Two late medieval trestles

Original real medieval trestles (not the X-trestle tables or the trestle tables that have a horizontal support between the two trestles) are extremely rare. There is a table top with several trestles in the museum Onze Lieve Vrouwe ter Potterie in Bruges, Belgium. The Musee des Arts Decoratifs in Paris, France has a table top with two trestles on display, as well as one trestle hidden somewhere in the depot.

An illumination from 'Anciennes chroniques d’Angleterre' by author Jean de Wavrin ((1400?-1474?) showing some fallen trestles of the type where the three legs are at the sidesof the supporting rail.  Français 81, fol. 262r. Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Département des Manuscrits, Paris, France. Note that also a strycsitten (a bench with a turnable backrest) is shown.

A few years ago I discovered another pair of medieval trestles in Chateau Bois D'Orcan in Bretagne, France. The castle museum has a small but superb collection of medieval furniture. All these trestles are more or less similar in construction: they are very robust, made of heavy pieces of oak, with two legs in front and one at the back. The ones in Bois D'Orcan and the Musee des Arts Decoratives being the most decorated. 

This year I discovered another set of trestles - this one with a modern glass tabletop - when I visited the antique shop of Bruil and Brandsma in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. In contrast to the other trestles, these are "lightweight" and have a different construction. Here, the three legs of the trestle are at the sides, instead of at the front and back. 

Finally, when I started preparing this blog I did a quick internet search on trestles and found an early 16th century set of trestles originating from the UK, also with the legs to the sides. These trestles are the most simple in their construction, and made of heavy oak. Similar type of trestles with side legs are often found in medieval illuminations and paintings. Interestingly, one of the English trestles has four legs, instead of the usual - more stable - three.

Bruil and Brandsma, the Netherlands

The left and the right trestle; photos taken frontal and slightly diagonal. The carved designs of the two are different.

This set of oak trestles originates from the Abby of Herkenrode in Belgium. The abby was founded around 1179 by the earl of Loon. It had a turbulent past: it became a place of pilgrimage, suffered from wars between the regional lords and bishops. During the 18th century it was sold as well as the furniture and other properties. The abby buildings then became an industrial site, suffered from a fire, before it returned in relegious hands in 1972. The trestles could have remained at the abby, or were acquired by locals somewhere in its past with the knowledge of their origin remaining.

Both ends of the horizontal support rails are carved with a floral design. Also note that the legs are inserted into the horizontal rail and secured with a wooden pin.

The decorative rose of the other trestle. This one has a small repair.

The middle boards are carved with a slightly different design. Note the metal nail in the cross of the left photo that connects to the supporting rail to the third leg.

The connecting rail from the middle board to the third leg. Also a metal nail is driven through the third leg. 

The undecorated other side of the trestle. Note that the top part contains no decorative rose. This might indicate that the trestle table is a set of two, and complete except for the table top. Or these trestles are the two outer ones of a larger table with more trestles, where any undecorated middle ones are gone. 

Sutton Hall, United Kingdom

The Sutton Hall trestles (and tabletop) were on sale at an English antique shop (Period Oak Antiques). This table is one of two identical tables from the great hall of Sutton Place in Guidford, Surrey, UK. Sutton Place was a great renaissance mansion build by Sir Richard Weston, a loyal and influential courtier of King Henry VIII. It is believed that these two trestle tables have been in the house since its construction in 1521-1533. 

The two trestle tables as seen in their original site in Sutton Place hall.

The tables date from the 16th century. The table top consists of a large 10 feet long hewn single plank of English oak 4" thick and 30.5" wide. It stands on two trestle supports: one with four legs, the other with three. The trestles are of very simple construction, bascially a large block of oak with the legs sticked into it. The trestles are undecorated, except for the initial JW found at one of the ends of a block.

The trestle on the right has three legs, the one on the left four.

The four-legged trestle.

The table top shown from the 3-legged trestle side.

One trestle is stamped with the initials J.W., According to the antique dealer these marks stood for John Weston, the builder of Sutton Place. This is a bit peculiar as Richard Weston was the first Weston owner of the mansion. It is possible that the initial stand for a later owner, John (Webbe) Weston, an 18th century related family member who inherited the mansion.

Again the four-legged trestle.

Bruil and Brandsma are greatly acknowledged for their permission to take photos and allowing them to be published on this blog.

A tresoor for castle Hernen: part 2 - the backside panels

At the moment much of the front and back panels are carved. This post will consider the construction of the backside of the tresoor and its panels.

The visible parts: linenfold patterns

For the visible, lower panels on the backside of the tresoor we wanted to have a linenfold pattern. First we considered several pattern options (see below), before finally settling with the pattern found on a 15th century armoire in the Gruuthuuse Museum in Bruges, Belgium.

(Left) Linenfold panel made around 1500-1600 in England. Oak panel carved with linenfold pattern; with a central deep fold, and two lateral folds reversed, and the ends carved without additional ornament. Height: 38.7 cm; Width: 16.2 cm;  Depth: 1.3 cm; Weight: 0.34 kg. V&A South Kensington, London, UK, museum number 156-1928. They were presumably items from stock, and no further information about them is recorded in the item correspondence.
(Middle) Flemish linenfold panel dated late 15th century. One of 96 pieces of Gothic architectural decoration, chiefly of oak, consisting of panels, friezes, pilasters, etc., museum number 8148-1863, average dimensions 20" x 12". The piece was collected by Pugin and used as model by the Thames Bank Workshops for the construction of the new Palace of Westminster. Height 22 5/8 inch; width 7 3/8 inch.
(Right) Linenfold panel from a four-door armoire from the Gruuthuuse museum in Bruges, Belgium. ca 1500, oak. 

The complete four-door armoire from the Gruuthuuse museum. oak 167,5 width x 161 height x 55,5 cm depth. Inv. 0.8.VII.

 Drawings of front and cross-section of the three panels: VA CIRC 156-1928, VA  8148-1863 and Gruuthuuse armoire
0.8.VII.

 

First the panels were cut to the the correct size and the side rabbets were planed with a rabbet plane (Stanley 78 or a wooden one) / shoulder plane (for the finishing tough). The end rabbets were cut and planed later, after the linenfolds were made. The linenfolds themselves were first planed with a round moulding plane (1/8'' or 1/4'' depending of the width of the fold) set against a wooden fence. If the initial depth of the fold was reached, carving gouges and custom made scrapers were used to create and smoothe the final form. Custom scrapers were either used by hand or in a scratch stock, where the exact position could be set.

 

Roughly cutting the small strip of the custom scraper with a Dremel grinding wheel. 

 

In short, the custom scrapers were made as follows: first a small strip was cut from a standard scraping blade. The the rough form was cut with a wheel grinder (Dremel tool), which was in turn roughly smoothed with a round or flat file. Then, a belt sander with a 180 grit belt was used for further smoothing. This was followed by diamond whetting stones (250 to 1200) where a square wooden block was used to stabilise the custom scraper in order to get a square edge on the scraper. Also the flat sides of the scraper were whetted to remove any burrs on the metal.

The three custom scrapers with six funtions:a half-round ('knife-shape') with a small hollow scraper, a round scraper with a bit larger hollow scraper, and a bit larger round with a double hollow scraper (for the middle of the panel).

 

Left: Bram working on a linenfold panel with the scraping stock. (Right) A custom scraper in the scraping stock.

Smoothing the rounds with a hollow custom scraper set in the scratch stock.

 

After the long parts of the linenfold were ready, the end rabbets were made. First a groove was cut with a circular saw (marking the boundary), and the end rabbet cleared with a chisel and smoothed with a shoulder plane. Then the outline of the end of the linenfolds was marked with a pencil on the panel with help of a carton. The end of the folds were then cut out with different sized gouges. Especially the fish-tailed Pfeil gouges were of great help here.

Carving the ends of the linenfold.

 

When the front size of the panel was ready, the backside needed to be chamfered in order to fit in the (12 mm) groove of the frame. Chamfering was done with a fore plane and a wide round plane (1 1/2''). 

(Left) Four panels with the carton of the linenfold end in front. (Right) The 12 mm test groove for the chamfering of the backside of the panels.

 

(Left) Fitting the panels in the frame. (Right) Linenfold in various stages of finishing at the frame. The unfinished panels are just duct-taped behind the frame, as they did not have their chamfered back.

 

The hidden parts: plain panels 

Some leftover pieces of oak were used for the panels that were hidden from sight. One panel was from a broken oak table top which turned out to be beautifully patterned with flecks and rays. Actually, it  was too nice for a part that is seldom visible, but alas these things happen. Another board was sawn lengthwise in half to form two panel pieces. The panels were thinned to 1 cm with a planer-thicknesser and chamfered  on the ends with a fore plane. Where the panels connected to each other a V-groove was made on a router table, and the corresponding V-point with a small handplane, a construction similar to that of the scapradekijn for Muiderslot castle. Also the middle part contained one large horizontal panel. 

With all back panels finished, the complete backside of the tresoor was constructed.

Left: Construction started with the middle linenfold panels, and continued with the outer linefold panels, the middle panel and the top back panels. (Right) Help with some clamps was needed to fit the vertical stile.

 

The complete backside

Pilgrimage 21

We read about the project Pilgrimage21 of the Company of Saint George, the famous Swiss 15th century re-enactment group and thought this would be a marvellous idea to do some medieval re-enactment during corona times. Worldwide medieval re-enactment groups were encouraged to go on pilgrimage journeys to their local/nearby pilgrimage shrines on the feast of Saint Corona (14 May) and the weekend afterwards (15 and 16 May 2021). Photos and Videos of the preparation and the actual pilgrimage were to be shared on Facebook (CoStG: project Pilgrimage21) and Instagram (#Pilgrimage21).

Saint Corona

St. Corona happened to be a useful saint for the woodworkers as well, being the patron for lumberjacks (as well as with causes involving money, like gambling and treasure hunting). It happened that the lady Corona was martyred because she comforted (Saint) Victor, a Roman soldier who was tortured and killed for his faith. According to the passio of Corona, Corona was bound to two bent palm trees and torn apart as the trunks were released. This supposedly happened around 180 AD, but there is no clear consensus on the date. Around 1000 AD Otto III, Holy Roman Emperor brought Corona's relics to Aachen in western Germany. Her relics were rediscovered during excavation work at Aachen Cathedral in 1910. The relics were removed from a crypt and placed in a shrine inside the cathedral.

Illuminated miniature of the martyrdom of Saints Victor and Corona, on a full leaf from a Book of Hours, France (Paris), c. 1480.

 

 

 

 

Maria of Redichem

We were lucky to have several medieval pilgrimage places nearby: Saint Cunera in Rhenen and Maria of Redichem in Renkum, and somewhat further away the Chapel of Saint Walrick (with the koortsboom)  in Overasselt. We decided to go to the church of Maria in Renkun, as the pilgrimage route is the most beautiful to walk - not much asphalt roads - and conviently was the closest and shortest route. Furthermore, the church is open every day from 9 am to 4 pm, and has a nice rosegarden with a walk along displayed icons.

 

 The statue of Maria of Redichem, dated 1350.

Redichem (or Renkum) is a pilgrims place since 1380 thanks to the statue of Maria in a chapel to which miracle cures were attributed to. The French king Charles VI donated two relics to the chapel: a splinter from the True Cross and a thorn from the Crown of Christ. The chapel also played an important role in the life of Maria of Guelders (Marie d'Harcourt), wife of duke Reinald IV of Guelders. In 1405 she founded a convent for the sisters of Modern Devotion at the place of the chapel. The duke ordered one of the brooks (Molenbeek) to be redirected so the nuns would have a fresh water supply. Maria of Guelders frequently visited the place, for instance in 1407 together with several French courtiers.

In 1585 the convent was destroyed, but some nuns were able to keep the statue of Maria into safety. Then the statue changed hands regularly, until one collector returned it to Renkum in 1928. Now it can be found in the 'Our Lady of the Assumption' church. An embroidered cushion from 1390 that used to reside in the convent is now in the depot of the museum Catherijneconvent in Utrecht. The cushion depicts the Dedication in the temple (Luc.2:22-39).

With silk embroidered linen cushion from the Redichem convent. ABM t2060 Catherijne convent, Utrecht. 57.0 by 71 cm. These cushions were used to place (religious) books upon.

 

Thomasguild's Pilgrimage21 to Maria of Redichem

 

Detail of the Pilgrimage21 Map with Maria of Redichem indicated by the arrow.

The end of the Pilgrimage at the Church of Our Lady of the Assumption in Renkum.