Antelope is a super-premium FINISHED leather from a German Tannery. Probably the finest Finished leather one can buy. It comes from the same tannery as Capri and Quintessence. Because its Finished, it has a sprayed pigment on it and is fully protected. That's why you are seeing a different color on the 'crust' or back of the hide, its not aniline-dipped. All finished hides have topcoats on them, and Antelope is a matte to satin finish (but not glossy).
Capri is a pure ANILINE and will be a fully dipped-hide, so the color will be all the way through. It will be softer, more elegant, more expensive, and the protection will not be as great from spills and sun fade. It will be less glossy then Antelope as well.
Samples vary. I have (4) sets of H&M samples in the store and the only way to be sure of what is going on your furniture is to request a 'cutting for approval' at time of order. That way, a piece of the hide batch that is actually going to be used on your order is first mailed to the dealer, then to you for approval. The only caveat when doing this is 1) It will delay your production by 4 to 5 weeks 2) If you don't like the sample you are back to square 1, there is only one batch of leather to send out every 6 months or so.
Samples are representative of the final product, but not accurate. If I were to assign a value to it, I'd say that one can expect up to a 25% variance in color / hand / sheen from the samples in the upper tier hides, and up to a 10% variance in the lower grade leathers.
Be glad to send you more samples, but you'll need to PM me with your address.....
Duane Collie
Straight answers from thirty-six years in the business.
My Private Messages are Disabled - Please ask questions here in the forum.