Binding one's treasured books in leather has been the durable treatment for centuries.  It still is.  Two hundred years ago people of means sometimes sent their entire libraries to be custom bound in leather.  The bindings were normally without pictures, but they were a pleasure outing for the binder to decorate in gilt.  Inlays of leather in contrasting colors have also been used to embellish book bindings.   The end products are lovely to look at and pleasing to hold.   Modern leather bindings tend to used only rarely for a few "special" copies of a book.   They are unusual and more costly than the cloth bindings produced for the regular trade.
 
You may happen upon one of Tasha Tudor's books bound in leather.   The Worcester, Massachusetts, publisher Achille St. Onge specialized in making miniature leather books from 1935 until 1976.  He collaborated with Tudor in publishing Tudor's first book length treatment of The Night Before Christmas (1962) and The Twenty-Third Psalm (1965/1975).  Each of these was bound in several different leathers in editions of approximately 20,000 copies.  The Night Before Christmas provides the interesting example of a cloth bound book being rarer than the leather copy.  Twelve hundred copies were bound in maroon cloth and are not so common as the leather.
 
Beth Mather's Jenny Wren Press published three Tudor books in leather:  Pumpkin Moonshine in a 55th anniversary edition (1993), Around the Year and The Dolls' Christmas (both 1994).  Pumpkin Moonshine was limited to 250 copies, and the other two only 150 copies.  Each was numbered; we have copies of both for sale.
 
One hundred copies of The Great Corgiville Kidnapping were bound by the Boston firm Harcourt Bindery in 1998.  These were ordered and sold by Corgi Cottage Industries.  These are technically referred to as "three-quarters leather."   Only the spine and corners are leather-covered; the rest of the covers are bound in cloth.
 
Tasha Tudor: The Direction of Her Dreams was also bound in 50 leather copies.  As is sometimes the case in limited editions, these 50 copies carry an extra limitation page showing the numbered sequence of the book, e.g., 33/50.  This particular limitation page is signed by six authors who had a hand in the book and by Tasha Tudor as well. 
 
A publisher will sometimes bind a single copy of an author's book as a presentation copy to the author.   We have seen two of Tudor's titles in this format.   These are Give Us This Day and Seasons of Delight, two Philomel titles from twenty years ago. 
 
And finally three books were recently published in new leather bindings by the Easton Press in Norwalk, Ct.   These Tudor titles are A Little Princess and The Secret Garden in 2001 and The Lord's Prayer (2005).  The latter was previously sold as Give Us This Day from Philomel.  Cellar Door Books carries all three as they become available.