St. Thomas guild - medieval woodworking, furniture and other crafts

The medieval toolchest: woodcarving knives

2012-02-22T00:41:00.000+01:00

I have been busy with chip-carving a sella curulis lately and this is done with one tool. the (wood) carving knife. We know this tool was used in medieval times (and even up till now) based on the furniture and other wooden utensils that are left from this period. There is not much archeological evidence or illustrations (e.g. in miniatures) of medieval knives that can be directly correlated to woodcarving. Knives that are found can be used for many reasons and many trades.

In Novgorod, Russia, however, some medieval knives of the 12th and 13th century could be linked to woodcarving and whittling of carpenters and coopers. They had a curved blade and a down-turned tip lower than the axis of the handle carving.

Woodworking knives from Novgorod: (a) and (b) 13th century, (c) 12th century. (d) drawing of the blades with the axis

of the handle. Images from Wood use in medieval Novgorod by M. Brisbane and J. Hather.

Our woodcarving knife also has such a curved and downturned blade. The design resembles modern woodcarving knives. The blade of our knife was forged by the German mastersmith David Schütze (Wollschmiede). He is specialised in reconstructions of archaeological finds. The knife was especially hardened and whetted to perfection by him for hard woods like oak. I have added a handle of apple wood to it.

Another use of a knife (or an awl) in medieval woodworking is for marking lines and geometric designs. Many of such marks have been found on wooden objects (furniture, houses, etc.) dating from the middle ages. See the photos below for examples of knife marks on the medieval chests from the Luneburger cloisters (Germany).

(above) Knife marks providing guides for carving on chest TR-NR-400 from cloister Wienhausen, dating 1320. (right) Knife marks on the inside of the chest for the groove of the small tray. Photos from the book Die Gotischen Truhen der Luneburger Heidekloster, from K.H. von Stulpnagel.

A third type of knife for (late) medieval woodworking, which was still used in the last century by carpenters is the so-called shoulder knife (it even can be bought today at specialist tool shops). This knife has a very long handle which rests against the shoulder providing a stable hold. This stability feature makes the shoulder knife very useful for the very precise construction of intarsia, like the (intarsia) self portrait of Antonio Barili clearly shows.

Image of Antonio Barili (1453-1516) from Sienna, Italy. The artist carves the letters: HOC EGO ANTONIUS BARILIS OPVS COELO - NON PENICELLO EXCVSSI. AN.DN. MCCCCCII. (This work have I Antonio Barili made with the carving knife, not with a brush. In the year 1502.). Other tools shown are a gouge, a folding knife and a pencil. The woods used for the intarsia are pear, beech, walnut, maple and palisander. The intarsia sadly has been destroyed during the second world war.

The last knife used by medieval woodworkers discussed here is the spoon-carving or hollowing knife. This knife was exclusively used for carving the hollows of spoons and bowls. Again, they have been found in medieval Novgorod, Russia (11-14th century - along with more than 650 spoons), but also at Arhus and Trelleborg in Denmark (10-13th century).

11th-14th century spoon carving knives from Novgorod. Image from the cd of the book: Wood use in medieval Novgorod.

Progress on the sella curulis

2012-02-19T14:16:00.000+01:00

The construction of the sella curulis, a medieval folding chair, is going steady, but slowly. I am currently carving the chairs legs, which is quite a lot of work. This also includes carving test pieces, to check if the design is appropriate and to make myself more comfortable with the carving process of each specific part. The photographs below show the progress and I will give my comments to each step.

After the making the legs of the sella curulis, described in a previous post, I first made the side rails which connect the two sets of X-legs. I have three side rails planned for the chair: two flat ones, that come on top of the chair and will hold the leather seat, and one at the cross-section. The latter one is turned in a medieval style also found with turned chairs. The side rails all end in tenons. The mortises for the flat rails were then made into the X-legs, using a machine drill at a set depth for the rough work and a chisel to clear out the mortise and make it square. The next three photos will give an idea of the final chair.

Frontal view of the sella curulis

Side view of the sella curulis

Top of the sella curulis

The next step consisted of rounding off the edges of the legs. A draw-knife and a scraper were used for this step. The leg was set in a vice on the work bench and first worked with the draw-knife - taking care of the direction of the grain of the wood, and then the edges were smoothed with the scraper.

After the rounding of the edges, two rings were carved to mark the "head" and the "feet" from the rest of the leg of the chair. The photo below shows the rings next to the mortise hole of the top rail.

The following step consisted of carving the central roundel. I wanted a spiral pattern which is also commonly found on medieval chests. A few examples of such chests are shown below. For carving I had much use of a small book (in German) on chip-carving entitled: Das Kerbschnitzen - ein Lehrgang fur Anfanger und Fortgeschrittene by Christian Rubi (1959, Verlag Hans Huber, Bern, Switzerland). According to this book you need only one tool: a chip-carving knife. And of course a calliper/divider is useful for laying out the pattern. A typical saying in this book goes: "A carving does not fail due to lack of talent, or the wood used, but of lack of a strong will to guide the knife on the drawn pattern".

Two 12th/13th century chests from the Musee the Valere, Sion , Switzerland made from walnut. These chests have elaborate chip-carved roundels, but also the arcades in the central panel and legs bear chip-carved patterns. Sizes of the chest are 103 x 201 x 62 cm and 100 x 190 x 50 cm, respectively. B/W photo from Mobel Europas - Franz Windisch-Graetz; color photo form Musee de Valere.

This 13th century oak hutch from a church in Hampshire, United Kingdom, with three different chip-carved roundels.

The chest now resides in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK. Sizes of the chest are 50.6 x 109 x 48.2 cm. Photo copyright V&A Museum.

I did not trust my strong will to guide the knife that much, so I made a test piece of the spiral roundel first. It was easier than I thought, but I was glad I made the test piece first. The roundel on the actual leg of the chair was better than the test. After the spiral roundel, I added several smaller roundels with a different "star" pattern (like left roundel on the Victoria and Albert Museum hutch) on the leg. Each star roundel was specifically fitted to the width of the leg at that point. Tricky point here is that you must start with the incisions that sever the fibres, and after that those that follow the fibre. Else, some pieces will break off - luckily they did on the test piece.

The test piece of the spiral roundel.

The actual central roundel with the spiral pattern in progress.

One of the star-shaped small roundels

With the roundels all complete, a zigzag pattern will be carved in the space between the roundels. A zigzag pattern is ideal as it can easily follow the curve of the leg. This is the stage I am now working at. The last two photos show some of the patterns carved on the leg.

Multilingual medieval furniture dictionary: storage furniture

2012-02-07T23:52:00.000+01:00

This is the second part of the multilingual medieval furniture dictionary and it will cover medieval furniture types in which you can store things. The first part has been posted a while ago and covered seating furniture.

Several remarks can be made on storage furniture. First, there are many types of medieval furniture that have a dual function, for instance the high armchair is primarily used for seating, but often has a storage compartment underneath the seating. This seating/storage combination furniture type can be found in part one of the dictionary, and will not be dealt here. Other combinations, like table and storage or writing and storage will dealt with in future parts of the multilingual medieval furniture dictionary.

A 'stepped' buffet with 4 stages behind the dais. Miniature from Les Faiz du Grand Alexandre, ca. 1469-1470. Bibliotheque nationale de France, Paris, ms. fr. 22457, fol 1r.

The names for medieval furniture types is different in medieval times, than nowadays. Modern names are more often given based of a specific form (e.g. dug-out chest, slab-ended chest), whereas in medieval times name were given to the specific function (e.g. clothing chest, book chest) irrespective of how the piece of furniture looked like - with the exception of the number of locks, or if it was bound with iron. This is especially the case with storage furniture. Consequently many types of medieval storage furniture have identical names. The French terms Bahut and Malle are often found in connection with chests used for travelling. They are so-called "over"-chests, made of wicker, leather or cloth. They were used to protect the actual chest. They are not as such in the dictionary below.

Medieval chests commonly have a fitted till or a small box in the interior on one of the sides, which was used to store small items or documents in. The armoire, the cupboard and many other storage furniture - certainly the mural cupboards - had boards or shelves to divide them in parts. These shelves could be covered in canvas to protect the items on the planks. Also rods for hanging clothes were found inside armoires and curtains to keep the dust out. The latter is often found in connection with an aumbry in which food was stored. The following note from the inventory of the Philip the Bold from 1386 gives a good account of the inside of an armoire:

Andrieu de ternay, charpentier, demourant a Arras, donne quittance le 2 decembre, de 17 fr. a lui dus pour la vendue d'unes aumaires faites de bois et d'aix de chesnes de 14 piez long, a 4 estaiges, doublee dedens, de toille de canevas, pour mectra les bacinez et le harnoiz de Mgr.; et pour mectra une verge de fer et pour toille faire par devant lesd. aumaires une maniere de custodes.

(Andrieu de Ternay, carpenter of Arras, paid 17 fr. for an armoire made of wood and of oak planks, 14 feet long with 4 shelves lined inside with 'canevas' (a coarse cloth), for storing the Duke's helmets and armour; and for fixing an iron rod and for cloth for hanging in front of the armoire to serve as dust sheet.)

Medieval furniture could be gilded or painted (or both). This is often the case with early medieval furniture, where e.g. chests are decorated with heraldic symbols or armoires with religious scenes. The late medieval cassone are also famous for their painted decoration.

At the end of the room a stepped buffet can be seen with 5 stages, displaying silver and gold plates and jugs and on top some table jewellery. Chroniques de Angleterre, ca. 1470. Vienna, Osterreichische nationalbibliothek Cod. 2534 fol. 17r.

One of the types of furniture needs special mentioning: the stepped buffet or grande dressoir. This was one of the grandest pieces of furniture solely for display, and the importance of this type of furniture is due to the strict limitations and implications to its use and form. The stepped buffets with their precious load of gold and silverware were part of the elaborate and symbolic trappings at court, often had a prominent role during feasts. The number of stages of the buffet signified the rank of the owner (where it was placed if there were more than one): the king or the duke of Burgundy - 5 or 6 stages; counts - 3 stages; bannerets - 2 stages; and lesser nobility: 1. The stepped buffet at the marriage of Charles the Bold and Marguerite of York in 1468 numbered 9 stages. The stepped buffet of the feast given to the German Emperor by Charles the Bold in Trier in 1473 was even larger and had 10 stages and displayed 33 silver and gold vessels, 70 jugs, 100 plates with pearls and precious stones, 6 large silver spoons ... and 6 unicorn horns. A stepped buffet was large: one with 5 stages at the wedding of Philip the Good in 1429 in Bruges measured a length of 70 feet and a height of 20 feet. The stepped buffet was not restricted to a rectangular form, also descriptions are found of triangular, lozenge or round (Pour un buffet ront - 1350). Unfortunately no surviving examples of the stepped buffet have survived from the Middle Ages. The small image shown in the table below is after a drawing of Viollet-le-Duc.

Type	Dutch	German	English	French	Latin
Chests
	kist, kiste, clederkiste, wantkiste	Truhe	chest, chist, kyste	coffre	cista, coffra, coffro,coffrum, cistam
	boomstamkist	Einbaumtruhe	dug-out chest
		Brettstollentruhe, Seitstollentruhe	boarded chest, slab-ended chest	coffre à pentures
	ark	Dachtruhe, Mehlkist, Haverkist	ark, arke		arca, archae, archarum, archam, granarium
		Frontalstollentruhe	hutch, clasped-front chest	huche, huge	huchetorum, huchello
		Kastentruhe, Sockeltruhe	plinth chest
	cassone	Brauttruhe, Hochzeitstruhe, Cassone	bridal chest	coffre de marriage	Cassone, cassa d’armi
	paneelkist		frame and panel chest	coffre d'apparat
			standard, trunc	bahut, coffre à dessus bombé	barhut ?
			war-chest, strongbox, chest bound with yren	coffre ferré
	ladenkist	Ladentruhe	chest with drawers	coffre à tiroir
	kofferken, gesiert kesken, kistje	Minnekastchen, Urkunden koffer, Kassetten, Briefladen	box, caskett, (small) box	coffret, escrin, escrint, estays	bustis, scrinis, scrinario
	spanendoos	spaan
	schrijn	Schrein	shrine		scrinis
Hanging cupboards
	scapprolken, scapreel, schapredekijn, schaprade	Hangeschrankchen, Wandkasten	hanging cupboard, hanging aumbry
	reliekenkast	Reliquienschrank
Standing cupboards
	tresoor, tresoer, dressoir	Dressoir, Stollenschrank	dresser, livery cupboard, narrow buffet, buffet, coppeborde, coparde dressoir	dressoir	credenza
	tresoor, tresoer, dressoir	Dressoir, Stollenschrank	dresser, livery cupboard, dressoir, cubbord, vesseler	dressoir, dressoir de parament, dressoir encastre, dressoir à dossier, dressoir à ciel, grande dreceours, dreceoir	credenza, buffetum
	dressoir, pronkbuffet	Dressoir	stepped buffet	grande dreceours	dressado
	boeuet	Halbhoher schrank	cupboard, dressoir		credenza, dressador, buffeth dressado
	archiefkast	Archivschrank	grete almarye	grans armairès, aumoire par laiettes, aumoire par layettes, armoire, aulmeire au cajon	armarium, toregmata, armadio
	kaste, klederkaste, hangende klederkast	Schrank	almeyre, almariolum, almorys	armoire, armoire d'apparat, armairès, armére	almererio, almarii, aumariis
	gevelkast	Giebelschrank, Dachschrank
	begijnenkast	Almer, Speiseschrank	aumbry, ambry, almarye	copardes, dreceurs	credenza, stipo, bufetum
	gevelkast	Giebelalmer	aumbry
		Kastentruhe
		Waschkasten
		Schenkschive	drop-front armoire	meuble de boiserie
	sakristiekast	Sakristeischrank	sacristy armoire	armoire liturgique, armoire de sacristie
	sakristiekast	Sakristeischrank	sacristy armoire	armoire liturgique, armoire de sacristie	aumareolum, armariolum
	kontoir	Pultschrank		dressoir trone, pupitre
Mural cupboards
	spinde		locker, mural cupboard, stone recess with wooden doors	etagier dans le mur, aumoire de pierre cousté, aumoire a l'autel
	wantkast, muurkast		cabon, fixed armoire, cabinet	armaire
Other
	scap, legplank		board, shelve, dressing bord, dressyng borde	etagiere, estaiyes, ais, aes

The book of Penelope Eames, 1977. Furniture in England, France and the Netherlands from the twelfth to the fifteenth century. Furniture history, Volume XII. was used extensively in making this list and for the quotes in the commentary.

Wood use in medieval Novgorod

2012-01-25T23:40:00.001+01:00

Yesterday I received a new book on medieval woodworking by post: Wood use in medieval Novgorod. This very interesting 470 pages book is edited by Mark Brisbane and John Hather and was published by Oxbow Books, Oxford, UK in 2007 (ISBN 978-1-84217-276-6). With the book also comes a cd containing around 500 images of archeological objects. For those interested, it is still available for only 19.9 UK pounds.

Novgorod was the captital of a medieval Russian republic, with a govenor chosen among the aristocracy. The city served as a major trading post with Scandinavia and the Hanseatic League. The city is situated somewhat halfway between Saint Petersburg and Moscow, next to immense forests and Lake Ilmen. The availablility of vast amounts of wood made it the prime source of material for this town, from housing, roads, furniture, tools, daily utensils, etc. Combined with the watery surrounding this created an ideal anaerobic condition for preserving wooden artefacts, ranging from the 10th century till the 16th when water drainage became common. Excavations have taking place at various sites in Novgorod since 1933 onwards, and an unprecedented amount of medieval objects and structures have been found and preserved. Due to the fact that large wooden structures are found, precise dendrochronological dating of the objects can take place. Unfortunately the research results were published in Russian journals, books, unreadable and unobtainable for many of us. This book solves that problem. It provides a good summary of what has been found and describes the current state of research, including many line drawings and photos (highlights) of the actual wooden finds. As an extra, a cd is added with colour images of some finds.

Clawhammers and nailpullers from Novgorod. (a-c) 14th century, (d) 13th-14th century, (e) 13th-15th century, (f) 15th century (g) 13th century, (h) 11th century nailpuller, (i) undated nailpuller. Note that the clawhammer handles sometimes ends in a twisted bit.

Two turned mallets from Novgorod from pine and ash.

Chapter 3 of the book is dedicated to medieval woodworking tools. This chapter gives a short description of the tools, along with line drawings. There are however some peculiarities among the finds. The axes discussed show only felling type axes. The typical broad axe or side axe, common for the western medieval woodworking trade is not mentioned. The boring tools mentioned in the book are spoon bits that were fitted in wooden handles like augers and gimlets. No mention is made of wooden braces, which became common in Europe in the 15th century. If you take a careful look at the spoon bits, 'e' and 'f' could easily have fitted into a brace, though the former is dated too early. Another missing tool is the plane. There is no mention of plane blades or wooden plane bodies found. The tools shown which crudely can perform the same function as planes are adzes, inshaves and scorps. Most interesting in this chapter, however, is the find of a spokeshave dating from the 11th century. So far, the earliest mention of a spokeshave is from 1510 (W.L. Goodman, The history of woodworking tools).

Novgorod boring tools/ spoon bits. (a) 13th-14th century, (b-d and i) 12th century, (e and h) 13th century,

(f) 14th century, (g) 12th-13th century.

The chapter on household objects includes a picture of the furniture used in medieval Novgorod. So far excavated furniture fragments show that it was only very basic. I will dedicate a future post to discuss the Russian medieval furniture. Other chapters deal with housing, agricultural and fishing tools, games (including the over 200 chess pieces found and several Nine Men's Morris or Merrill's game board), combs, tally sticks, musical instruments, turning and turned objects, lasts for shoe production, spinning and weaving, tribute collecting seals, barrels, transport devices, combs, toys, wax tablets, etc. All in all, the book gives a fine overview of what is found in medieval Novgorod. I wished I was able to read Russian and had access to the other works on wood use in this intriguing place.

Nine Man's Morriss board, late 13th-14th century, made of spruce.

The back of the board, showing another game board.

Koln for medieval furniture

2012-01-16T23:24:00.000+01:00

Is there more medieval furniture in Cologne? Yes, there is! So the pictorial story of the medieval furniture continues from the previous two posts ... and ends here with two early renaissance pieces of furniture from Italy.

This payment/administrative work table originates from the lower Rhine area and dates around 1500. The table is supposed to come from the Cloister Kamp near Moers, Germany. This type of medieval furniture evolved in the late middle ages as a combination of a chest and a table, and was used for money storage and payment counter. The table-top is made of two layers which are movable. When opened, they reveal a small removable chest with eight drawers. The front of the table has a panel-door with an iron lock. The table is made of oak and measures 86 x 118 x 64.5 cm.

The front of the table shows two locks. The upper large one is for the sliding table top, and the lower small one for the carved panel-door.

The top of the table is reinforced by iron bands.

This small rectangular cupboard is made from oak and originates from the Rhine area around Julich and Aldenhoven. The cupboard has two doors with iron hinges and simple locking systems for a padlock. On the top of the cupboard is a hole, now covered with an iron plate, suggesting that once a turnable lectern used to be here. The cupboard dates from around 1500 and measures 119 x 81 x 61 cm.

The panels of the top and bottom of the cupboard are differently decorated. the upper show the X-motiv,

while the lower panels are carved linenfold.

This large two-doored armoire dates from the first half of the 16th century and is made from oak. The panels are decorated in linenfold. The lock of the armoire is behind the doors, only a small keyhole can be seen. This type of decorated armoire was primarily made in Flanders during the 15th century, but continued to be popular in the 16th century. Sizes of the armoire are 170 x 185 x 62 cm.

This small armoire dates from 1548 and originated from Dortmund, Germany. The construction of the armoire is old-fashioned for this date, however the 'crone' of the armoire has a more up-to-date style. All parts were made from the same oak tree, and dendrochronological testing also dates the armoire from around 1545. The armoire measures 157 x 74 x 50,5 cm.

The upper door has a carved relief of two angels wearing long dresses, in which also the date 1548 is carved..

Left and right of the door are two carved names of the former owners 'Beleke' and 'Berswort'. The crone is carved with a medallion of Maria and child, flanked by two medaillions with heraldic arms.

This Italian chest or cassone dates from 1495 and originates from Florence. The style of the chest is renaissance. The body of the chest is made of poplar and the carved sides are of walnut. The cassone is decorated with geometric intarsia made from maple, ebony and black-painted wood from a fruit tree. Some parts of the chest are veneered with walnut. Also the inside of the chest is decorated with intarsia. The sizes if the chest are 88.5 x 195 x 71 cm.

The side of the cassone with the walnut carving.

This chair has escaped the catalogue of the MAKK - I could not find it in the book and have only my own notes. It is an sgabello from northern Italy, dating from the first half of the 16th century. It is made from walnut. The sizes are unknown to me, but a similar sgabello, which is described in the catalogue measures 105 x 31 x 42 cm with a seating height of 56 cm.

The seat of the sgabello is eight-sided and has some small diamond intarsia.

This photo shows the construction of the leg boards of the sgabello. Two rails at different levels support the two leg boards.

Just beneath the seating there are small boards at the sides.

Medieval furniture from Koln

2012-01-10T23:14:00.001+01:00

Some weeks ago, I showed the photos of the minnekastchen from the Museum fur angewandte Kunst made during our visit in Cologne, Germany. This post (and one of the next posts) I will continue with the other medieval furniture on display in this museum. Note that not all their furniture is on display, the complete collection can be found in the museum catalogue "Mobel - Gotik bis Jugendstil. Die Sammlung im Museum fur Angewandte Kunst Koln. Band XIV" by Edla Colsman. I will follow the list in the catalogue, adding additional information from it to my photos.

This is a small chest compared to the others on display and measures 41 x 94 x 53 cm. It is made from walnut, the sides are connected with beautiful small dovetails. The chest originates from Italy and dates from the early 15th century.

The chest has no feet and stands on a small plinth. Remarkable is that the iron fittings - lock, hinges and handles are countersunk, so they are at the same level as the wooden boards of the chest. The fittings are open ironwork and red velvet can be seen behind it, providing a colourful contrast. The inside of the lid of the chest is covered with an intarsia pattern made of apple, oak and ivory dots. The outside of the chest is very rough, however it is likely that an intarsia pattern also was present here. The sides of the lid are are carved as animal heads. The chest has been used to store money and documents.

The intarsia pattern on the inside of the lid, and the open ironwork of the hinges showing red velvet behind.

The top of the boards are also decorated with intarsia and reinforced at the sides with open ironwork.

The iron fittings and the lock at the front of the chest.

The handle at the side.

This sedia Dantesca dates from the 15th century ard originates from Spain where it is called sillon de cadera. The chair is made form walnut with intarsia from ivory, ebony, and pearl-shell. The seating is made from leather, however not original, and nailed to the chair. The chair measures 71 x 69 x 50 cm.

The back of the chair. Only the front and top of the chair have intarsia.

The front of the chair showing the beautiful geometric intarsia.

The two x-posts are connected to each other by bottom rail and armrest only.

Detail of the chair showing the armrest. A small part of the intarsia is missing, which gives us a good impression of the construction and thickness of the intasia.

This sedia Savoranola dates from the mid 15th century and originates from Switzerland. It is made of three types of wood; the posts are walnut, the feet rails are oak and the back is apple. All the parts of the seating and the x are connected with a wooden rod. The chair measures 84 x 68 52 cm, the seating height is 50 cm.

The armrests are decorated with human heads (man and woman) and a crude pattern of punched dots.

The backrest is secured by a pin. To fold the chair, the backrest needs to be removed.

This is a small so-called 'Frontalstollentruhe', or hutch type chest dating from the second half of the 16th century. This type of chest can be found throughout the middle ages, but the panelled lid of this chest gives it a later date. The chest is made from pine and originates from Switzerland. Sizes are 75 x 95 x 54 cm.

Typical chip carving patterns on the front of the chest.

A hanging cupboard, which is typical for the West-Rhine area. It originates from Koln and dates from the last quarter of the 15th century. It is made from oak and measures 73 x 54 x 16.5 cm. According to the catalogue the function of this cupboard is a bit of a mystery. Normally, openwork hanging cupboards are used for storing food products (as the aumbry), but this piece is too heavily decorated for kitchen purpose.The museum has a second hanging cupboard, of which can be found in the catalogue.

The door of the hanging cupboard is in the middle, inside the cupboard is divided by two shelves.

The cupboard contains traces of red paint, and was likely completely painted.

This lectern with Gothic openwork decoration dates from the end of the 15th century and originated form the Rhine area. It is made of oak and its dimensions are 28 x 45 x 24 cm. The boards of the lectern are connected with wooden dowels which are clearly visible.

A photo showing that the sides of the lectern are set deeper than the edges.

This photo nicely shows how the board holding the book is fitted between the other boards.

This clasped front, or hutch-type chest dates from the start of the 15th century and was made around Osnabruck in Westphalen, Germany. It is made of oak with iron lock and hinges, part of which is missing. The sizes of the chest are 66 x 149 x 55 cm. This photo shows that the sideboards are placed skewed in a groove in the legs of the chest.

The front of the chest is decorated with Gothic windows ending in stylised leafwork. On the feet of the chest are carved people. On the left a long-bearded man with a sword and book, likely apostle Paul; on the right a praying man on his knees having a short beard.The motifs used for decoration suggest that the chest was used for personal storage in cloister.

Inside the chest a small lidded side-chest can be found, as usual with medieval chests.

This iron-bound hutch-type chest dates from around 1500 and originates from Westphalen. It is made from oak. The chest measures 96 x 208 x 73 cm. Only the lower parts of the feet are decorated with chip-carving. A photo also showing the lid of the chest from above is found with presentation of the savoranola chair above.

The ends of the iron bands are stylised leaves.

The bands are crosswise to the grain of the wood, also at the bottom of the chest.

Winter is coming ...

2012-01-01T00:01:00.145+01:00

said Lord Stark of Winterfell ... (A song of ice and fire - George R.R. Martin).

Well, the Saint Thomasguild is prepared for winter with these three-fingered sheepskin mittens.

A pair of split sheepskin mittens ready for a cold winter.

The three fingered mittens or split mittens are used in medieval times by workmen, farmers and falconers. They offer more flexibility in handling things and have better grip than normal mittens. Also, they are less expensive and easier to make than five-fingered gloves.

We thank our mittens to the wool moths which infested our sheepskin. After we got rid of the evil insects, flocks of hair fell out of one of our skins and it became useless for display. However, it could still be used to make some mittens. We based our mittens on the pattern provided by Sarah Thursfield in her book "Medieval tailors assistant". First we tried the pattern on a piece of woollen cloth to find the exact place for the thumb, then enlarged it a little to allow for the thickness of the sheepskin. The wool of the skin was cut short, leaving 5-6 mm long hairs on the skin. Sewing the leather was done by hand using the 'oversewing' stitch and found to be very easy. One piece of advice: Don't forget to turn the pattern for the other hand, otherwise you end up with one spare mitten like us ...

Left: Shepherds from Nativity by Nikolaus Stürhofer, c. 1505-1515.

Right: Shepherds in The Nativity by Robert Campin, around 1419. Dijon, France, Musee des Beaux Arts.

Left: Farmer wearing a split mitten in the Macclesfield Psalter (Fitzwilliam 1-2005, fol. 77r), c. 1330.
Right: The falconers is wearing a split mitten on which the falcon sits. The Month of January, Grimani Breviary, 1490-1510, Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, Venice, Italy. These images were found on internet using the site of Larsdatter.

The left image shows the thickness of the sheep leather and wool. The middle photo shows the oversewing stitch used for the mitten. The photo on the right shows one finished thumb piece and the woollen test mitten..

The finished three-fingered mittens shown at different angles. Left photo, both mittens at the inside of the hand. Middle photo, one mitten on the outside on on top. Right photo, both mittens on top, showing how the thumbs are set in the mitten and the extra strip for the split fingers..

Cape and mittens are ready for winter.

Making a sella curulis: starting with the wood

2011-12-31T00:12:00.000+01:00

I decided to make the sella curulis of pear wood for two reasons. First it is historically correct (the St. Admont folding chair in the MAK in Vienna is also made in pear). Secondly, because pear has a nice pinkish colour. I will not paint the sella curulis; just decorate it with chip carving. Pear is also relatively easy to carve, at least a lot easier than oak.

The quartered pear plank with the markings of the chair stands.

The drawing model card used to fit the chair stands on the pear plank.

I had acquired a pear plank of around 5 cm thickness. With a bit of puzzling, the four chair stands just fitted the size of the plank. I then cut the plank into two pieces with a scroll-saw to be able to manage the plank later when using the band-saw. Using the band-saw I again halved the plank, so I had 4 pieces. These were planed to exactly 5 cm, after which they were cut more precisely with the band-saw to four chair stands. These were shaved with a spoke shave to smoothen the saw cut.

Two of the four band-sawn chairstands of the sella curulis

Two smoothed chair stands ready for the next step.

The next step was to drill a hole for the connecting rail in the centre of the X, using a machine drill and a 3 cm forstner bit. As the connecting rail is meant to be invisible from the outside, the outside stands were not drilled through like the stands on the inside.

Then I had to remove half of the thickness of the centre parts by router in order to have the chair parts at the same level. For routing, I made a small jig, which made it easier to manoeuvre the router which was equipped with a guide bush. After routing, the remaining parts missed by the router were removed using a chisel. This allowed the parts of the X to be perfectly fitted.

The part to be removed is marked by pencil. Note that this chair stand is for the inside of the chair as it is drilled through.

The routing jig is fixed by clamps onto the chair stand.

Movement of the router is restricted by the jig and the guide bush.

Two finished parts of the sella curulis, an inside and an outside of an X stand.

Two parts of one X clearly show the perfect fit of the connection. Side view (top) and front view (below).

The chair stands give already a rough impression of the final sella curulis.

Behind the chair, the medieval tool chest Bram is working on.

The 4 chair stands of the sella curulis showing the folded situation of the chair.

The making of the sella curulis will be continued in another post with the different side rails that connect the two X-stands.

A Saint Nicolas gift: the book Vivre au Moyen Age

2011-12-27T22:51:00.000+01:00

I have got a nice book as a Saint Nicolas gift called "Vivre au Moyen Age - Archeologie du quotidien en Normandie, XIIe-XVe siecles" (ISBN 88-7439-00-9). This book contains some essays on medieval life in Normandy, France, as well as the illustrated catalogue of the exposition held in several museums in Normandy in 2002-2003.

The amount of furniture shown inside is limited, but there are some beautiful excavated woodworking tools inside, including several clawhammers from the 14th century.

Forging hammer, length 18 cm, width 4 cm. Iron hammer without claw, length 10.3 cm, width 2.9 cm. Iron claw hammers, length 9.2 cm, width 3.2 cm and length 7.5 cm, width 1.4 cm, all from the Musee de Normandie Caen, France.

Claw hammer, length 11.7 cm, width 2.7 cm, and scissors (10 cm long) from the Musee de Normandie, Caen, France.

Next to these tools, there are many artefacts shown of daily life. I found it interesting to see that 14th century pottery in France is different from that found in the Netherlands, where more Siegburg type stoneware is found. In Normandy, more earthenware is found which is decorated with typical floral designs and green or yellow-brown glazed.

14th century drinking vessels and a jug found in Rouen, decorated with flowers and dots, and beige-yellowbrown glazed.

Musee des Antiquites, Rouen, France.

The book also shown some jewellery dating from the 13th-15th century. The bronze rings shown in the background used to be bling-bling, but being buried in the ground for many centuries changes its former gold-like colour to a nice greenish patina. Stones are coloured glass. The three other rings are silver and gilded silver with an amethyst. Average size of the rings is 2-2.2 cm.

Nine finger rings in bronze, silver and gilded silver dating from the 13th-15th century.

Musee de Normandie, Caen, France.

Construction plan of a sella curulis

2011-12-18T16:14:00.000+01:00

My inspiration for the construction of the sella curulis came from the two medieval folding chairs on display in the Museum fur angewandte Kunst (MAK) in Vienna, Austria. Both are elaborately carved and brightly painted, as usual for this type of chair. The oldest is most widely known and shown in images. The other one is not. Unfortunately, you are not allowed to take photo's in the museum (in 2006), but they were so kind to mail me some photos they had of the chairs (in their glass show-case).

The oldest chair dates from the early 13th century and is made from pear wood. It originates from the Benedictine cloister Admont near Salzburg, Austria. The heads of the folding chair are carved as lions, while the feet are carved as dragons. The lions are the symbol of Christ, while the dragons symbolise the devil, showing the victory over evil.

The outer sides are decorated with are carved with rosettes, twines and shoots of plants, which are painted in red, green, white, yellow and blue. One of the lower rails has been replaced in the second half of the 15th century, and is decorated with the arms of the Admont stift and that of the abbot Johann Trautmannsdorf (1466-1481). The other medallions depict an eagle, griffin, lion and pelican. More recent replacements are the leather of the seat, the other - undecorated - lower rail and one of the x rails (seen on the photo by the uncarved and undecorated head).

The inner side of the chair is undecorated and uncarved, except for the heads and feet. Part of the wood at the centre of the x is removed to allow the chair to be folded and to have all parts of the x at the same level. An iron pin connects the both pieces of the x. The leather seating is folded over the upper rails and nailed to the underside of the wooden rail.

Images always show the Admont folding chair on this side, with the original complete x and the decorated rail with the medallions. Note that the lower jaw of the left lion is missing. Sizes of the chair are: 61 cm height, 64 cm width and 41.5 cm depth. Image from the book Mobel Europas I by Franz Windisch-Graetz.

Here you can see the other lower, undecorated replacement rail. Photo by the MAK, Vienna, Austria

The second folding chair in the MAK also originates from the Admont cloister and dates from the 15th century. It is made from maple and painted in red with the chamfered sides in green. The chair is more crudely decorated. The centre of the X has carved and gilded rosettes on both sides. The heads of the chair are carved dog heads, with remains of gilding. The chairs' feet are dogs claws of which one is undamaged.

The sizes of the 15th century Admont chair are height 55 cm, width 63 cm and depth 43 cm. Photo by the MAK, Vienna, Austria.

Detail of the carved dog head of the 15th century Admont folding chair. The eye is painted white and the pupil black. Images from the book Mobel Europas I.

When I started drawing the construction plan I noticed that in 14th century miniatures the sella curulis hardly showed the lower rails connecting the two crosses. Some miniatures just show a frontal view of the sella curulis, but others seemingly have had loose feet. Could it be that the connecting beam was at a different place, for instance at the cross-section? Indeed, one medieval miniature shows a sella curulis with a rail at the x-section. I then changed my plan. Having the connecting rails at the a cross-section is more of a challenge, and I could always revert to having the rails like in the Admont chair.

A gilded sella curulis with lions heads and feet. 'Solomon judges among three brothers'

from a 'Bible historiale' of a Paris workshop around 1355. British Library, London, UK. Royal ms 19 D ii, fol. 273.

Solomon is seated on a 'gilded' sella curulis with lions heads. Solomon teaches the young Rehoboam

from a 'Bible historiale' of a Paris workshop around 1358. British Library, London, UK. Royal ms 17 E vii, fol. 1.

Two gilded 'sella curulis' for a King Solomon. The heads are either dogs or lions. 'The true brother refuses to shoot at his fathers corpse' and 'Solomon discovers the true mother' from the 'Bible historiale' made in a Paris workshop around 1369. Deutsche Staatsbibl., Berlin, Germany. ms. Philipps 1906, fol. 255.

'The King' seated on a elaborately carved sella curulis.The chairs' legs are 'hairy' and the complete chair is gilded. There are no rails between the lower legs of the chair. Miniature from the manuscript 'Polycratique' by John of Salisbury from a Paris workshop around 1373. Bibliotheque Nationale de France, Paris, France. ms. fr. 24287, fol. 12.

A gilded bishops sella curulis with dog heads. Miniature of the 'Sacrament of Confirmation' dating from 1390 from a Paris workshop. Bibliotheque Nationale de France, Paris. Tres Belles Heures de Notre Dame, ms. n.a. lat. 3093, p.169.

A gilded sella curulis with the connecting rails at the x-point. The top of the chair are carved dog heads. The chair itself is set on a dais, covered with cloth. The seat is folded over the the rails, and looks as if it is made of three pieces stitched together. Manuscript made in Paris in 1362. The Dauphin questions the antique astrologers. Neuf anciens juges d'astrologie. KBR, Brussels, Belgium, ms.10319, fol. 3.

A sella curulis from a miniature 'The knight before the royal council' dating from 1392-1393.

This folding chair clearly shows the connecting rails near the feet.

The chair's heads are concealed, but the feet of the chair look like simple feet. The chair is painted in bright red.

From the manuscript 'Pelerinage de vie humaine' by Guillaume de Digulleville.

Bibliotheque Nationale de France, Paris, France, ms. fr. 823, fol. 152.

The construction plan above still shows the sella curulis with the lower rails in place. I have a wooden pin locked inside the cross-section as the turning point (the black rectangles in the top and side view), instead of an iron pin through the wood. This will be changed for a turned wooden rail at the cross-section. The chair will be carved, except for the inside. The intention is to have the circles (frontal view) decorated with carved rosettes.

The next post on the sella curulis will continue with the preparation and sawing of the wood. Finally, this post concludes with the remains of an elaborately carved boxwood folding chair dating from the 13th? century in the Cathedral of Roda de Isabena in Spain. The folding chair is associated with San Ramon (sandals and handkerchiefs of the saint are shown as well), and has a curious story of theft, destruction and recovery.

The recovered remains of the chair now attached to a transparent plastic folding chair.

This is how the chair looked before the theft and destruction.

Image from Historia del Mueble by Luis Feduchi.

Medieval folding chairs

2011-12-12T23:00:00.000+01:00

Folding chairs have a long history of existence. The oldest examples date from around 1500-800 BC, for instance the turned ash chair found in a wooden gravetomb in Denmark. Similar examples existed in Egypt and Greece. In Roman times the folding chair, also known as 'faldistorium' or 'sella curulis' was usually made of metal with a leather seating. As a consequence many of these metal chairs have survived (and even can be bought nowadays at auctions).

Folding chair from a tree-tomb grave in Guldhog, Denmark dating from 1500-800 BC.

The chair is made of turned ash. Length of the x-leg 34 cm, length of the seating wood 36 cm.

Egyptian folding chair from the Tomb of Kha, Deir el-Medina, Egypt. Now in the collection of the Museo Egysio, Turin, Italy. The stool is made of sycamore with ebony and ivory decoration. It has a leather seating.

Sizes are 54 x 87 x 37 cm.

Two Roman iron folding seats from online auction catalogues of Hermann Historica, Munchen Germany. (left) Late Roman/early Byzantine, dating from 3rd - 4th century AD. Iron with fine bronze and silver inlay. Folding frame of square bars, with the supporting sides and the upper edges becoming rectangular in section. On each side of the top there are five ring fittings to accept the passage of iron bars to attach the (replacement leather) seat. There are remnants of the bronze decorative inlay on the sides, with meanders, angles, and wave ornamentation. Fine openwork geometric silver ornamentation and remnants of animal figures on the crossbars. Height 50 cm. Element dimensions 63 x 39 cm. This iron field chair, the so-called "sella castrensis" (another type of sella curulis) was particularly common for military authority and essentially reserved for commanders in the field. (right) Sella curulis spätrömisch/Völkerwanderungszeit, 4./5. Jhdt. n. Chr. Klappbarer Rahmen aus runden und quadratischen Eisenstreben, an der Unterseite kurze Standfüße. Eine Seite mittig geteilt mit S-förmigen Verstrebungen. Seitlich angebrachte Endknäufe aus Bronze. Gereinigter Bodenfund, Maße des Rahmens 50 x 59 cm.

The sella curulis was a seat of authority, for army commanders and state rulers. This remained so throughout the Middle Ages: miniatures in medieval manuscripts show kings and abbots seated on a folding chair. Often these are adorned with draperies and cushions, and equipped with a foot stool. Even Lucifer (the 'authority' of Hell) had its own 'living' folding chair. However, in the Middle Ages the construction of the sella curiculis chair changed. The medieval sella curiculis is usually made of wood and highly decorated. The four upper ends of the chair are carved animal heads, such as dogs, lions or dragons. The feet of the folding chair are carved as animal feet or animal heads, and can be made of bronze. All surviving medieval sella curuli are painted in bright colours - red and green or appear gilded.

(Left) Abbot Hugh of Cluny seated on a sella curulis, the Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV, and Matilda of Tuscany. Miniature in Cod. Vat. lat. 4922 (around 1115 AD). (Right) A writer sitting on a turned folding chair in a miniature from the Evangeliar de Charlemagne (Vienna, around 800 AD) .

John II the Good, king of France found the Order of the Star. He is seated on a golden (gilded?) serra curulis, with a baldachin. 14th century miniature from Grandes Chroniques de France, Bibliotheque Nationale de France, Paris, France. France (Paris), Mn 2813, fol. 394

(left) Satan's sella curulis in hell. "Damnation of the Jews", miniature from the Hortus deliciarium of Herrad von Landsberg. Second half 12th century. (right) Emperor Otto III seated on a sella curulis. The seat is made more authorative by the addition of a footstool, draperies, cushion and the tapestry behind. miniature from a bible around 1000 AD.

Faldistorium from the Nonnberger Benediktinerinnenstift, Salzburg, Austria dating from around 1242. Height 56 cm, width 63 cm and depth 46 cm. The legs are square and of wood painted with red tempera, the feet are made of gilded bronze. The heads are made of carved walrus teeth. Seat of pressed leather likely dates from the 15th century. Note that the leather seating is fixed between a lower and a decorated upper rails at each side.

Details from the Nonnberger faldistorium. (Left) Carved walrus inlays from the upper rail with a scene from the Eustachius legend - the hunting of the hind. (Right) The carved lions head - the lions muzzle has a small human figure in it, the scene likely symbolises hell.

As mentioned above, most folding chairs were made of wood. There are however some remaining metal folding chairs, for instance the folding chair of the Bayeux Cathedral, dating from 1400. Also medieval documents mention metal folding chairs. From an inventory of Chateau de Vincennes in 1420: "Item deux autres chaezes ployans, l'une de fer bien ouvree, et l'autre de boys." [Item, two other folding chairs, one of iron finely worked and the other of wood]. The best known metal sella curulis is the so-called 'Throne of Dagobert'. It is made of bronze and originated from the 8th century. Due to the additions in the 12th century (the armrests) by Abbot Suger folding is not possible any-more.

The iron faldistorium from the Bayeux Cathedral, France dating from 1400.

The bronze throne of Dagobert and a detail from the leg. The folding chair dates from the 8th century AD and is likely made in Aachen, Germany. the armrests were added in the 12th century. When folded, the x falls inside the opening in the leopard legs. Dagobert's throne is now in the Cabinet des Medailles de la Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, France.

Height 102 cm, width 70 cm.

In later medieval periods (14th and 15th century) the folding chairs diversified into several new types, while the 'sella curulis' remained in use. These new types were the so-called x-chairs or pincer chairs with or without turned connections (low armrests), which had a complete folding wooden seating. Or types with a backrest and armrests, like the Savoranola chair (wooden seating) and the sedia Dantesca (cloth or leather seating). Another new type of folding chair had the x lateral, instead of at the front (the 'sedia tenaglia').

Small x-chair made from walnut in seating and folding position. The folded image clearly shows the construction of the chair with the four (iron) pins though the laths. Pins for this chair type can also be wooden dowels. Museum fur Angewandte Kunst, Vienna, Austria. height 49 cm, width 63 cm and depth 35 cm. Image from the book Mobel Europas I -Romanik - Gotik by G. Windisch-Graetz.

Doctor examining a patient showing a x-chair with turned low armrests.
Miniature from Anatomia of Guy de Vigeganot from 1345.

(Left) Sedia Dantesca (16th century) from the Musee des Arts Decoratifs, Paris, France with a (velvet?) cloth seating and backrest; this chairtype has four legs. The chair is made from walnut and originates from Italy. Legs and central cap are decorated. Approximate sizes height 90 cm, width 65 cm depth, 45 cm. (Right) Sedia Savoranola (15th century) from Burg Kreuzenstern near Vienna, Austria with twelve legs; however this chair type can also be found with up to 18 legs. Beech, backrest made of pine. Height 92 cm, width 59 cm and dept 42 cm. The construction is like the x-chair, but has armrests and a backrest. Both the sedia Dantesca and the sedia Savoranola chair types have curved legs. Note that these chair types also existed in a form without a backrest (but with armrests) .

16th century sedia tenaglia from Burg Kreuzenstern near Vienna, Austria in seating and folded position. The chair is likely made in Zwitserland or Tirol. Beech, 80 cm high, 45 cm wide and 43 cm deep. This type already existed in the 15th century. Image from the book Mobel Europas I -Romanik - Gotik by G. Windisch-Graetz.

I have made several medieval x-chairs and a Savoranola chair of oak, but currently I am working on the construction of a "sella curulis" made of pear. Another post will continue with the plan and construction of the chairs.

Kölner Minnekästchen

2011-12-09T00:58:00.000+01:00

The Museum fur angewandte Kunst in Cologne, Germany has a large collection of small medieval caskets, often called 'Minnekästchen', especially when the decoration has scenes of courtly lovemaking. These caskets were used to hold letters and documents or jewellery.

Below are some images of Minnekastchen taken during our visit to Koln.

Carved casket made of linden of around 1200. Painted reddish brown fastened with bronze rosette bands. Lock and hasp are missing.

Casket made of oak panels nailed together by iron nails dating of around 1300. Carved linden inlays

This casket dates from the third quarter of the 13th century and is thought to be a bridal gift. The casket is made of oak, with a beech bottom. The carved decoration with figures of dragons, stag and bird hunting scenes, knights, lions, musicians, Bacchus, between foliage is of made of linden and painted in green and red, and remnants of gold. The planks of the casket are nailed together with iron nails, whereas the hinges are made of gilded bronze. Lock-plate and hinge are missing. The inside has a small side box on the left and is painted red.eight 12.8 cm, width 47.4 cm and depth 14.8 cm.

Casket dating from 1350 made of wood from a fruit tree and oak. The panels are nailed and banded together with bronze straps ending in rosettes. The box is carved and painted red.

Small casket made of wood covered with leather and metal straps. The leather is decorated. 14th century.

14th century casket made of pear. On the lid of the casket carved scenes of a 'Wild Man'. Highly decorated metal straps and lock.

Casket decorated with geometric patterns. Inlays with wood from fruit trees and softwood. 15th century.

Casket made of wood covered with painted parchment and metal straps and lock, dating from the 14th century.

Italian casket made of walnut dating from the 14th century. The casket is painted with heraldic shields. Construction of the wooden panels is with dovetails..

Casket made from oak, linden and iron with painted scenery. The casket is standing on iron duck-like feet. The lock is missing. Third quarter 14th century.

Oval painted wooden box from Florance, Italy, dating from the 15th century.

Small casket of painted wood and iron, bearing heraldic shields. 15th century.

South German casket from the 15th century made of painted softwood.

Ivory casket, with brass straps and hinges from the 15e century. This type of casket can be found throughout the middle ages. A very similar casket is found in the catalogue (part 2) of the exhibition "Die Zeit der Staufer" and has more information on the construction. This casket dates from the second half of the 12th century and was made in Sicily The ivory (thickness 0.5 cm) is nailed to a (linden) wooden inner box. Straps were of gilded copper which ended in small bird heads. The inside is filled with red damask.The casket stands on iron stylised feet. Originally these were turned feet.

The 12th century ivory casket from the Bayern National Museum, Munchen. Image from the exhibition catalogue "Die Zeit der Staufer".

Ivory boxes and an ivory polygonal reliquary towercasket.

An ivory Minnekastchen from the exhibition in the Schnutgen Museum dating from 1350-1400. The casket is highly decorated with courtly 'love' scenes. Straps, hinges and lock of silver. Inside covered with (18th century) textile. height 8 cm, width 24 cm, depth 11.5 cm. (Koln, St. Ursula Church).

A visit to medieval Köln

2011-11-29T00:02:00.000+01:00

Last weekend we were in Köln, Germany to relax and see some medieval furniture and objects in several of the many musea. First we went to the Museum Schnütgen, which is specialised in medieval (religious) art. A nice glassstained image of Saint Thomas from 1350 can be found in the collection. The museum now has a special exhibition called 'Glanz und grösse des Mittelalters' (4 November 2011 - 26 February 2012). It contains many top pieces from musea around the world, which are related to medieval Cologne. One of the pieces is the painting 'love magic' or 'Liebeszauber' by an unknown master from Cologne of around 1470. I had in mind to use an image of this painting to illustrate the use of a triangular turned chair as a side table, but I could not find it in my books at that time. And here it was, the original, smaller than I thought, approximately the size of A4 or letter. The painting shows other types of furniture as well.

'Liebeszauber', Oil on red beech, around 1470, 23.9 x 18 cm. Normally on display in the Museum der bildende Kunste, Leipzig, Germany.

The museum Schnütgen does have a nice bookshop, were I bought the exhibition catalogue, but also a small booklet called "100 Schatze mittelalterliche Künst" (100 treasures of medieval art), which contains a selection of medieval objects in churches and musea in Nord-Rhein-Westfalen (a German region next to the Netherlands). This booklet held a surprising piece of medieval furniture: a painted and turned chair, used as seat of authority by the abbess of the Augustiner cloister St. Walburgis, near Soest. This type of chair is typically found in the 11th and 12th century, but this particular example dates from the 15th century and is made of oak.

15th century turned chair of the St. Walburgisstift, Soest, Germany.
Oak, on the back are the arms of the duke of Kleve.

Another interesting item in the booklet is an almoniere, or alms purse from the Stiftsmuseum of the St. Viktor Dom in Xanten. The purse is embroidered in silk and gold on linen and shows three musicians and dates of around 1350.

The almoniere of the St. Viktor Dom in Xanten, 1350.

Our next visit was the Museum fur angewandte Künst (museum of applied arts). This museum has a large collection of medieval items, including furniture, jewellery, ceramics and glass. They only have their best pieces on display, but the actual collection is much larger. You need the catalogues of the different object types to discover the rest. The MAKK allows you to take photographs - without flash-light, so some next post will feature the medieval furniture in this museum. There is one type of furniture of which there are many 14th century examples on display, and which I think is an underrated piece of medieval furniture: the coffret or small casket, or in German called 'Minnekastchen'. These are small highly decorated caskets for holding documents or a few books.

Two Minnekastchen from the 14th century in the Museum fur angewandte Kunst, Cologne, Germany.

A visit to the Dom of Köln and the Schatzkammer concluded our tour of medieval Cologne.

Sources: books page update

2011-11-21T21:03:00.002+01:00

The sources: books additional page of this blog, which you can find here, has been updated and enlarged with a new section on medieval jewellery books.

Four rings from the Chalcis treasure dating from 13th-15th century. The Chalcis treasure was buried

in 1470 in Chalcis, Greece - a Venetian trading post - to save them from the Ottoman Turks.

The rings are now at the British Museum, London, UK.

Image from the book 'Intelligible beauty' (2010) edited by Chris Entwistle and Noël Adams

A chair à tourner from 1383

2011-11-18T17:14:00.000+01:00

So far the earliest mentioning of a strycsitten was a 'keerlijs' in a Flemish farmer household inventory from 1384 (thanks to comments by Bertus Brokamp), but now the time can be set even one year earlier. While looking through the book of Penelope Eames (Furniture in England, France and the Netherlands from the twelfth to the fifteenth century) for names of furniture items for the "multilingual medieval furniture dictionary" (see previous blogpost), I discovered a one person strycsitten (i.e. as the one in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam and the Museum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte in Dordtmund) dating from 1383:

1383: From the Duke of Burgundy’s accounts

“769 … à Thomas de Sombreffe, maistre des muneus euvres de Mgr, pour le bois et façon de 2 chaieres qu’il a faites … du commendement de Mme pour mademoiselle Marguerite, c’est assavoir l’une à tourner et l’autre à laver.”

To Thomas de Sombreffe, master of minor works to the Duke, for the wood and for the making of two chairs … by order of the Duchess for Mlle Marguerite, namely, one chair à tourner and the other for washing.

More images

To end this post, I have some more - 15th century - strycsitten images.

All ages of men with a French type in the background from a French miniature of around 1420.

A strycsitten in Le livre des bonnes moeurs. J. le grant, 15th century.

Birth of Maria. Painting of Hans von Kulmbach showing a geman type strycsitten. 16th century.

Image from O. von Falke Deutsche Mobel des Mittelalters und der Renaissance.

This is the bad quality photo of the one-person strycsitten in the Museum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte

in Dordtmund, Germany, supposedly dated 1400.

Multilingual medieval furniture dictionary

2011-11-15T21:48:00.003+01:00

It is very useful to have the names of medieval furniture items for research (for instance on internet) in several languages. The list below is a first attempt to create a multilingual furniture dictionary for the Middle Ages. As furniture terms were not used very strictly, it is impossible to attach one name to one furniture type. Many names are used for several types. The list includes names used in medieval times as well those used today for these furniture types. The list below is incomplete - I do not have the names of the items in all languages - so any help is highly appreciated (add a comment, I will add to the dictionary). I have started with medieval seating types (800-1500 AD) and included as well a simple drawing of each type.

There is one type of chair, which is commonly found in miniatures, and of which some examples exist in musea, where I could not find a specific name. It looks like a half-round chair with a backrest (see drawing).

Medieval seating furniture

Type	Dutch	German	French	Latin	English
Single person
	.	gedrechselte Armstuhl, Rundpfostenstuhl	.	.	turned post seat, turned chair
	krukje	Dreibeinstuhl, Hocker	tabouret	.	3-legged stool, tabouret
	.	Cathedra	.cathèdre	Cathedra	cathedra, boarded chair
	sitten, benckesken, scabellen	Schemel, Brettschemel	escabeau, scabelle, placet	.	stool
	driestael, schemel, stroestoel, stoel mit een matte	(gedrechselte) Dreibeinstuhl	taboulet triangulaire	.	turned chair
	schemel	(gedrechselte) Driebeinstuhl	.	.	turned chair with a backrest
	eenbeenkruk, hutstoel	.	.	.	.
	troon	Thron	trône	Solium	throne
	hoge stoel	Armlehnsessel	chaire à haut dossier	.	high armchair, close chair
	tonstoel, cuypstoel, boedene	.	.	.	.
	.	Hochsitz	.	.	.
	sgabello	Brettschemel	.	Sgabello	boarded chair
	caqueteuse, caquetoire	.	caqueteuse, caquetoire	.	caqueteuse
	stoel met 4 poten, Spaanse stoel	Armlehnsessel, Lehnsessel	chaise, chaise á bras, chaeze	.	chayere, chair, (upholstered), joynid stole, backstool, armchair
	St. Augustinus stoel	.	.	.	St. Augustine's chair
	schemel	Dreibeinstuhl	.	.	.
	plankstoel	.	.	.	boarded chair
	.	.	.	.	.
	boomstoel	Baumsitz	.	.	tree chair
Multiple person seat
	sittenkist	Kastenstuhl, Kastensitz, Truhenbank	archebanc, banc à coffre	.	box chair
	strycsitten, keerlys, bank met omklapleuning	Sidelbank, Bank mit Klapplehne	banc à tournis, banc à tiédir, banc à perche, banc à marchepied	.	.
	banck, banc, bencke	Bank	banc, fourme, bancelle	Formule	form, bench
	vaste bank, nagelveste bank	.	archebanc	.	(wall) settle, fixed bench
	sitten met een hemelte, schermsitten	Langsettel	langsedile, banc à perche	Scamnum	bench, long seat, settle
	koorstoel	Chorgestül, Session, Priesterbank	stalles, fourmes	.	choir stall
Folding chairs
	prekestoel	(kleiner) Scherenstuhl	tabouret pliant, chaeze ployant	.	scissor chair
	vouwstoel	Scherenstuhl	chaeze ployant	.	turned x-chair
	vouwstoel	Faltstuhl, Klappsella	faudesteuil, siège, faulxdesteuil, faus d'esteuil, chayère de fust	Sella curulis, Faldistorium	folding chair, x-chair, faltstool
	vouwstoel	Scherenstuhl	.	Sedia Savoranola	Savoranola chair
	vouwstoel	Scherenstuhl	siège a Dantesca	Sedia Dantesca	Dante chair
	klapstoel	Klappstuhl	chaise à ciseaux, Siège à tenailles	Sedia a tenaglia	high backed folding chair
	.	Faltlehnstuhl	.	Sedia pieghevole	Glastonbury chair, Petrarca chair
	vouwstoel met hoge rug	.	siège à haut dossier	.	.
Seating related furniture
	voetscemmel, voetenbank	Fussbankchen, Stufe	.	.marchepied	footbench, footrest
	voetstoel	.	.	.	footstool

Note: The cathedra, throne, 'Hochsitz', sella curulis and siège à haut dossier are often used as seats of authority for e.g. kings or bishops. The sedia Dantesca, sella curulis and the backstool have leather, straw or cloth seatings.

I have used the following resources to make this list:

Eames, P. 1977. Furniture in England, France and the Netherlands from the twelfth to the fifteenth century. Furniture history, Volume XII.
Thuis in de Middeleeuwen – het Nederlands burgerinterieur 1400-1535. 1980. Uitgeverij Waanders, Zwolle, the Netherlands.
Windisch-Graetz, F. 1982. Mobel Europas I – von Romanik bis zum Spatgotik. Klinkhardt & Biermann, Munchen, Germany.
Boccador, J. 1988. Le mobilier francais du moyen age a la renaissance. Edition dÁrt Monelle Hayot, St-Just-en-Chaussee, France.
Chinnery, V. 1979. Oak furniture, the British tradition. Antique collectors club, Woodbridge, UK.
Blanc, M. 1999. Le mobilier francais – moyen age renaissance. Editeur massin, Paris, France.

A typical detail from the cabinet/armoire from the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

2011-10-25T21:33:00.123+02:00

The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, the Netherlands has some beautiful pieces of late medieval furniture. One of them is a large (222 x 353 x 79.5 cm) oak armoire (or cupboard) that belonged to the chapter house of the Dom cathedral in Utrecht.

It was used as an archive cabinet, the shelves contained the drawers where the archives were kept. The armoire has four locks, but could be extra protected with a wooden beam in front of the doors. The armoire dates from the first half of the sixteenth century.

The interesting detail about this piece of furniture is not the wooden beam, but the doors. According to the Rijksmuseum "The doors comprise a framework containing individual panels". But if you take a closer look at the open door, you can see that this is not the case. Behind the framework are three large wooden boards, covering the 'clover' frames.

The Rijksmuseum is currently being refurbished and the furniture is not on display. However some pieces can be examined in detail from the museum webpage (I did as well).

Archive amoires, such as the one in the Rijksmuseum, are often found at churches or city councils. Another example is the oak armoire (privilegiekast or komme) in the Stedelijke Musea in Mechelen, Belgium (height 178 cm, width 230 cm, depth 68 cm) dating from around 1475. The armoire belonged to the house of the Alderman and used to store the charters.
As a strange coincidence, this museum is also being refurbished.

The armoire at the Stedelijke musea, Mechelen, Belgium. Image from the book 'Furniture in England, France and the Netherlands from the twelfth to the fifteenth century' by P. Eames.

Detail of the upper locks of armoire from Mechelen. Each lock lies parallel with that of its neighbour Photo also from the P. Eames book.

This photo also shows the side of the armoire, which is of frame and panel construction.

Photo by the Stedelijke musea, Mechelen.

The medieval toolchest: the plane (part 1)

2011-10-18T23:02:00.000+02:00

The plane is an indispensable tool for the medieval joiner and carpenter, and was used for flattening, smoothing or forming wooden boards. Guild regulations existed that prohibited the use of the plane to certain woodworking trades other than the joiners.

Very few actual medieval woodworking planes survived. Luckily there are many medieval images (miniatures, fresco's, intarsias, carvings, and paintings) that show medieval planes. All in all, these images show a great variety of different plane forms and types. It is even possible to attribute specific plane forms and types to certain regions. Most notable are the differences between the Italian, French and Northern European (German) medieval planes. Also some special Dutch plane types existed.

Bone planes from early medieval times (400-1000 AD), found in terps in Friesland, the Netherlands. The form is related to an Italian medieval plane type. The top plane is 16.5 cm long from a terp in Hallum, the bottom right plane is 13.7 cm long from Oosterbeinum terp and the left bottom plane comes from Beetgum terp and is 11.4 cm long. The slope for the iron is 40-45 degrees. The actual planes are on display in the Fries museum, Leeuwarden, the Netherlands. Image from W.L. Goodman - The history of woodworking tools.

Bone plane from Oosterbeinum terp 400-700 AD. Height 4 cm, 2.8 cm width and 13.7 cm long.
The crossbar for the wedge is still in place.
Photo from the Fries Museum, Leeuwarden, the Netherlands.

Another Frisian plane found at a terp from Finkum, 700-1000 AD made of antler with a bronze sole.
Sizes are 16.6 cm long and 3.8 cm wide, angle 45 degrees.
Photo from the Fries Museum, Leeuwarden, the Netherlands.

A decorated Frisian plane made from yew dating 500-600 AD from Aalsum (21.6 cm long, 3.8 cm wide).
Photo from the Fries Museum, Leeuwarden, the Netherlands.

This is a Saxon plane form Sarre, Kent, UK. The form is similar to the Dutch terp planes and made of horn. Sizes are 13.5 cm long, 3.2 cm wide and 3.2 cm height. The iron is set at an angle of 43 degrees and is 1.9 cm wide. The bronze sole is 3 mm thick. Image from W.L. Goodman - The history of woodworking tools.

All medieval planes have in common that the iron is only a single (thick) blade. Double irons did not exist until the 18th century. Also most planes secured the wedge against a cross-bar. However, occasionally a grooved wedge can be found; for instance in the Bergen plane (1248 AD ). The grooved wedge became common during the end of the middle ages, around 1500.

The small medieval smoothing plane found in Bergen, Norway dating from 1248 AD.

It is made of yew and is15.7 cm long, 2.9 cm wide and has a height of only 1.3 cm. The plane has a grooved wedge.

Image from the book by J.M. Greber, Die geschichte des hobels.

A smoothing plane carved in the gothic style dating from 1500 made from beech.

The plane has an iron sole and a grooved wedge and has a length of 13 cm. It originates from southern Germany..

Image from the book by J.M. Greber, Die geschichte des hobels.

The Saint Thomasguild is familiar with all types of plane: the guildmaster spend his time as a journeyman in Bruges (French planes), as well as in the papal city of Avignon (Italian planes), and our guild is situated in Nimweghen, just a few miles from the German border. Therefore, we have planes from all the main regions in our toolchest.

Italian style medieval planes

One of the most typical planes we have (made) is an Italian smoothing/jack plane. At the time I made the replica of this plane, I had only one good image of it. an intarsia on the choir-benches of the San Petronio Basilica in Bologna, Italy. The intarsia was made by Agostino de Marchi from Crema, a famous joiner family of that time around 1468-1477. The details and construction of the plane is quite clear from the intarsia (obviously if you consider that the artist also worked with the tools - the other tools depicted are a chisel and a compass).

The hollowed out grip is also used in planes of the Roman empire. The (try)plane on the left has the grip behind the iron, providing a push momentum, while the smoothing plane on the right has the hollowed grip in front, giving it a pull momentum.
Another image of this type of plane is found at a mosaic in the San Marco Basilica in Venice, Italy dating from the 13th century, however the mosaic shows less detail.

Image from the book by J.M. Greber, Die geschichte des hobels

A plane with a hollowed grip shown in the mosaic of the 'Building the Ark' in the Atrium of the

San Marco Basilica in Venice, Italy, dating from the 13th century.

Our replica Italian type smoothing/jackplane is shown in the next photos. It is made of beech and has an iron crossbar to secure the beech edge. It is 33 cm long, 7.4 cm wide and 6.9 cm high. An old iron, 5 cm wide, was used for the plane. The photos below show our medieval plane from different sides, as well as underneath. The shaving characteristics of the plane are very good: it feels comfortable to handle and it is able to produce very thin shavings.

Recently I discovered from the 'Ancient, medieval, renaissance and Colonial Furniture and Woodenware' Facebook group two paintings dating from the 16th century. These were made by the Italian painter Jacopo da Ponte (also known as Jacopa Bassano) and show in detail the use of exactly the same type of (Italian) planes.

The Italian painter Jacopo da Ponte: detail of the painting Noah building the Ark (16th century) showing Italian type planes on the ground and one being used by the man on the left.

Another painting 'Noah's sacrifice' (1574) by Jacopo da Ponte. This detail shows many woodworking tools, including several Italian type planes..

Medieval Italian plane type with side handles

There are more typical Italian medieval plane types. One of them is a plane with handles on both sides of the plane, or with two cross-bars on both sides of the plane. These planes were used either for smoothing or for roughing out and could be worked by two man, one pushing and the other pulling. This medieval plane is shown in the basket of the fresco 'Building of the ark' (1390) by Pietro di Puccio in Campo Santo in Pisa. An engraving of the same fresco show a clearer view. of the plane. The same plane type is also depicted in another intarsia by Agostino de Marchi from Crema in the San Petronio Basilica in Bologna, Italy.

The fresco of Campo Santo, Pisa showing a workman using a large try plane with two handles on a workbench. In the basket below two other planes can be seen among other tools. The fresco has been severely damaged during the second world war. Image from the book by J.M. Greber, Die geschichte des hobels

The engraving showing the basket with (clockwise) a hammer, a mallet, a blockplane, a broad axe, a boring tool, a square and the sole of a plane with two side handles. Image from the Chronicle of the Early American Industries Association 46 (4) 'Some medieval Italian carpentry tools and techniques'.

This intarsia from Agustino de Marchi dating from 1468-1477 shows several medieval Italian plane types, as well as a workbench with a holdfast, a frame saw and tool chest. The plane on top of the chest has two side handles, while the plane hanging left of the frame saw has two cross bars and is shown underneath. Other planes are a small try plane on top of the workbench, on the right of the frame saw is a rabbet plane with a hollowed handle, on top two other planes with hollowed handles are shown: on the right a fillister plane, and on the left likely a fore plane (or another fillister shown on the other side). From some planes the (place of the) crossbar holding the wedge can be seen.

Also Leonardo da Vinci (1500) has depicted the plane with side handles in one of his inventions (a design of a planer-thicknesser). The plane with side handles was also been popular in France at later centuries. Several 19th century planes of this type can be found at the Musee D'Outil in Troyes, France.

At the moment we do not have this plane type in our tool chest, but it is our intention to make such a plane in the near future.

The plane with two (side) crossbars is also found in the painting 'The Holy Family' by Bartolomeo Schedone (1560-1616) in the Palazzo Reale in Naples, Italy. Here the plane is shown from a different angle.

Image from the book by J.M. Greber, Die geschichte des hobels

The design of Leonardo da Vinci of a planer-thicknesser showing a plane with two side-handles at the top, and at the bottom of his drawing. Image from the book by J.M. Greber, Die geschichte des hobels

A 19th century version of this type of plane in the Musee D'Outil in Troyes, France.

The side view of the 19th century plane. Some more can be seen in the background.

Plane with two crossbars at the painting in the Palazzo Reale, Naples, Italy by Bartolomeo Schedone.
Drawing from the book of W.L. Goodman 'The history of woodworking tools'.
Note that the iron is secured by a grooved wedge.

Large Medieval Italian try planes

Medieval Italian try planes also have hollowed out handles, but these are attached to the top of the plane, likely as separate handles. Large planes carry two handles: one in front and one at the back. Smaller ones only one at the back. As mentioned before, the image of Campo Santo shows a man at work on a bench with a large try plane where the handles are far apart from each other. Either the plane would have been worked by two men, or a single man would alternate between the handles depending on the position of the plane on the wood.

The fresco of Campo Santo, Pisa. The handles are really far apart from each other.

A similar, but smaller try plane is shown in the fresco by Ambrogio Lorenzetti dating from 1338-1340 in the Hall of the Nine in the Palazzo Pubblico in Sienna, Italy. The plane rests on the lap of a woman representing Concordia (harmony). Unusually, the iron is secured by two wedges.

Fresco by Ambrogio Lorenzetti in the Palazzo Pubblico in Sienna, Italy.

Image from the Medieval arts and crafts blog.

This type of plane is also shown in the - non-Italian - Bedford Hours miniature 'Building the ark of Noah'. It is almost as large as the plane on the fresco of Campo Santo. There seems to be and extra handhold in the middle, making this plane a hybrid of the Italian and northern (French/German) styles. The extra handhold is useful when the plane is worked by a single man. Another curious thing of this plane is that the shavings are coming from two holes, implicating that there are two different irons at work.

Bedford Hours miniature 'Building the arc of Noah', 1433, London, British museum, Ms. 18850.

To conclude the display of Italian medieval plane types, a smaller try plane with one handle in front is shown in the fresco "Preparation of the cross" by Agnolo Gaddi, in the Santa Croci church in Florence, Italy, dating from 1390. The Thomasguild toolchest does not (yet) contain a try plane of the Italian type. In a next post I will continue discussing French and German medieval plane types.

Detail from the fresco "Preparation of the cross" by Agnolo Gaddi in the Santa Croci church in Florence.

Additional medieval strycsitten images

2011-10-15T21:04:00.001+02:00

I have found some new additional medieval strycsitten images, mostly of the French type, as well as a "how-to-make" a German type strycsitten link on the internet. Noteworthy is that one of the French strycsitten images shows a decorated reinforcement of the backrest.

A courtesan sitting on a French type stryxsitten. The ends of the armsrests are pointed.

Miniature around 1405. Ms. 664 fol. 209v, Bibliotheque National, Paris, France.

Strycsitten with reinforcements on the backrest from a miniature of 'Mare Historianum' of Giovanni Colonna 15th century. Ms. Latin 4915 f 1. Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, France.

Late 15th century miniature of a French type strycsitten.

Missel de l 'abbaye de Montierneuf. Ms. Latin 873, F. 2 v. Bibiliotheque National, Paris, France.

The plan of the German strycsitten (by SCA member Raymond J. Hindle) includes a chest beneath the seating. Though this strycsitten plan uses screws, this can easily be converted to a medieval type of construction. The article includes also two photos (by David Kuijt) of an original German strycsitten, and an photo of a altarpiece in Rothenburg, Germany, which are depicted here as well.

The backrest, as well as the side and front of the strycsitten are elaborately carved. There is no information on the whereabouts of this strycsitten provided, but it looks identical to one the the Nurnberg Museum, Germany (pine, 146 cm long / 77 high and 37 cm deep - see my first post on strycsittens). Photos by David Kuijt.

Two elaborately carved German type strycsittens in a painting of Gabriel Maelesskircher "The meal in the house of Simon the Pharisee" 15th century, German National Museum, Neurenberg.

A replica of this type exist in the medieval open air museum (Mittelaltermuseet) in Nykobing, Denmark (Photo Thomasguild).

The strycsitten in the traders house in the Mittelaltermuseet, Nykobing, Denmark.

These two strycsittens are from the collection of Albert Figdor and taken from the auction catalogue.

Another post shows photos of the same strycsittens, but from the other side.

Other medieval furniture of Chateau Martainville

2011-09-11T23:01:00.000+02:00

This blog continues the pictorial story of the medieval and renaissance furniture at Chateau Martainville in Normandy, France. This time I will present photographs taken of several seat furniture, such as a high armchair, boxed settles and as well as a bed, a cupboard, a door and a threstle table.

Seat furniture

This oak high armchair dates from 1490-1500.

It is 186 cm high, 50.5 cm deep and 74 cm wide across the armrests.

The bottom panels and the sides are linenfold carved, the backrest panel has a gothic window style.

Beneath the seating is a chest, the keylock is at the front.

Details of the carved dragons at the top of the chair.

A settle with armrests, but without a backrest. A chest is beneath the seating boards.

The same bench, the lid does not cover the complete seating area.

Note also the linenfold wall cover at the back of the settle.

The side of the settle, with linenfold panels.

The lockplate with heavy clamps of the settle's chest.

A late medieval settle with six linenfold panels for the backrest as well as for the 'chest' part of the seating.

The side of the settle does have plain and chamfered panels instead of linenfold carving.

A settle or double high armchair with three open armrests. The panels for the settle are undecorated.
The chairs are unequal in width.

Cupboard

A cupboard from the first French renaissance.

Beneath the cupboard are three small drawers.

Tables

A 17th century trestle table, consisting of two trestles and a separate table board.

Not many original medieval trestles exist (one in a museum in Paris, France; and one in Bruges, Belgium).

Though this one is not medieval, such types can be found in medieval paintings and miniatures.

One trestle, the table board seen from below.

Construction details from the top and the base of the trestle

The table board is constructed of several planks fixed with dowels in an end-plank.

Note the groove and tongue joint.

The large kitchen table of Chateau Martainville.

Detail of the feet of the kitchen table. The feet are attached with a dovetail joint.

Bed

A four-poster bed with parchemin panels.

The parchemin panel of the top rail of the bed.

The dowels which fix the mortise and tenon joint are easily seen.

The back panels of the bed are plain.

Door

A panel and frame door in chateau Martainville with parchemin carved panels.

Also the doorframe is elaborately carved.