“Diced Russia” [full 18th-century reindeer skin]. 

“Diced Russia” [full 18th-century reindeer skin]. 

This reindeer skin was recovered among other cargo in 1973, when divers from the British Sub Aqua Club discovered the shipwreck of the Danish brigantine Die Frau Metta Catharina von Flensburg, which sank more than 200 years ago in 1786. The cargo was documented specifically as “hemp and reindeer hide” being shipped to Genoa from Saint Petersburg. There was a trade in Russian reindeer skin at the time—particularly among the indigenous Sámi peoples of the Nordic countries and northwestern Russia, who were probably the source of this particular skin.

From the collection of Rare Book School