The claw feet of the sella curulis

The carving of the claw-feet for the sella curulis proved to be more easy and much quicker than the carving of the eagle heads. All in all, it took me a week's time - during the Christmas holidays - to finish the four claw feet. In the photo's below I will show you the process of carving the clawed feet. First, I made a test foot from a spare piece of pear wood. While doing this I changed my mind on the projection of the claws. My first plan was to have the claw-nails projecting outward, as if they were poised to grasp a prey. However, this have would produced brittle points, that would easily break off during transport or while sitting on the chair at an uneven surface. My solution was to have the claw-nails pointing inwards, as if they were already holding a prey.

The test piece on the right and a partly carved claw on the left.

The claw nails are pointed inwards, leaving the edges rounded and less prone to breaking off.

 

The front side and view underneath the claw feet.  

First I made drawing guide of a piece of paper that was cut out in the form of the claw. This ensured that the feet more or less looked the same.  The pattern was transferred to the wood and at the bottom of the feet some connecting lines were drawn. A thin line was sawn between the two parallel claws and the claw claws were carved using a carving knife, as well as some gouges (sweep 3-20, 5-20, 7-6 and 8-7) and the abegglen knife (see previous post). I continued by carving the oval gap between the claws and then followed by further rounding of the claw nails. The nails were sanded to a smooth finish afterwards.

Left: the paper drawing guide and the pencil lines of the claws. Right: You can see the guidance lines at bottom of the two feet.

  

A small saw line was made between the parallel claws. On the right you can see the pencil lines to guide the carving.

First the oval gap between the claws was carved, the the separation line of the nails, and then the nails were further rounded.

The nails were sanded to a smooth finish.

For the upper part of the claw feet some scales were planned. The scales were first drawn with a pencil, then the outlines were cut by pushing the 8-7 sweep gouge into the wood and followed by making the cut wider with the 7-6 sweep gouge.

 Left: These two small gouges were used to cut the scales of the feet. Right: The pencil scales.  

The finished claw feet with still some pencil marks left. The initial cut was made by the 8-7 sweep gouge (the upper line of the scale); then the cut was widened by the 7-6 sweep gouge (the lower line of the scale).

Now all the carving has been done, the next step will be the gilding of the head and feet, which will feature in another post.

Misericords from Luneburg

Usually, I do not find church interiors very interesting. The exception is of course when there is something medieval to see - fresco's, sculptures, (some) stained glass windows, and/or furniture. Most church furniture is restricted to either shrines, altar pieces, choir stalls or pulpits. Occasionally, these furniture pieces are really interesting. One such a place with good church furniture is the Dom of Bardowick near Luneburg, Germany. It is a small brick church dedicated to Saint Peter dating from 1146 and rebuild after partial destruction in the 13th century.

Ubiquitous furniture pieces in catholic churches are the choir stalls, which are situated on both sides of the choir. Mostly these choir stalls are surrounded by a metal fence preventing anyone to have a close examination of the stalls. But not here. We could enter the stalls, open and close the seating, have a rest, and view (and photograph) the nice misericords. The choir stalls of Bardowick were built in the 15th century (1486/87) and have beautiful misericords. The construction of the choir stall is typical for this type of furniture: a double row of chairs is at each side of the choir, providing place for 54 men. The entrance to the back row is in the middle of the front row. The back row has seats for the canons, the front rows have places for the vicars. The individual seats have rounded backs and armrests, and a folding seat supported underneath by a misericord (a 'seat of mercy', as they were meant to provide a degree of comfort to a person who has to stand during long periods of prayer). Misericords can be beautifully carved, as in Bardowick, with a sense of humour. But also the panels dividing the seats were very nicely carved.

 

 

The choir with both choir stalls and the baptismal font. The back row is just a bit higher than the front row.

 

 

One of the choir stalls with the Gothic style canopy. You can also enter the back row from the sides.

The Bardowick choir is covered with a canopy in the Gothic architectural style. The ends of the choir stalls are closed with panels decorated with carvings of several saints. Interestingly, three different carving styles could be recognized (not by me I have to confess), indicating that three different craftsman were responsible for the production of the misericords and saints. One of these artists has been identified as Severin Tile from Luneburg.

 

Three of the misericords underneath the folding seat of the choir stalls: a kissing couple, 

a man sticking his tongue out, and a man hiding from a wolf.

 

 Some of the carvings on the seat dividing panels: a dog/lion, a cockatrice and both sides of a man's face.

One of the apostles on the end panels of the choir stalls: Saint Jacob the Elder.

The choir stalls were not the only piece of interesting medieval furniture. Also a mutilated oaken Levitensitz (or three-seater) dating from 1410 could be found in the choir. A levitensitz was a seat used by the priest and his helpers (the ministrants) during mass. The seat from Bardowick, however, is rather small to hold three men, and more likely is a two-seater. It has a carved relief of Moses and Isaiah, with a red and black painted text scroll. The top half of the Levitensitz has been sawn of, but this gives an opportunity to see some details of the construction, like the fixation of the rounded backrest. A complete Levitensitz with the upper half dating from around 1400 is found in the nearby Kloster Lune. This seat has more space for the mass officiating priest. The large side panels show Maria, St. Bartholomeus, St. Jacob the Elder and Benedictus. These painted Saints are carved in the so-called 'International' or 'Soft' style, which stretches the portrayed bodies. The Levitensitz has a 'architectural style' canopy like that of a choir stall. 

 

Left: Moses with the text on the scroll. Right: The lower part of the Levitensitz.

 

The seat board of the Levitensitz is also gone. It is unclear from the remains if the seat board was closed in front, 

as with the Levitensitz in Kloster Lune.

The left photo shows some construction details of the Levitensitz. You can see the places of the dowels that were used to fix the rounded backrest. The backrest itself is made up of two parts. The size of the seat hardly has space for three people. Right: A complete Levitensitz from Kloster Lune with cushions and a small embroidered tapestry from 1507.

The St. Johanniskirche in Luneburg also contains some (late) medieval furniture. One is a bench that is easily overlooked in the church. It belonged to the Von Dassel family, which were important salt merchants and mayors of the city. The sides show a nicely carved quartefoil, together with more flowery motifs.

The large bench has three legs and a backrest.

An oak armoire from the early 16th century, used to store utensils for sacristy, is also supposed to be in the church, but, unfortunately remained hidden from view. Therefore, I have only a scanned image from the book 'Schrank, Butze, Bett' by T. Albrecht to offer. This large three-storey armoire is 3 metre 33 cm heigh, 4 metre 57 cm wide and 61 cm deep.

 

The left upper panel of the baptismal altar of the same church has a gilded image of St. Thomas. The altar is made by Benedikt Dreyer (= turner) in 1507. On the left stands St. Paul (with sword), in the middle is St. Matteus (with book) and on the right stands St. Thomas (with spear and book).

Sources

Der Dom zur Bardowick by U. Boeck. DKV-Kunstfuhrer nr. 280 - Klosterkammer Hannover heft 4. ISBN 978-3-422-02256-0.
St. Johanniskirche Luneburg by M. Voigt.  DKV-Kunstfuhrer nr 344. ISBN 978-3-422-02301-7.
Kloster Lune by J.U. Brinkmann. Die Blauen Bucher. ISBN 978-3-7845-0829-0.

Some purses from the St. Thomasguild Part II

This post continues with two more purses in use by us. Both purses are of the frame-purse type (as described by Olaf Goubitz in the book 'Purses in Pieces' (ISBN 9789089320148). This book gives an excellent presentation of all the purses and pouches in use in medieval times, with reconstructions based on actual (Dutch) finds. His focus is on leather purses, but the given purse types apply to fabric purses as well. Some of the intriguing purses in this book have two sacks instead of one. He divides the different purses into four kinds:

• Double ring purses, where both bags hang side by side.
• Secondary ring purses, where the second - smaller bag - hides within the larger bag.
• Hinged-ring purses, where the second 'half' ring swivels on the first ring. Depending on the place of the half ring (up or down), either the smaller bag or the larger is open.
• And finally double harp-framed purses, which are basically the same as the other double purses, but with their ring frames shaped like a D.

Drawing of a double ring purse from the Leather museum in Offenbach, Germany. 

Drawing from O. Goubitz Purses in Pieces.

Above. Drawing by O. Goubitz of a secondary ring purse. Right. Drawing by O. Goubitz of a leather find in Dordrecht, the Netherlands of a secondary ring purse. 

Drawing of a hinged type purse by O. Goubitz, showing that the small bag is open when the hinge is down, and the large bag is open when the hinge is up.

Left: A double ring frame for a purse from Italy, 1450. MAK, Koln, Germany. Right: A D-shaped hinged ring frame made from latten inlaid with niello. Late 15th century, British. Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK.

Two iron double ring frames with a suspension swivel. Amsterdam Historic Museum, Amsterdam, the Netherlands. The left purse frame measures 12 by 9 cm and has small holes in the ring to attach the bag part of the purse. The holes are such that the two rings support two bags hanging next to each other. The lobes of the right purse frame point such that the second bag hangs within the first. Images from O. Goubitz's book Purses in pieces.

A 16th century iron hinged-ring frame from the museum Booijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam, the Netherlands. It measures 17 x 13.5 x 1.5 cm. Image from the museum website, drawing from O. Goubitz.

Interestingly, Racaire (of the marvellous Racaire Embroidery and Needlework blog) has made photos of such a (very posh) double ring purse from south Germany of 1550 on display in the Hof Jagd und Rustkammer in Vienna, Austria. Only two images of this purse are shown below, the others you can see at her Flickr photo stream. 

The double purse from the Hof Jagd und Rustkammer, Vienna, Austria. 

The tassels of the drawstring are made up of three different colours. Photo copyright by Racaire.

Side view of the two ring frames with purses hanging from one purse bar. Photo copyright by Racaire.

I find these double purses fascinating, and it is no wonder that my daily purse in use as guild-master of the St. Thomasguild is such a double purse. We did use a brass purse bar with a single harp frame from Medieval Design (an Italian firm providing re-enactment stuff) and added an extra brass harp frame to it - luckily there was just enough space for it. The outer layer of the pouch is made from black velvet, the inside is of red silk. The silk drawstrings end with either two rubies or two gold beads. The front flap of the pouch is embroidered with the heraldic shield of our guild. The ends of the bags each have a double black tassel of 6 cm long. The sizes of each purse are: top width 12 cm, bottom width 29 cm, diagonal edge length 19 cm, flap length 10 cm.

My purse laid flat, showing both trapezium shaped bags.

Left: The gold and ruby beads at the end of the drawstring. Middle: The red silk inside of the pouch. Right: The heraldic shield of the St. Thomasguild with compass, plane and axe, together with the spear of St. Thomas.

The double purse with both bags standing side by side.

The second pouch is one that Anne uses for special occasions (feasts and castles). This pouch is a trapezium-shaped single harp-frames purse. Several of these ring/harp-framed purses have survived from medieval times, most of them are religious treasures now, such as the late 13th - early 14th century ring-framed purse from the Our Beloved Lady of Nativity (O.L. Vrouwe van de Geboorte) church in Tongeren, Belgium. This purse likely once belonged to John (Jan) II of Brabant and Limburg (or his wife), as his coat of arms and that of his wife Margaret (Marghareta) of England are embroidered on the purse, and bequeathed to the church after his/her death.

 

The front of the purse of Jan II van Brabant. The purse is quite large: 30 cm height by 43 cm width. 

Photo from the KIK-IRPA database, Belgium.

Left: Detail from the embroidered front of the Jan II van Brabant purse. It is made from wool fabric with embroidery in silk and gold thread (long stitch). Right: On the back, plain twill damask (China, end of 13th-early 14th century). Photo from the KIK-IRPA database, Belgium.

Two photos showing the ring of the purse of Jan II van Brabant as well as the holes for the drawstring. Photos from the KIK-IRPA database, Belgium.

Anne's pouch is made of ivory coloured silk with a woven flower pattern. The inside of the pouch is plain silk. The edges of the pouch are decorated with two rows of 8 pearls, with a 7 cm long gold thread tassel at each end. The green-ivory drawstring end with two gold beads. The purse measures 12 cm at the top and 27 cm at the bottom with a diagonal edge length of 17 cm. The length of the closing flap is 11 cm.

The front of Anne's pouch with the flap closed.

Here you can see the double gold beads at the end of the drawstring, and the pearls around the edge.

Left: The front of the pouch with the flap opened. Right: The back of the pouch. 

You can see that the purse hangs on the harp ring, not on the purse bar.