Ersatz leather

Has anyone experience with the conservation (particularly reforming)
of an ersatz leather made from shellac impregnated cloth?  The
examples in question are the head and hat-bands of Japanese military
uniform caps from the second world war. The product may have been known
in the UK as "American Cloth". We are also very interested in the history
and manufacture of this material.

Bruce Ford (for Wendy Dodd of the Australian War Memorial)

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                  Conservation DistList Instance 8:14
                 Distributed: Tuesday, August 16, 1994
                        Message Id: cdl-8-14-004
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