Briefcase Appreciation thread

[drP]

Thank you, Im glad you like them. The comparison is interesting. In a lot of ways the case that's photographed in this thread is inspired by SAB, but SAB from 40 or 50 years ago. I grew up with stuff of theirs of that era and have a huge amount of respect for it - part of what inspired my interest in leatherwork in the first place. As a result the style is very reminiscent of an SAB or other English case, but our aim was to take the quality and details to the level we felt they should be, so for eg the leather is all JFJ Baker bridle butt (Sedgwick as an alternative), the fittings are all individually hand picked and polished, all the components are made in England and for a case with Brass fittings the fittings and rivets are all solid brass or copper so they last forever without wearing down to steel on the rivets (palladium over brass as an alternative). The point of cases like this is to be largely unlined for longevity and lightness, which ours is, but where the leather has to be thinned down, like the gusset, the address label, areas like that, we fully lined and stitch so there aren't any ugly bits of split leather to touch. We also hand stitch everything, so literally the whole case is hand stitched, not just the handle, burnish rather than paint the edges, etc etc. The result is somthing that's rarther more expensive than a modern SAB, but somthing we're comfortable that all off the ingredients have been selected to last a whole life time or more, and that the price increment is justified to get the quality we wanted to produce

Charlie

I can concur fully, being able to compare the SAB Westminster case with the Equus briefcase “in vivo”...
The Equus briefcase is quite a few levels up in quality compared to the SAB, which is made of heavily pigmented bridle...(but to each his own..) and worth every penny of it, moreover: it has a quality/price ratio which is much higher than that of the SAB case ( and as we all know, “the quality remains long after the price is forgotten”...)

Frankly the quality of the Equus case is as good as it gets, absolutely of a superbe level of cratsmanship.
You might say that Equus is like Aston Martin, and SAB is like Volkswagen...?

 

[Equus Leather]

I can concur fully, being able to compare the SAB Westminster case with the Equus briefcase “in vivo”...
The Equus briefcase is quite a few levels up in quality compared to the SAB, which is made of heavily pigmented bridle...(but to each his own..) and worth every penny of it, moreover: it has a quality/price ratio which is much higher than that of the SAB case ( and as we all know, “the quality remains long after the price is forgotten”...)

Frankly the quality of the Equus case is as good as it gets, absolutely of a superbe level of cratsmanship.
You might say that Equus is like Aston Martin, and SAB is like Volkswagen...?

Thank you, that's very kind of you to say. If somthing is worth doing its always worth overdoing, or over making! My aspiration for everything we make is for it to be the best available anywhere - a pretty punch goal but always what we're trying to do and always the ethos in the workshop

 

[Leander walker]

Ettinger is making a real push into the United states,now stocked by Turnbull and Asser in New York and J Toor in chicago. Don't know if Equus has similar aspirations,to get into retail stores in United States. In New York I stili see many gentlemen carrying an Engljsh lid-over-body attache,a top frame case,or a buckle strap wrap around. Also see the wonderful older Louis Vuitton leather briefcases which were quite nice,these are the ones made before Virgil Abloh ruined the mens half of the brand. Regretfully,you see many men carrying a backpack with their smart suit and shoes. But there are still many men who appreciate the timeless style and quality of a traditional briefcase

 

[Leander walker]

Although the Equus briefcases look great in the photos,I'm sure they're even more impressive in person,when you can smell and touch the leather. I don't think online selling can truly do justice to products like this which provide such a sensory experience to view in person

 

[Equus Leather]

Ettinger is making a real push into the United states,now stocked by Turnbull and Asser in New York and J Toor in chicago. Don't know if Equus has similar aspirations,to get into retail stores in United States. In New York I stili see many gentlemen carrying an Engljsh lid-over-body attache,a top frame case,or a buckle strap wrap around. Also see the wonderful older Louis Vuitton leather briefcases which were quite nice,these are the ones made before Virgil Abloh ruined the mens half of the brand. Regretfully,you see many men carrying a backpack with their smart suit and shoes. But there are still many men who appreciate the timeless style and quality of a traditional briefcase

I dont know that we do, at the moment anyway. The volume manufacture that you need to do that kind of stuff is what's spoiled the quality of a lot of brands and I dont want us to over stretch ourselves - better to stay small and good than go the same way of so many great predecessors, IMO. I would like to come over for some of the trunk shows, and people have said they'd like to see our stuff in New York, so if we could find one shop dedicated to the kind of thing in NYC that would be pretty cool

Although the Equus briefcases look great in the photos,I'm sure they're even more impressive in person,when you can smell and touch the leather. I don't think online selling can truly do justice to products like this which provide such a sensory experience to view in person

Agreed. We do sell them online, but what tends to happen is that each case is actually bespoke, and there's a long conversation between the buyer and us (me) agreeing all the details, what their leather preferences are, looking at and posting samples, working out a layout that works for what they want to do. Things like the Umbrella Strap came from that process - it was a customer request that they wanted to have some way of carrying their umbrella that was in keeping with the rest of the case, so we designed it. We can happily do it by a meeting in the workshop also, we often do this for our watch strap customers.

Charlie

 

[drP]

...I'm sure they're even more impressive in person,when you can smell and touch the leather...

Absolutely!

 

[Equus Leather]

Bit more briefcase Appreciation

This is the stitched version of the shot I posted a little while ago - if you compare the two you can see how the angle stitch marks help create the angled stitch saddle stitch is famous for

This is the briefcase in question..

Charlie

 

[Louispph]

Lads, how’s the quality of Barrow&Hepburn made by Foster & Sons?
recently see a vintage one.

 

[Leander walker]

Barrow and. Hepburn made top quality bridle leather briefcases. Unfortunately,Foster Shoes discontinued using that name a number of years ago. Foster briefcases are very good quality. There is a company called Barrow and Hepburn which makes the red dispatch boxes,as the original Barrow and Hepburn did.

 

[fazalmajid]

Bit more briefcase Appreciation

Looks wonderful, Charlie. Sadly I can no longer carry briefcases or messenger bags, the asymmetric load is murder on my shoulders and back. Do you have any plans to branch out into backpacks? I commissioned one from Glaser Designs just before moving from San Francisco to London, but you can never have too many bags...

 

[Louispph]

Barrow and. Hepburn made top quality bridle leather briefcases. Unfortunately,Foster Shoes discontinued using that name a number of years ago. Foster briefcases are very good quality. There is a company called Barrow and Hepburn which makes the red dispatch boxes,as the original Barrow and Hepburn did.

Thx.

pondering a choice between old Foster and new Rutherfords

Lads, how abt Rutherfords?

 

[Equus Leather]

Looks wonderful, Charlie. Sadly I can no longer carry briefcases or messenger bags, the asymmetric load is murder on my shoulders and back. Do you have any plans to branch out into backpacks? I commissioned one from Glaser Designs just before moving from San Francisco to London, but you can never have too many bags...

Thanks! Glad you like it

No immediate backpack plans Im afraid. After the laptop bag that's next in the pipeline we have a music case and then a cross body bag constructed somewhat in the manner of our cartridge bag which I think will be rather cool. Not helpful for you though, sorry!

 

[Louispph]

Thanks! Glad you like it

No immediate backpack plans Im afraid. After the laptop bag that's next in the pipeline we have a music case and then a cross body bag constructed somewhat in the manner of our cartridge bag which I think will be rather cool. Not helpful for you though, sorry!

View attachment 1355014

A splendid bag!!
Very wearable for both men and women i reckon.
Made of ostrich leather, isn’t it?

 

[Equus Leather]

A splendid bag!!
Very wearable for both men and women i reckon.
Made of ostrich leather, isn’t it?

Thank you! It’s ostrich lined with calf and more or less a traditional English Cartridge bag, rendered a little less traditional by the ostrich and the 23kt finished buckles

 

[ThomGault]

Can anyone point me in the direction of a good reference of a hierarchy of leather briefcase makers, roughly $1500 or less? I've read through a year's worth of posts in this thread and saw lots of nice bags, but its difficult to understand the comparative quality and value of each brand. Do smaller makers (e.g. equus or clegg) generally offer better value over mass-produced bags, or is it a matter of quality and potential customization?