Very excellent artisanry.
I recommend it heartily to anyone likes beautiful leather tooled work. I buffed it up with some saddle soap to make sure it doesn't dry out. It looks just great and Hey! Guess what! it also works as a footstool. The instructions recommended a touch of glue at the joints when assembling to enhance sturdiness, but as there is very slight flexion at these positions, which based on my experience with other similar slightly flexible wood jointing surfaces, will crack or crumple the glue. I decided it would be wiser to use carefully trimmed very thin laced/honeycombed carpet pad laid over the threaded part of the bolts to take up any flexion between the facing wood surfaces. Even scrap bicycle inner tube or similar material cut to small specifications with holes for the bolts to pass through, placed between the wood surfaces, will do the trick. This proved to be a very good idea. It snugged up nicely and holds very securely as I turned the nuts on the bolts, without worry of damaging the facing wood surfaces.