In many studio portraits taken at the City Photographic Establishment, 140 Elizabeth St. Hobart Town by Thomas Nevin into the mid 1870s, the shiny slipper chair is an eye-grabber. With every year passing, the leather – what else could it be? – acquired a higher and higher sheen. In one photograph below, of  a young man posing with Nevin’s big tabletop stereoscopic viewer, the partially uncovered seat of the slipper chair might indicate the chair was of different fabric to the leather cover, and that a change of cover was underway for cleaning. Lemon, vinegar, alcohol or other acidic preparations were used to cleanse and disinfect leather chair covers.  The animal or plant used in making the cover, and the method of rendering such a high sheen was achieved with oil-based soaps and polishes derived from plants such as olives, though these would have stained women’s dresses, so too would wax derived from candles. … More Thomas Nevin’s studio decor: the lady’s slipper chair