to keep up to date in its field of activity and to adopt new technologies and procedures. The thirst for knowledge of the tanners of the time is especially notable, as evidenced by the fact that they subscribed to English technical publications, at a time when French was taught in schools but English only in small circles.

The donation ceremony took place at Somiatruites. The Somiatruites hotel and restaurant are an architectural and gastronomic project of the Andrés family. Located in a former tannery in Igualada's emblematic Rec district, refurbished by the architect and co-owner of Somiatruites, Xavier Andrés, Somiatruites offers a gastronomic proposal created by the chef and also co-owner, David Andrés, trained at the prestigious Hoffmann school and currently chef at the historic Via Veneto restaurant in Barcelona, which holds one Michelin star. Somiatruites has established itself as one of the benchmark restaurants of the Anoia county, offering a contemporary and enjoyable gastronomic proposal, traditional in its foundations and affordable for all budgets.

With this note, Leather Cluster Barcelona wishes to publicly thank the Andrés family for their generous gesture in donating this important historical archive.

Leather Cluster Barcelona is an environment of competitive cooperation for promoting cross-cutting, transformative strategic projects with the aim of driving the ecosystem of the Catalan leather sector within the framework of Shared Value policies. The cluster is an entity accredited under the Catalonia Clusters programme and is supported by Acció.