How to clean a lizard-skin handbag?

[Kayeby]

I recently bought a lizard-skin bag** from a market with a blue biro mark on the side. The woman I bought it from assured me that I could easily clean it with either methylated spirits (sp?) or hairspray. So far, I’ve tried:

[li]Metho[/li][li]Hairspray[/li][li]Turpentine[/li][li]Scraping it slightly with a nail file[/li]
Nothing has worked. I’m loathe to get it dyed because I’ve been told that it will ruin the unique finish. And so I come to my fellow Dopers who will hopefully know what to do.

Any help would be much appreciated.

** By the way, does anybody know how lizard-skin bags are made? I always assumed that previously-shed skin was used, but my boyfriend seems to think otherwise.

[samclem]

I can’t help, so I might as well hinder.

A little known fact: When caught in a torrential downpour, lizard-skin bags fill up quickly with water, which has to be gotten out immediately after the shower. Thus the origin of the term “to drain the lizard.”