The furniture at the Engelanderholt 'klaarbank' - Part 1

While the outlines of the klaarbank at the Engelanderholt are more or less straightforward, the furniture within is based on much speculation and assumptions. However, keeping this in mind, Bram and I think that the furniture within the klaarbank could have looked like those presented below. We did have some clues, however, as the backside of one of the sketches made by the carpenter shows some side-views of the furniture pieces. For the rest, we looked at contemporary pieces of  furniture that might be similar to those of the klaarbank. One of the assumptions made was that the furniture pieces had to be constructed in a relatively short amount of time, and that they should easily be disassembled and stored for reuse.

A cross section of the finished klaarbank at the back of one of the sketches made by master carpenter Aelbert (Photo copyright Gelders Archive, detail of 529-003). The large chair with canopy for the Duke can be seen on the left, as well as five sets of benches. On the far right you can see a table.

The chair of the Duke (or Stadhouder)

Left: Detail of the chair from the outline sketch by Master Aelbert (Photo copyright Gelders Archive, detail of 529-002).

On the sketch containing the structure of the side walls (see previous post), the seat of the Duke is shown in more detail. It is a richly ornamented chair with a high panelled backrest and armrests. The top of the back rest has a pair of ornamented pinnacles. The backrest is horizontally divided into two parts; the lower part seems to consist of a linenfold pattern, while the top part has a carved appearance. However, the cross-section (see figure above) shows the chair having a canopy.

Chairs of a ruler (like the stadhouder or the Duke) that were used for official meetings needed to be representative and impressive. During the larger part of the Middle Ages this was almost always a throne or a sella curulis (a type of folding chair) decorated with lion heads at the ends. At the end of the 14th century and early 15th century the chair type changed to a folding chair with a high backrest, which in turn in the 15th and 16th centuries was succeeded by a box- or panelled high chair. It is probably this last type of chair that was used by the Duke at the klaarbank.

This kind of chair can be equipped with a storage compartment under the seat; most of the surviving examples have such a compartment. In such cases, the chair is called a box chair or in Dutch a 'sittekist'. The photos below show several extant examples of such chairs. Basically this chair consists of a frame, where the backrest, front and sides are filled with panels. In the late Middle Ages (15th century) these were often parchment and linenfold panels, while in the 16th century more figurative carved and X-shaped panels were used. The outline of the seat of the Duke (the detail from 529-002) shows a nice transition between the two panel styles: the bottom half uses a linenfold panel and the upper half a figurative carved panel. This figurative panel could for example be the heraldic shield of the Duchy of Guelders. The components of the frame itself are joined using mortise and tenons, secured by wooden nails. For the decorations on the top of the backrest we propose (Guelders) lions. The boxed/panel high chairs could also be fitted with a balcony at the top of the backrest (see photo below).

(Left) Oak box chair (1490-1500) from Chateau Martainville, France with a large carved panel in the backrest.  Two lions can be found at the top of the backrest. Height 186 cm, 74 cm wide. (Middle) Oak box chair with an attached canopy. Height 227 cm, width 71 cm. Image scanned from J. Boccador - Le mobilier Francais du moyen age a la renaissance. (Right) Oak box chair with linenfold panels from the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, the Netherlands (Photo copyright Rijksmuseum). The chair is dated around 1500. Also here two shield bearing lions are found at the backrest. Height 143 cm, width 73 cm.

Such box seats were variable in size. The width varied between 60 and 90 cm and the height between 1.13 and 2.26 meters. The seat height is generally 45 cm and depth of the seat between 45 and 59 cm. However, the space for the ducal seat in the klaarbank is limited due to the restricted surface area of ​​the plateau on which the seat stands (4 by 2 feet). For a stable placement, the chair must have been smaller than the platform; a chair with a width of 75 cm and a depth of 45 cm with a height of 1.85 meters, like the one shown below, may well have been used at the klaarbank.

High-backed panel chairs from that time are invariably made of oak. Since the construction of such a chair relatively takes a long time, and since the chair has a representative and impressive function, it is more likely that the ducal seat was taken from the ducal inventory and not constructed on site. To make such a chair, one needs a good joiner, rather than a master carpenter who also needs to put together a klaarbank. Furthermore, spruce or poplar (the wood used for the klaarbank) is inappropriate and unsuitable for such an important seat.

The proposed seat of the duke at the klaarbank (© St. Thomas Guild).

The benches for the counselors, nobility, peinders and registrar

Left: The side of one of the benches; detail from the sketch by Master Aelbert (Photo copyright Gelders Archive, detail of 529-003).

The plan of the klaarbank shows six long forms meant for the counselors, the knighthood and the representatives of the Veluwe cities (peinders). The seventh, a much smaller stool behind a table, was intended for the registrar and the writer. The backside of the sketch of the floor plan shows the sides of the various benches, which all look similar. They consisted of (two) uprights that were connected to each other by two smaller boards (an sometimes a stretcher) where the seating board rested on top. This construction is called a 'wangenbank' or boarded stool, a type that was first seen in the 15th century and remained popular two centuries afterwards. This seating type existed in all sizes, from a single-seated stool to a bank for dozens of people, and was made in various types of wood. Examples of such banks from the 16th century can be found in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London (see below); a simple version of a boarded stool was fished out of the wreck of the Mary Rose.

The construction of a boarded form is simple and consists of five boards: the seat, two uprights (sides) and two cheeks on the length of the bench to support the seat. The boards [wangen] are fixed to the uprights with nails or could be hooked together cross-wise. The latter is most likely when the banks quickly had to be disassembled. For added reinforcement often there was also a low stretcher through a mortise and secured with  a wedge to the uprights. These banks could easily be extended by adding extra uprights and stretchers with wedges to support the longer seating. The scheme below shows a possible construction of the long forms. As mentioned previously, these benches are easy to make (by a carpenter), disassemble, transport and store, which also happened to the klaarbank.

Two 16th century oak forms originating from the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK. The cheeks of these forms are hooked into the uprights. (Top) Object W.78-1924: Height 45.7 cm, 1.55 m long and 26.8 cm deep (Photo copyright V & A, London; http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O113387/bench/). (Bottom) Object W. 67-1921. Height 53.4 cm, length 2.36 m and depth 28 cm. Image scanned from C. Tracy - English medieval furniture and woodwork.

(Left) The elm boarded stool from the Mary Rose. The standing panels are slightly notched to accomodate the side boards. These are nailed to the uprights. Image scanned from 'Chapter 9 Plain and Functional: Furniture on the Mary Rose' by V. Chinnery in 'Before the mast: life and death aboard the Mary Rose'. (Right) The underside of an elm boarded stool dating from 1550. item no 1136. 22 inch wide, 21.5 inch height, 11.5 inch deep. Photo from Period Oak Antiques, UK. 

A boarded oak stool from 1600 joined by a stretcher and fixed with a wedge. 20.5 inch high, 21 inch wide and 13 inch deep. Item nr. 1046. Photos from Period Oak Antiques, UK.

The measurements of the benches are provided in the text on the sketch of the klaarbank [no. 592-0001] or can be deduced from these measurements. Thus, the height of the bench must be 1.5 feet or 45 cm, the same as the depth of the form. The length of all banks is given in the text:

De Bank van de Kanselier en Raden, lang 40 voeten;
Bank van de ridderschap, lang 52 voet;
Tweede bank van de ridderschap, lang in alles 40 voet;
Bank van de peindere, dr. etc. hoog 1,5 voet, lang 27 voet;
Elk van deze banken is breed 1,5 voet en staan van de andere 1,5 voet;
Bank van griffier (en) landschrijver etc. lang 8 voet.

[The Bank of the Chancellor and Council, 40 feet long;
Bank of the Knighthood, 52 feet long;
Second bank of the Knighthood, all 40 feet long;
Bank of peindere, Dr etc. 1.5 feet high, 27 feet long;
Each of these banks is 1.5 feet wide and 1.5 feet in front of the other;
Bank of the Registrar (and) writer etc. 8 feet long.]

The proposed form for the nobility at the klaarbank (© St. Thomas Guild).

Only the number of uprights for the long benches are unknown. The stool for the registrar probably had two, the distance between them is little more than 2 m. The number of uprights for the long benches were probably 5 for the peinders, 11 for the second bench of the knighthood, twelve (2 x 6) for the first bench of the knighthood and eight (2 x 4) for the bank of the chancellor and council. The nobles and dignitaries had to attend the entire session of the klaarbank. You can imagine that prolonged sitting on a hard wooden bench was not very comfortable. Probably the forms also  had cushions, whether or not taken with them by the delegates.

A next post will concern the remainder of the furniture in the klaarbank at the Engelanderholt.

Multilingual furniture dictionary: sleeping furniture

A return to the multilingual furniture dictionary. After the previous posts on seating furniture and storage furniture (a few years ago) we now turn our attention to sleeping furniture. We sleep a large part of our life, yet very few pieces of sleeping furniture have been retained from medieval times. Most evidence provided here is pictorial based and originates from from miniatures, paintings, carvings and so on. When you want to define medieval sleeping furniture terms, one encounters a difficulty with the descriptions given in inventories: the actual furniture piece, the wooden bed-frame, is supplemented with mattresses, coverings, pillows and cushions, draperies, balconies, and so on, and the names for the beds, a bed with these items or the items themselves can be mixed (as often the case in medieval descriptions). Moreover, the words 'celour' (medieval: the canopy) and 'dossier' or tester' (medieval: the head board) have switched their meaning in the 17th century.

A painted bed from an Italian hospital dating from 1337. Museo dell'Ospedale del Ceppo, Pistoia,Tuscany, Italy.

What is apparent in the late medieval inventories (of the rich) is the excessive amount of money spend on the textiles, covering and draperies. According to Windisch-Graetz (1982) this is not only the case for the late medieval beds with canopies, but also for the early medieval beds. This was because the bed(room), next to its sleeping function, also fulfilled a role in the display of the hierarchy, wealth and social status of the owner. In contrast is the sleeping culture in the monasteries and cloisters. Here, everyone did have a simple bed, but with sparse and Spartan coverings. More on the sleeping rules in different monasteries in Sweden can be found in a recent post on the blog 'In deme jare Cristi'.
 

 Three footrest types at different heights around the beds. Top: An angel announces St. Hubert of Liège's approaching death. Koninklijke Bibliotheek, The Hague, the Netherlands, KB 76 F 10, folio 33v, dated 1463. Left: Pétrarca approaches Boccaccio on his bed. folio 294 in 'Cas des nobles hommes et femmes' by Giovanni Boccaccio. Ms. 3878, around 1470-1480, Bibl. Mazarine, Paris, France. Right: Giovannino de’ Grassi, La Natività della vergine, from the Offiziolo Visconti, around 1395. Biblioteca Nazionale, Firenze, Italy.

When you look at medieval illuminations or paintings of bedrooms you see very often a chest (hutch) at the footrest or at the sides, which is used for storing personal clothing and belongings. Another bed-related but non-sleeping type of furniture is the footrest, which can be found surrounding the bedframe at both long sides and the footboard. In the Italian platform bed this is combined and attached to the bed as a row of  low chests on three sides, which also serve as a footrest. A nice example can be seen on the a panel of the San Marco altarpiece 'The Healing of the Deacon Justinian by Saint Cosmas and Saint Damian' by Fra Angelico (1143) or a similar scene by Sano di Pietro (1405-1481).

 An Italian platform bed, similar to that of 'the healing of deacon Justinian', dating around 1500. 

Formerly in the Volpi collection, Florence, Italy.

Regardless of the social status of the beds, like the previous posts, I have made some rudimentary sketches of the different sleeping furniture items and their names in the different languages.

Type	Dutch	German	English	French	Latin
Simple beds	bed	Bett	beddys, bedstead, bed, couche	couchette, lit	lectum, lecto
	gedraaid bed		turned bed	lit de travers
	bedde, bed, bedframe	Bett, Bettstelle, Bette, Bettlade, Spanninge	bedde de bords, bedframe, halfheaded bedstead	charlit, lit de planches, lit de corde (1), lit de bout	sponda
	(Italiaans) bed met omkasting, bed met kistkasten	Fruhrenaissance Bett	platform bed
			rolling bed, truckle bedstead, trundle, wheelbed	couchette roulonnée, lit à roulettes, carriole
??	veldbed, reisbed, vouwbed		trussyng bedde, folding bed, fyelde bedstede	lit de camp, un charlit qui se ploye	trussynbed
Bed with covering
	baldakijn bed, bed met los baldakijn	Bett mit Baldachin, Baldachinbett, Himmelbett	hung bed, bed with celour, bed with canopy	grand licts, la couchette, lit à baldaquin, lit à courtines, chalit, lit à plein ciel	lectus cum tapeto et selours
	paviljoen bed		sparver, sperver, tentbed	lit à pavillion, paveillons, tent bede d'espervyer
	halfdak baldakijnbed	Bett mit halbverdeck, Gotisches Bett, Bett mit halbes Baldachin	halftester bed	lit à demi celour, lit à demi ciel (plat / courbe)
	hemelbed	Himmelbett, Kastenbett, Baldachinbett	tester bedstead, fourposter, bed with celour, bed with canopy	lit à colonnes, chalit, lit d'angle
	bedstede, beddestede	Kastenbett
	koetse, kuytsenbedeken, kuytsen, koetse, kuytsenstede, alkoof	Butze, Alkove, Wandbett, Koyen	alcove, couch, cupboard bedstead	alcove, grand cousche enchassile, couchette toute enchassillée, lit clos
Cradles
	mand wieg		wicker cradle, bassinet	berceau, moïse
	krib			berceau-bas, bercer et nourrir
	gedraaide wieg		turned cradle	berceau, berceau à bascule
	schommelwieg	Kufenwiege, wiege	rocking cradle	berceau, berceau-haut
	staatsie wieg		state cradle, hanging cradle swinging cradle	biers, bers, berseil, berceau de deux tourillons, berceau suspendu, porte-berceau, bers de parement, berceau de parade
			rocking cradle
Other bedtypes
	hospitaalbed	Krankenbett	hospital bed	lit alignés
	voetenbank (2)

(1) the lit de corde seems to indicate that the mattress support was made from rope (as opposed to a slatted mattress support).
(2) sometimes the bedframe was surrounded on the sides and the foot by a kind of footrest, like those found by chairs and benches.

The early medieval partially turned bed (550 BC) made from beech found in the Trossinger Grave 58 in Wurtemberg (Photo Archaeological Museum of Baden-Württemberg).

Some extra remarks can be made concerning the time-frame of above mentioned bedtypes. The turned bed is typically seen in medieval illustrations before 1300', sometimes with an opening in the middle to make it easier to access the bed, and disappear thereafter, while the Italian platform bed and the (half)tester bed are more typical examples of late medieval sleeping furniture (for the wealthy). The earliest examples of a beds with a canopy (a sparver or a celour)  appear in the 12th century, first separate from the bedframe itself, but later becoming one entity. Beds with a canopy remained fashionable for centuries after the middle ages. A canopy fixed on four posts (i.e. a four-poster) is not much seen during medieval times, most of the canopies were supported by headboard and extra lines from the ceiling (see 'the making of a hung celour' by Penelope Eames); this also allows to change from a full to a half-celour depending on the status of the visitors to the bedroom.

Left: an early 17th century wheel bed from Gelli, Glamorganshire in Wales, that also used to have a folding headboard  (image scanned from V. Chinnery - Oak furniture - the British tradition) . Right: 15th century image from 'Livre du très chevalereux, conte d'Artois et de sa femme, fille du conte de Boulongne'. Only a modernised (1837) b/w version containing the illumination exists, the original manuscript has been lost.

The earliest extant example of a trundle or wheeled bed stems from the 17th century (see photo below), but the bedtype is already mentioned in 1459 (one image of a wheeled bed is known from a 15th century manuscript). No examples or images have survived of the folding or travelling bed, only vague descriptions. Finally, not all did sleep in beds: houses in medieval Novgorod (Russia) had benches on which the inhabitants slept; and straw sacks could also provide a relatively comfortable resting place for the poor.

Anna rocking the baby Maria in a turned cradle. Book of hours, around 1400-1410. 

Koninklijke Bibliotheek, The Hague, the Netherlands, manuscript KB 76 F 21, folio 13r.

Thanks to the Christian religion, many images of cradles were produced, showing scenes of the birth of Maria, St. John and Christ. An example of a state or ceremonial cradle, that of Philip the Handsome, has been presented in a previous post.

Hospitals were a special place, where many beds are placed into one room. This could be normal bedframes, but these could also be connected to each other, the footboard of one bed being the headboard for the  next bed, thus creating a long row of beds alongside the wall of the infirmary. A nice example of this (the medieval hospital in Beaune, France) can be seen on Kathy Storms blog 'Medieval arts and crafts'. 

 

 Left: The hospital beds in  the Salle de sion of the L'Hôtel-Dieu in Beaune, France (Photo copyright Arnaud 25). 

Right: A row of beds shown in de 15th century manuscript MS Francais 12330, Rustican du cultivement et labeur champestre, folio 9. 

Sources:

The books  'Furniture in England, France and the Netherlands from the twelfth to the fifteenth century'  by Penelope Eames, 'Huusraet' by B. Dubbe, Mobel Europas I Romanik- Gotik by Franz Windisch-Graetz, 'Schrank, Butze, Bett' by Thorsten Albrecht and 'Mobilier domestique vol. I vocabulaire typologique' by Nicole de Reyniès were used extensively in making this list, among others. Also interesting is the article by Penelope Eames (1997) on 'the making of a hung celour' in Furniture History 33: 37-42.

A mysterious hood

Saint Luke Drawing the Virgin, c. 1435-1440. 137.5 x 110.8 cm on panel. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, USA.

A few weeks ago one of the Dutch newspapers commented on a painting by the Flemish medieval artist Rogier van der Weyden: St. Luke drawing the Virgin (1435-1440) (the original painting now resides in the Boston Museum of Fine Art; some medieval copies are in München, Bruges and the Hermitage in St. Peterburg). In the background of the painting a couple can be seen staring at the river. The newspapers wondered what the couple were looking at and what they were saying to each other. However my eye fell to the headdress of the man. The long liripipe suggests that he is wearing a hood. But is he also wearing a hat over it? Or is the black part actually the inside of the hood. And if this is the case, how does he actually wear his hood. I immediately rushed to my own hood to try this out, much to the amusement of Anne, Bram and Katinka. I must confess that I did not succeed in figuring out how the hood was worn.

The man wearing the hood in a mysterious way. Detail of the painting by Rogier van der Weyden.

Some days later I found another image in an early 15th century medieval manuscript of a man wearing the hood in a similar way. This suggests that this way of wearing the hood was more common. Has anyone an idea how this was done?

Les comédies de Terence. Ms Latin 664, folio 181v. Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, Paris, France. Around 1410.

p.s. Some other ways of hood wearing can be found on the Tacuinum Medievale blog or alternative hood use on this blog.

A medieval cradle in Brussels

 The cradle of Philip the Handsome, made around 1478.

There are not much medieval cradles that have survived. Most of them concern the ornate ceremonial (estate) cradles. One of the surviving late medieval ceremonial cradles can be found in the Hallenpoort, one of the surviving medieval city gates, in Brussels (Belgium). The cradle has been known as that of Emperor Charles V, but the arms on the cradle depict that of his grandparents Maximilian I and Maria of Burgundy, so it is nowadays understood that it should have been the cradle made for Philip the Handsome (to become King of Castile and the father of Charles V) and his sister Margaret of Austria. This dates the cradle to June 1478, when Phillips was born in Bruges, Belgium; Margaret was born in January 1480.

Philip the Handsome and Margaret of Austria by Pieter van Coninxloo, c 1493-5. 

Betrothal diptych, oil on oak panels, each 23.8 x 16.5cm. National Gallery, London, UK. 

The cradle is made from oak and has a length of 1.45 m and a width and height of 73.5 and 77.5 cm, respectively. It is composed of boards held within a frame without mitred corners and with elaborate mouldings attached to the frame. The sides and ends have a horizontal division and there is a railing above the sides of cradle box. The corner posts extend above and below the box to support the railing and two open tracery panels  below. These tracery panels are at the ends only and serve as decorative sled on which the cradle can rest when not slung between the uprights. At the top of the ends also a (tracery?) panel existed, but only the grooves for it remain. The corner posts are each carved with a pair of buttresses, which likely would have reached higher as they are now. The box was originally double walled, presumably to give a good finish to the inside, but the (original) inner skin is almost entirely missing. The rounded bottom of the box has been restored with modern oak boards.

Left photo: The other side of the cradle. Much of the woodwork is renewed (the light-coloured oak); a few traces of the painting can be seen. Right photo: The underside of the cradle is rounded, but also  renewed.

The front and back ends of the cradle feature the double M (for Maria and Maximilian) on a gilded background.

 The corner posts where some parts are sawn off and an empty groove for a now missing top panel.

The (gilded - some traces can be seen) bottom panel with open tracery work. 

Some nails or dowels used to fix the panel to the post can be seen on the left.

The cradle used to swing between uprights, which also have not survived, although the iron spigots are still attached to the cradle. Each spigot is set in a circular sex-foil rose with a central domed boss. Also on one side of the cradle several staples were set into the railing. It is possible that these were used to attach a parver (a pavillion type canopy) to the cradle.

Left photo: The iron sex-foil rose spigot, where the cradle used to swing between the uprights. 

Right photo: the moulded rails are nailed to fix the panels.

This side has some staples set into the railing, probably to attach a domed canopy (sparver) to it. As can be clearly seen in these photos, the buttresses of the corner posts are sawn off and the groove for the top panel is empty.

Also much of the decoration has been lost. The entire surface of the cradle was once covered with paintings in colours (black and red) and gold leaf. Decoration for such state cradles used to be done by master painters (and more expensive that the construction of the cradle itself), which is evident by the quality of the decoration. The end panels are decorated with initials M and M (for Maria and Maximilian) intertwined with thistles and holly. One of the low panels on the sides contains the device of Maximilian 'HALT MAS IN ALLEN DINGEN' [moderation in all things]. The larger panel on the side contain remains of heraldic decorations with eagles and heraldic shields.

The Burgundian heritage is clearly shown by the sparkling fire-strikers. 

The first letters (HALT) of the device of Maximilian can also be clearly seen.

The gilded panel on the side showing the same arms as the panel of Philip the Handsome by Pieter van Coninxloo shown above. On the left side the imperial eagle is shown.

According to Penelope Eames, a furniture historian, noble families employed two cradles: the estate cradle - such as this one - in which the infant was displayed and in use during the day. But furthermore, a night cradle, that was much lower and simpler in construction, and in which the baby normally lay. The bills for the cradles ordered by Margaret of Flanders, Duchess of Burgundy in 1403 give some idea on the amount of money that was spend by the nobility on the 'baby-room'.

To master Jehan Du Liège, carpenter, living in Paris, for 2 cradles 1 of state and the other for rocking and feeding the said infant and for 2 stands for the said cradles; two tubs of riven oak for bathing the infant, and 2 round cases for keeping them in, 36 francs; and for a white wood case for the state cradle in order that it may be carried with greater safety from Paris to Arras ... 2 francs .... To Christofle Besan, painter and 'varlet de chambre' to the Duke of Burgundy, for painting and gilding with fine, burnished gold the large above mentioned state cradle for the said infant with the arms of Seigneur de Rethel and with those of the said Damoiselle de Rethel; and for a panel with the head of Our Lady to be placed behind the infant's head 50 francs.

If you compare this amount of money spend on the cradle itself, to the more than 800 francs spend only on the coverlets (more than 800 francs) and a sparver (40.5 francs), you might think that the itself cradle was very cheap.
  

 

The inside of the cradle. It would have been covered with more expensive 

materials than the cost of making this cradle. 

Sources used:

• Penelope Eames (1977). Furniture in England, France and the Netherlands from the twelfth to the fifteenth century. Furniture History, volume XIII.  
• Franz Windisch-Graetz (1982) Mobel Europas I - von der Romanik bis zur Spatgotik. Klinkhardt and Biermann, Munchen, Germany, ISBN 3781402126.