Red Winchester: take two - by Anita

I admit that sometimes I am a bit too keen to sell my binders...
After some recent editing, I'm feeling very content with my small collection of models that I've owned before:

• Black personal Kensington - purchased and sold multiple times, then finally kindly given back to me as a gift
• Vintage Mulberry agenda - sold my previous one as all my supplies are in personal Filofax size. However, my new one was cheaper overall, is in much better condition and I much prefer the pattern on the leather. I decided to purchase another as I do like the A6 paper size and Mulberry leather
• Red Winchester - with hindsight, I was a bit silly to sell my previous one as I prefer the older models and love red binders. 

Whilst the wine Holborn is a fantastic binder, I did realise that the wonderful soft leather was maybe a little too soft for my liking. During a minor altercation with a hardback book in my bag, it came away with a small dent which made me question if it was right for me. Any binder that I own needs to be hard wearing as 1) they all get shoved into bags and 2) they will always be around books. I am therefore delighted that the lovely Holborn is now residing happily in Canada with Alan.  

Red Winchesters are harder to find than the other colours, so I was quite surprised to find one for sale in one of the Facebook selling groups! I was just about to leave the group as I don't have any others for sale and it just so happened that this particular one was showing at the top before I left. And it's lovely as I was able to purchase from the same wonderful seller that sold me my previous Winchester (thank you!). 

I feel very fortunate once again as this one was cheaper and the outside is such a bright colour. It's exactly what I was after for the darker winter months. I'm finding it hard to get the colour right in my photos to represent what it's like in the flesh, but the outside is what I'd call a bright lipstick red shade.

The inside is a little darker, even though it hasn't come out quite right again here. The previous owner had tucked the left hand ring protector back in and I'm finding that that this now means access to those pockets is much easier.

The outside has a lovely shine to it from being used. The Winchester leather is very sturdy and will definitely stand up to contact with any items in my bags.

I just plonked all the same contents in from my Kensington and my set up hasn't changed, but I've changed pens for a while as the Winchester's pen loop is much smaller. I may purchase an A5 Flex pen loop to cut down to size to accommodate my normal fountain pen.

This photo represents the colour much more closely inside

I do a question for you all though... Has anyone seen this on a Winchester before? It's almost like there is a darker pattern that makes me think of some type of animal print? The area that I've tried to focus on is the leather that's normally under a ring protector, so it looks the most pristine.

There is also evidence of the same areas of darker colour/pattern underneath where the strap normally sits and also on the pen loop. 

One suggestion that I've already had is that this is just accumulated dirt as it's a vintage item, but I suppose I'm curious to see if anyone has come across it before I break out the cleaning supplies?