Some more engravings of late medieval Tiroler furniture

In this post I would like to show some more furniture pieces from the plates in the books 'Die Zimmergotik in Deutsch Tirol' by Franz Paukert. As previously mentioned, due to my scanner size limit each plate consists of two scans that are 'glued' together.

The bench (with turnable backrest) and the chest, two works of Tyrolean joinery that are already being sought out of the country, are shown with the use of  dimensional sketches and photographs made available to the publisher by Mr. Ueberbacher from Bolzano, Italy.

 

Canopy bed from the Castello Principesco, or Landfurstliche Burg, Merano, Italy.

These two folding chairs are in the Figdor collection in Vienna. One of them (Figure A), coming from Bozen, shows the old, quilted leather seat belt and its shape is reminiscent of the faldistorium of the women's monastery on the Nonnberg near Salzburg. The armchair of Figure B, like the previous one, has crossed legs but with partially suspected monkey- and crab-like knobs and comes from St. Michael in Eppau. (The Figdor collection was auctioned in the early 20th century; the auction catalogues can still be found in second hand book stores)

 

On the other hand, the design of this cabinet does not differ insignificantly from the usual furniture shapes. The straight end of the upper frieze, the framing of the door wing and the somewhat clumsy ornamentation characterize the piece as a late form of medieval art. 

 

Cabinet in the possession of  Mr. J. Strasser in Merano. In terms of its origin, this piece of furniture is one of the few surviving pieces of its kind. A real Tyrolean work and despite its relatively later origins unaffected by the imitation of architectural details that are so popular elsewhere, it is evidence of the fact that the Tyrolean carpentry did not tend to indulge in miniature replicas of the facade construction, but rather focused on healthy construction, and flat cuts, engraving, tracery carved into the wooden base and moderate painting are the only means to which this cabinet owes its very handsome appearance. The upper and lower parts of the cabinet are firmly connected, and the sides are completely smooth. Metal bars never seem to have been there at the door. Merano, Italy.

 

Noteworthy is the simplest possible treatment of the tracery fillings in the wash basin: flat cuts with a coloured background, as well as the extremely simple construction of the box, which is common to almost all of this type of Tyrolean Gothic furniture; Jointed boxes with decorative strips placed in front of them on jointed feet and finally the almost continuous painting of the ornaments or at least the flat base of the carved parts. Castello Principesco, or Landfurstliche Burg, Merano, Italy. 

 

A chest owned by the bookstore owner F. Plant in Merano. In spite of its extremely simple structure and in spite of its decoration reminiscent of the Romanesque period, it was found to be of a rather late origin and proof that the Tyrolean gothic art did not reluctantly fall back on very early roots. The lid of the cest is not connected to the other part of the chest by iron hinges, but by wooden pegs which function as axes of rotation, and go through the lateral gripping strips and the sides of the chest.

Among the increase in the number of furniture pieces of the Landfurstliche Burg in Merano over the last few years, the furniture shown in whole or in part on the plates above and below is the most important. The legs of the chests belong to the box, which differs little from the already known pieces of a similar kind and only in the ornaments and the exposition of the fields on the front.

 

A late medieval woodwork book

Recently I bought an antique set of seven 'books' on 'Die Zimmergotik in Deutsch Tirol [late medieval woodwork in Tirol] by Franz Paukert. They were published between 1890 to 1903 and contain many superb engravings on the late medieval woodwork and furniture from Italian and Austrian Tirol. Each of the books contain 32 engraved plates of around A3 size and a similar sized booklet of a few pages containing the descriptions. The engravings are printed in a reddish-brown colour, black, and even some are printed in green ink. My set of books is not complete, a few plates are missing, and some others are damaged, but this caused the lot to be at an affordable price. What makes this book so interesting is that the engravings are very detailed, some engravings focus even on details of the construction. Furthermore, the engravings show a rule, so you actually have the dimensions of the woodwork.

 The seven books contain 32 loose printed engravings and a thin booklet with the descriptions.

Though many plates show furniture pieces, most of the plates concern other carved woodwork, like doors, wooden panelling, ceilings, etc. Also the ironwork on the woodwork is focussed on several plates: hinges, locks, door knockers. Also a few designs of medieval wall drawings are shown. To give you an idea of the furniture included in the book, some of the plates are given below with their original (translated) comments.  As my scanner has an A4 limit, each plate consists of two scans are 'glued' together.

Folding chairs from Campan Castle (Bressanone, Italy) and Bolzano (Italy). Movable gothic seating has hardly come across us in Tyrol. The depicted examples present a form that has hardly been used at least in the German part of the country. Its form has been borrowed from the late Gothic stock of Italian decorative art. Both armchairs are made of beech wood and almost only differ from one another in the cross-section of the ribs.

Despite the extremely heavy shapes, this object is not uninteresting because of its structure. The basic ornaments of the crenellated canopy are very lively in the drawing and emphasized in colour. Burg Reifenstein, Campo di Trens, Italy.

The whole lattice, consisting of four rectangular parts with a common pointed arch, is mainly formed of openwork tracery. The fillings are red, yellow or blue, while the carved frames are painted green. Burg Reifenstein, Campo di Trens, Italy.

Tratzberg also conveyed a gothic light woman - a unique item for this country - to the present. The engravings reproduce the colour-coded model in front and side views to such an extent that the composition clearly can be recognized. Schloss Tratzberg, Jenbach, Austria.

In this piece we encounter a very attractive achievement of gothic small art. The wood of the stone pine, which is used almost everywhere in Tyrol, served as material for the work. The background of the freely treated ornaments as well as that underlaid with the tracery fillings is blue. All of the rods of the epiglottis resemble cords made of dark and light wires. It's just a shame that the work suffered more than it gained from a restoration that was carried out decades ago. A newer, much too low base and completely nonsensical, admittedly neglected elements on the crenellated wreath today spoil the impression of the whole cabinet.

Chair from Tirol castle near Merano (Italy). In his art history of Tyrol and Vorarlberg, Atz describes this piece of furniture as one of the oldest chairs in the country. At present, the chair shown has a praying desk in front, which, on closer inspection, reveals itself to be a new addition. The ornament on the rear wall of the chair is engraved, the decoration on the crown is flat-cut. The two side walls show different contours. The only thing to note about the construction of the furniture, which can be seen in full from the drawing, is that the seat can be uplifted.

The table comes from Burgeis in the upper Vintschgau and has only recently been found in the collection of the Merano Museum Association, along with several wood carvings and carpentry work of religious origin. It is well preserved and only supplemented in some places. 

 

Chest from the collection of the antiquarian Alois Ueberbacher in Bolzano, Italy. The chest is of particular interest, taken from the daily changing material of its owner: the one due to the charm of the varied decoration, this one due to the way the tracery is treated. 

Of what the Fugger room holds in the form of movable household items, one is easily identified as a cabinet holding a wash basin.Schloss Trazberg, Jenbach, Austria.

The backside story

Normally, when you visit a castle or a museum and look at the furniture, you will only see the front and sides. Only rarely you will see a glimpse of the backside of a chest or an armoire, or equally rare, the inside of the storage compartments of the said furniture pieces. I was therefore happy to discover that some of the medieval furniture on sale at the Prunier Auction of 11 October 2020 in France also did show the backsides. Aside from these auction pieces, I will also show some medieval furniture where I was able to examine the backsides myself.   

 

The front and back of a 15th century high-backed bench-chest. The back is crudely finished. Interestingly, the vertical stile on the back of the chest is placed asymmetrically to prevent compromising the strength of the horizontal stile. The suggested small horizontal stiles on frontside of the panels of the backrest are in fact part of the panels themselves. height 143.5 cm, length 120 cm, depth 48 cm. Sold for 2100 Euro.

The front and inside of a French 15th century armoire with linenfold panels. The inside also allows us to see the construction of the back of the armoire, which has a similar frame construction as the doors and sides (but undecorated panels, as the sides). The armoire had three shelves, of which one is remaining. You can see two holes where the horizontal supports for the missing shelves were placed. Also a slight discolouration on the backside shows where the shelves used to be. height 191 cm, length 128.5 cm , depth 52 cm. Sold for 6500 Euro.

While the front of this early 16th century oak south German marriage chest is highly decorated, the back is not. Contrary to the frame construction on the front it consist of several slats of wood fixed to the sides with dovetails. Also the hinges are fixed on the back. height 99 cm, length 174 cm, depth 56 cm. Sold at 2000 Euro.

 This late 15th century oak chest is similarly to the previous one, with a highly decorated front and sides, and an undecorated back. The backside consist of one single plank. The hinges are simple, consisting of hooked metal rods. height 78.5 cm, length 154 cm, depth 59 cm. Sold for 1100 Euro.

 

One of a set of two chests dated around 1500. At the back several repairs have been made, probably including the small low horizontal plank. Likely the backside earlier consisted of one wooden plank, fixed with dovetails to the sides. The construction of the underside, together with the decorative rail at the bottom is typical, suggesting that it is somewhere nailed. Height 68 cm, length 140 cm, depth 59 cm. Both sold for 800 Euro each.

 

Armoire R.B.K. 1954-7 in Castle Muiderslot, Muiden, the Netherlands dates from the 15th century. The chest is made of two parts that are added on top of one another. During a study, the top was removed, making hidden details visible.

 

Left: the top part of the armoire. Right: The lower part of the armoire is still in use. A historical spoon was found in it.

 

Not all restorations have been done according to the latest views. 

Here a wooden block was screwed on the inside to hold the door.

 

The rail holding the top in place can easily be seen now on the bottom part of the armoire. 

The rail is fixed to the bottom with wooden pins (easily seen on the left photo). 

The top panels are fixed onto the upper part of the dressoir with wooden pins.

At one end the panels are chamfered so they fit into the groove of the next one.

A beautiful armoire from Chateau Bois Orcan, Noyal-sur-Vilaine, France, with four doors and two drawers.

 

Left: The triangular front panel is nicely carved, but when I looked at the back and beneath the armoire (Right) some interesting thing could be seen: For instance the side triangular panel has some carving on the inside. Apparently the intended carving went wrong and was never completed. Instead, they re-used it by reversing the panel (black arrow). The back panels of the armoire are roughly sawn off and layered with a half lap joint (blue arrow). At the edge stile the groove continues into the legs (red arrow) and the back panel is secured in the groove with a wooden pin (green arrow).

The romanesque chests in Sion, Switzerland

The medieval chests room at Musée d'histoire du Valais , Sion

A few things make the collection of chests at the Musèe d'histoire du Valais, in Sion, Switzerland, quite exceptional. Very old and very well preserved, these  "coffres" were made in XII-XIII centuries (the age has been determined mainly by dendrochronology and radiocarbon methods) and, since the construction of the Valère Basilica (XIV-XVth), they have been used as church furnishing.
The six chests on display are part of a much larger group (about twenty, including a few dug out from logs), most of which built for the same purpose: storage of liturgical objects, cloths, books, documents, valuables. Their history is well described in the book "Coffres et coffrets du moyen age", by Claude Veuillet and Corinne Charles,2012 (two volumes), published by Musées cantonaux du Valais, Sion, ISBN 978-2-88426-070-1.

We are going to examine here some details showing how these chests are made, how the parts are joined together,  and take a look to the ironware.

First, the so called "Coffre Ave Maria", shown in foreground at the top of this page, and in detail below.

A rich architectural ornamentation and high-relief carving are distinctive of this chest.

The four sides and the lid are made of single walnut boards.

Measurements : cm 102(H)x206(W)x67(D).

The 25mm thick front (horizontal) board is pinned into the legs by a tenon/tongue (single rabbet) and mortise/groove (in the leg). This is possible because the leg is much thicker than the front board, as the drawing below shows :

The front-left corner viewn in section from above. Outside, the leg and the panels are flush each other. Note that the big nails are just "covers".

The bottom is housed in a groove, all around the perimeter :

Bottom. View from below. Looks like a one-piece board. The groove runs all around the perimeter; legs are also grooved. The iron strap is a later addition. Two reinforcement straps were also added in the front, and removed during the restoration in recent years. 

  

The beautifully carved legs are left unfinished in the back side.

View from the back. Two hinges are present.

The lid and the locking system.

A frame is nailed all around the lid.

"AVE MARIA GRACIA PLENA" - The purpose of the other letters (AB-CD-O(?)E) is unknown.

Chisels, knives and gouges. These toolmarks (after 800 years !) help figure out how the chip carving has been made.

The second chest is totally different :

This is made from softwood. Very long, 331 cm x 104(H) x 89,5(D), it'a double chest, with two separate lids and six legs. The ornamentation is similar in style to the "coffre Ave Maria" (arches and columns), but it is obtained by a second layer superimposed on the one below. The joinery is similar to all the other chests: tongue and groove.

The bottom is nailed to the sides. Only the end grain sides (short sides of the bottom) are housed in grooves .

One of the four hinges and, below, a view of the back.

Third: the "Coffre aux gueules de félin". Cat's (or feline's) heads are sculpded in the columns at the base of the legs, hence the name. Unfortunately this picture suffers from bad lighting (and other defects), but gives you the idea:

This chest is taller than the others: 121(H) x 212(L) x 99(D).

Made of larch (legs)  and spruce (the rest). All the four legs are sculpted in this case, and carved decorations can be seen in the four sides. No side is left rough. The lid is a totally different type, compared to the previous two:

Two strong side-battens (carved) hold together the planks of the lid...

... and provide hinging by two wooden pins. Note that the back, pictured here, is also carved, and colored.

The four perimetral panels are joined to the legs, but this time in recessed position, not flush.

Fourth: "Coffre aux graffiti":
 

A mixture of experimental/imaginative carving has been carried out here. The wood is swiss pine (Pinus cembra), a favourite of sculptors of all ages for its fine texture and its nice natural shine.

Some more photos and mixed details:

A few small boxes (coffrets) are also on display (Through a glass). Above : XV century, northern France .

A different type of strap hinges, and a broad walnut board used for the back (no cheap second-choice wood).

Coffre Saint Sébastien.

Taking a close look to all the artifacts in exibition, what is surprising is the state of conservation of most of them. Aside from some worm holes and some worn or burnt parts, they look impressively "clean". No sign of improper treatment though, like sanding or similar.

All the chests have been restored by Claude Veuillet not many years ago. Unfortunately in his book, full of informations as it is (and really worth having), no description is given about the process of restoration. It would have been very interesting to see them taken apart, and compare these almost millenial pieces of wood before and after.
Sion is a small town in the middle of a valley. Surrouned by mountains it's not as easy to reach as Zurich or Bern, but, for those who are fascinated by romanesque style, and medieval woodwork in general, the content of this small museum is a treasure.