Medieval furniture at Chateau Langeais: dressoirs and armoires

There is more to see at Chateau Langeais than tables, benches and chairs. For instance, cupboards, buffets, dressoirs and armoires (see medieval furniture dictionary). Below is the photographic tour of the castle concerning these furniture types.


This beautiful 6-sided early 16th century livery cupboard was luckily a bit damaged. That is, for me, because it allowed some views of the construction that would otherwise not be possible. The dressoir only stands on four legs.

The sides of the dressoir. The wooden nails in the frame are clearly visible. The top of the dressoir consists of three wooden boards.

The dressoir has only one door, with openwork hinges and lock. Above and under the lock are two faces of men with hats and ruffs, typically worn in the early 16th century.

 Left: The front of the drawer. The two front 'legs' end here in an ornamented knob. Right: The underside of the drawer. At the end a wooden block is placed as a stopper.

Left: Another view of the underside of the drawer. It rests upon two rails. Right: One of the lower side panel was broken, allowing a view inside. You can see the rail on which the drawer rests and the stopper block at the end. Also the groove of the side panel can be seen and the bottom of the cupboard above.

The top has a simple ornamented rim attached to it.

 

 A small but high six-sided  stepped buffet with a canopy and shelves that can be used to display silverware. 
The buffet is made in the late 15th century.

 

The canopy has a barrel-shaped roof  and the vertical stiles end in woman's faces

 

The stepped buffet consists of two loose parts: the display shelf with the canopy and the cupboard with the under shelf.  The backside has two heraldic shields which also appear on the cupboard below.

 The door of the cupboard with two heraldic shields.

 

 Also at the end of the drawer the vertical rails end in woman's heads.

The bottom shelf has six feet.

A four-sided livery cupboard with two doors and no drawers.

The side panels of the dressoir are carved in linenfold pattern.

 A small armoire with double doors. All panels are carved in linenfold pattern.

The top of the armoire consists of two boards.

A large armoire with two large doors and two smaller ones on top. The armoire only has linenfold panels at the front.

The armoire in a bedroom in the castle.

 

 A low livery cupboard / table with two small doors.

Likely not medieval, existing in medieval times: a baby walker and a cradle.

The tools of Martin Löffelholz (1505)

 

Martin Löffelholz was a master technician born around 1496 in Nürnberg, Germany. Like his famous contemporary city member Albrecht Dürer he was also a bit of an inventor.  In 1505 he wrote a book - the Löffelholz codex - containing technical examples of tools, furniture, machines of war (e.g. crossbows) and 'interrogation' equipment. Most famous is his workbench containing one of the first screw-vices. Martin Löffelholz became alderman of Nuremberg in 1528 and passed away on 28 April. 1533. The Löffelholz Codex now resides in the Jagiellonian Library in Krakow, Poland, but the contents can be viewed online. (The only problem is that the official site hosting the codex is very unstable and crashes after viewing a few pages. The codex can also be downloaded, but you then need a special graphics program - Djview - to view/convert the .djvu files.)

  

 A workbench with a double screw vise as well as an end-vise. The end-vise clamps wooden stock against an iron dog. Several holes have been provided for the iron dog, which can also be sunken level to the workbench top.With the two vises the workbench looks very like the modern workbenches.

 

 A similar workbench but with different pointed dogs.

 

The parts and construction of the end-vise of the second workbench, together with the pointed dog.

A double screw vise; here used as a paper press. More on medieval double screw-vises can be found in this blog post.

The Codex Löffelholz, however, contains much more ingenious tools, including those needed to make the wooden screws and screw-nuts.

On the left page the auger to tap the screw-nut is shown. Note that this auger can produce holes of three different sizes! Mine, only can do one size... On the right page the threadbox, both open and closed. Compare these tools with the modern versions on the photos shown below.

Left: The opened modern threadbox. Right: the nut-auger.

Left: the Loffelholz brace with several spoon bits. Right: a 19th century Sheffield brace with a set of bits.

Left: a tapered reamer used for enlarging holes or making tapered mortises. This tools is e.g. used by cart-wrights and coopers. Right: an antique coopers bung hole reamer. Note that both augers start with a twisted part.

Left: A wooden leg vise with metal clamps. Right: a modern antique full metal version.

 One wooden divider and three metal ones. Interestingly, to become a master compassmaker in the Nuremberger guild the apprentice had to make such a metal compass with screw. Several of these items could also be found in the Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nuremberg, which I visited this summer. 

 

To become a master compass-maker in Nuremberg around 1600, the apprentice had to make a handheld vise, a thumbscrew compass, pincers and an all purpose hammer. At least one complete set was always kept in the guild chest.

Left: An auger as an adjustable circle cutter. Right: The modern version of it.

A triple auger drill; the handles are augers themselves.

A machine to make crossbow arrows. The wooden shaft is clamped by a screw-vise, while a spokeshave/scraper/plane like tool moves along a fixed track to smooth the arrow shaft.

A close up of the scraper tool.

The Löffelholz Codex also contains some furniture pieces, among those a rocking cradle and an office chair.

Two drawings of a rocking cradle. These kind of cradles are ubiquitously depicted in late medieval manuscripts 

showing the birth of Maria.

 

The right upper part of the Maria altar showing a similar cradle painted by Marx Reichlich (around 1500). 

Alten Pinakothek Muchen, Germany.

The first office chair on wheels?