Details of the scapradekijn from Köln

My previous post told about our project to make a scapradekijn or hanging cupboard for Castle Muiderslot (Muiden, the Netherlands). It also showed two of these hanging cupboards that are at the Museum fur angewandte Kunst in Cologne (which I visited several years ago). I wondered if I could get some more information from the museum curator and tried my luck with an email. And yes, after a few weeks the reply came, together with a bunch of photos that showed the hanging cupboard from different angles those found in books. Curiously, the curator, Mr. Werner Nett, mentioned that the museum owned only one hanging cupboard, even though the museum catalogue showed two. The item number (A 988) of the second cupboard I had enquired appeared to be a painting. I do hope that this cupboard is somewhere on loan to another museum, else they have a problem of missing museum property!

The front of the hanging cupboard (Inv. Nr. A 136). There is a small difference between my photo of the hanging cupboard and this one. My photo showed some damage in the top middle window, whereas this one is complete. 
 Photo copyright W. Nett, MAK Koln.

 

One of the sides of the hanging cupboard. The sides are fastened to the front by iron strips. 
Photo copyright W. Nett, MAK Koln.

Anyway, I am very grateful that they took the other hanging cupboard from the wall and made photos from all sides, taking care of a blanc background. Surprisingly, this medieval cupboard is no different from modern Ikea furniture. The sides that you see are good quality, while the back is made up of cheap material. In other words: the front and sides are made from sturdy oak panels, and the 'invisible' back is made from pine. 

 

The backside consists of two pine boards that are nailed to the sides of the cupboard. 

At the top space for two hangers can be seen. Photo copyright W. Nett, MAK Koln.

 

 The top of the hanging cupboard. You can see that the decorative rail is fastened against the front panels. The front panel is sawn away in places where the decorative rail has the X-decoration. Of course there is no supporting front panel at the cupboard door. The back is supported by an extra piece of wood. Photo copyright W. Nett, MAK Koln.

Also interesting is that the thickness of the panels varies between 12 to 16 mm (no medieval thicknesser). The construction of the cupboard is simple, consisting of nailed butt joints. The backside falls within a rabbet. Likely, the shelves fit into a groove. The information provided by Werner Nett and his photos have been very helpful for our design and construction of the scapradekijn for the Muiderslot. Many thanks!

Detail from the side/front construction. The piece of iron on top is a modern replacement. The edge is rounded.  

Photo copyright W. Nett, MAK Koln.

The bottom shows two remaining of the four forged nails from the iron strip. 

The sides are nailed with smaller nails to the front panel. Photo copyright W. Nett, MAK Koln.

A 'scapredekijn' or hanging cupboard for the Muiderslot

Bram and I have been asked to make a late medieval hanging cupboard for Castle Muiderslot (Muiden, the Netherlands). This year (2016), one of the castle rooms - the red chamber or 'kemenade' - is being refurbished and redecorated in the style of living quarters for nobility around 1450. The room has already been painted by the Kennemer Kunstgilde. One of the projected items for the new room is a hanging cupboard, known in medieval Dutch as a scapprolken or scapredekijn. 

 The design for the red room, made by Marius Bruijn of the Kennemer Kunstgilde.

The red room as redecorated by the Kennemer Kunstgilde with the newly painted mantlepiece and wall strips.

The hanging cupboards are typically found in the West-Rhine area and the counties that were influenced by them, such as the Netherlands. These cupboards (Hängeschränkchen in German) were used to show and store valuable items, and therefore found in the private rooms (such as the kemenade) or .... the kitchen. The cupboards in the private rooms were heavily decorated with openwork tracery, which allowed the expensive items (glass, silverware) to be seen. The kitchen cupboard, on the other hand, was not as decorated and e.g. used to store sugar cones and spices. Most of the surviving examples of the hanging cupboard are beautifully decorated; as far as I know only one relatively simple - with only linenfold panels - hanging cupboard exists in Museum Gruuthuuse in Bruges (Belgium). Below some images of the hanging cupboards are shown.

A simple hanging cupboard in the kitchen. On the second shelve you can see a sugar cone. Detail of 'The miracle of the broken sieve' by Jan van Conincksloo (1552). Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp, Belgium. 

Left: Another simple hanging cupboard in the kitchen. Illumination from the Book of Hours of Catherine of Cleves (dated 1440; Ms. M. 917 folio 151, Morgan Library, New York, USA). Right: Detail from a page on bell-founders guild with a simple hanging cupboard (the Balthasar Behem Codex, a guild book from Krakow, Poland in 1505).

Left: A scapprolken from the Gruuthuuse Museum, Bruges, Belgium. It is made from oak and has a height of 80 cm, a width of 70 cm and a depth of 27 cm. Image scanned from 'Thuis in de late middeleeuwen - het Nederlands burgerinterieur 1400-1535'. Right: A luxury hanging cupboard with silver and goldware and a paternoster. Image from the Institut für Realienkunde des Mittelalters und der frühen Neuzeit.
 

Two Hängeschränkchen that used to be in the Schlossmuseum in Berlin, Germany but were lost during the second world war. Second part of the 15th century. Left: Height 80 cm, width 59 cm and depth 17 cm. Right: Height 68 cm, width 57 cm and depth 18 cm. Images scanned from O. von Falke, Deutsche Möbel des Mittelalters und der Renaissance.

Two Hängeschränkchen made of oak of the late 15th century from the Museum für Angewandte Kunst in Cologne, Germany. Left: Height 68 cm, width 47 cm and depth 14 cm. Right: Height 73 cm, width 54 cm and depth 16.5 cm. Images scanned from Möbel - Gotik bis Jugendstil (museum catalogue, volume 14) by Edla Colsman and Huusraet - het stedelijk woonhuis in de Bourgondische tijd by B. Dubbe.

A late 15th century oak hanging cupboard of which a  (19th century?) replica appeared in an auction (Aguttes auction house, France) and the original in an antique shop (Marham Church Antiques, UK, images shown here). Height 80 cm, width 67 cm and depth 21 cm.  Both doors have two sections of pierced floral decoration and heraldic devices divided by a single carved buttress with a lion and shield. The sides consist of carved linenfold panels. The difference between the replica and the original are the missing carvings on the heraldic shield.

What (renaissance) accountants do...

One of the highlights today during my visit to the Germanisches National Museum in Nueremberg was this 16th century accountants table. Not only did it contain a double ledger on the table, but also a nine-men-morris game. Perhaps it was used to pass the time more pleasantly than with boring numbers. But it does give you some thoughts on the trustworthiness of the caretakers of your finances over the ages...

The underside of the accountants table, dated around 1550-1600.

 

Left: the carved morris game on the table top. Right: one of the two ledgers on the table top.

 

The table top, two ledgers are visible. The morris game is at the other end (in the reflecting light).

Medieval trestles from the Musee des Arts Decoratifs and a painted table top

There are only a few remaining medieval trestles: a set of four trestles can be found in Bruges, Belgium; another set is present in the Musee des Arts Decoratifs in Paris, France. My visit to this museum in April in order to see the trestles there was quite annoying, as the route through the museum was unclear, corridors connecting rooms were locked and the actual entrance happened to be on the third floor. Even more irritating was that most medieval items were displayed in a 'medieval bedroom' setting behind a rope (and stepping over it does sound the alarm). It was impossible to study the furniture from close-by - including the two trestles with their table top. Perhaps the curators did this to hide the fact that the medieval furniture on display looked quite worn and in a bad condition ...

The trestle table as found in the medieval bedroom in the Musee des Arts Decoratifs, Paris. While the two trestles look similar, there is some subtle difference in the rose pattern. Photo: Auction House Aguttes and Musee des Arts Decoratifs.

The trestle table in the bedroom. The worn and much used table top is of a later date and consists of one piece of oak. 
On top are two brass candle-holders and a bronze mortar and pestle.

 The trestle table is only a recent acquisition of the museum. It was bought at an auction in December 2010 for 29,040 Euro. The trestles are made from oak, however the carved panels are made from chestnut. The trestles were dated dendrologically to the late 15th century (1473-1478). Both trestles look quite similar, but there is a slight difference in the roses in the middle. A curious thing of these trestles is that one mortise and tenon is secured by a wedge. The only reason to do this would be that the trestle is collapsable, but this would mean that the other joints are loose too.

 The left trestle and the right trestle. You can see a wedge securing the tenon of the lower horizontal stretcher in the mortise of the vertical beam.

 Detail from the underside of the left trestle. The parts of the A are fixed by two wooden pins at each side.

 The table top has a decorative plank added to the short sides.

 

Some more photos of the trestles.

According to the auction information, the trestle has a height of 86 cm, a width of 60 cm and a depth of 80 cm.  I did some rough measurement at the Musee des Art Decoratifs, using the floor tiles and my hands as a guide, resulting in a slightly smaller size. Two photos were used to calculate the sizes of the different parts with the auction measurements as the basic measurement. The photos allow to measure the angle of the 'A', which was found to be 72 degrees.

Measurements of the medieval trestle of the Musee des Arts Decoratifs.

A low quality image of the backside of one of the trestles. This shows that the lower horizontal stretcher can only be connected to the 'A' with a hidden mortise and tenon fixed with a dowel. Though it is hard to see, the backside of the carved panel is flat.

Despite not being able to see the backside of the trestles myself, there was something else missing. One of my French furniture books also shows a photo of a medieval trestle from the Musee des Arts Decoratifs that has a quite different decoration. So there must be another medieval trestle, either in the depot or on loan to a castle (like Chateaudun) or another museum. One common thing is that they all look quite heavy and sturdy.

Another 15th century trestle from the Musee des Arts Decoratifs. Image scanned from 'Mobilier domestique volume 1. Vocabulaire - Typologie. Nicole de Reyniès. ISBN 9782858224616'. The decorated panel is held in a triangular frame, like the two trestles shown above.

To be functional, trestles have to have a table top. In the Musee the Cluny, also in Paris, is a folding trestle table top which is richly decorated. The table top originates from northern Germany and dates from around 1420.  The table is 4.55 metres long and 76 cm wide. The painted motifs depict allegorical scenes of the 'virtues of princes'. Surrounding the scenes on the table are heraldic arms from Germany, Scotland and of Saladin shown as a representation of the known world. On the edge of the table is a frieze with foliar decoration and heraldic shields. A related folding table is found in Lüneburg, Germany.

 

 The 4.55 metre long table needs six steel trestles to support it.

 

 One of the hinges of the foldable trestle table top.

 The stupidity of crowning an ass.

 

 The judgement of Solomon.

9 photos covering the complete painted table top. Each scene is surrounded by heraldic shields and helmets.

 

This could be a dovetail where originally a trestle was inserted, fixing it to the table top. 

There are more of these under the tabletop.

 

 Two of the scenes inside a quatrefoil with the 'virtues of princes'. One depicts a king wondering about the four things that he does not know: the way of an eagle in the air, the way of a serpent upon a rock, the way of a ship in the midst of the sea, and the way of a man with a maid. The other one shows the fable of the lion and the rat.

Thomasteppich embroidery: the second and a halfpanel.

Anne has nearly finished the second panel of the Thomasteppich; only a tree needed to be 'greened'. As the next scene consists of only half a panel, she decided to move the panel now. When the tapestry was loose from the frame, I took the opportunity to make a one minute video of the embroidered story of Saint Thomas so far. Below two photo's of the 'old' and the 'new' panel in the frame.

Left: the 'old'panel with the unfinished tree. Right: the new panel, with the last scene of this row of the tapestry.

 

 

The unrolled second row of the st. Thomas tapestry. On the left there is also 1.5 panel to do.