A visit to Museum Mayer van den Berg, Antwerp

This autumn, I visited the Museum Mayer van den Berg in Antwerp, Belgium. It is a small museum that houses the private art collection of Fritz Mayer van den Berg (1858-1901). The collection consists of mainly of medieval art, among them several paintings by Brueghel, but also some furniture pieces. Fritz Mayer van den Berg. The museum looks like a late medieval building from the outside, but is in fact a newly made neogothic construction, but quite fitting for the collection. The emphasis of the museum is on medieval paintings, but as said also some furniture can be found, alas with very scanty information.

A 15th century bench with a high back and a chest beneath the seating.

The lid of the seating chest.

The very simple lockplate.

Linenfold panel on the front of the 'benchchest'.

Linenfold panel of the backrest of the bench.

Linenfold panel of the armrest of the bench.

Decoration at the top of the backrest of the bench.

A 16th century armoire. The X-panels are a typically Flemish design of that time.

Top door of the armoire with a carving with animals and grapevines. The carving is made from one oak block, not a panel in a frame.

The carving of the middle stile.

Detail of the top door.

Drawer of the armoire with a grapevine decoration.

The bottom door only has and X-decoration.

An X-panel at the bottom of the armoire.

The top of the armoire.

The side of the armoire only has linenfold carved panels.

The profile of the crown of the armoire.

A linenfold panel from the side of the armoire.

An oaken decorated mantlepiece of a fireplace.

Three circular carvings from the front of the mantlepiece.

The side and the front are connected with large dovetails. Note the thickness of the wood used for the mantlepiece.

Details from the painting 'Boerengezelschap bij de haard' (Farmers at the fireplace) by Pieter Aertsen, ca 1556. On the painting there are two triangular turned chairs depicted. Note that the bottom horizontal rails all are set at a different height in the vertical rail.

Also Pieter Brueghel Sr. depicted some triangular chairs. Here one of the collection of 12 painted plates, one of them showing a drunk between two chairs, 'Int slampampen en mocht my niemant verrasschen, al quyt, sit ick tusschen twee stoelen in dasschen'.

As well as Pieter Bruegher Jr.. Here a detail from the 'Volkstelling te Bethlehem'  (start of the 17th century).

A 15th-early 16th century chair with a high backrest.

The top panels are of the X-design.

While the bottom panels have a linenfold pattern. 

The seating is also a lid of a chest. The hinges (and the lock) are hidden with this chair.

The side of the chair with the decorated vertical rails.

An elegant  late 15th century small square stool (or side table).

Providing a look from beneath the stool. 

A mini-linenfold is directly below the table top.

The centre rail connecting the two sides looks triangular, not square.

A small oaken chest dating from 1500.

A simple lockplate on the chest.

The lid uses a wooden dowel as a hinge. The construction of the chest is very simple: just some boards nailed flat against each other. Also the handle to carry the chest is crude and simple. 

Side view of the chest. Note that the chests stands on 'Kufen' - a horizontal rail, commonly used in the German regions.

This is a bit strange piece of furniture. It looks like it has some kind of folding table top which can also be locked. There are no doors on the front or sides. Presumably this is a kind of writing table or 'kontoir'.

Detail of the front panel.

Updated medieval furniture books and articles page

I have updated the sources page for books and articles on medieval furniture; in fact I created a new separate page for it. We have acquired quite some information over the years on medieval furniture, in such a way that the original list on the 'Sources - books' page more than quadrupled. The list has become quite long and is now ordered alphabetically on the first author name. Most of the items are in English, French or German language. A few are in Dutch, Italian, Spanish or Scandinavian language. Some of the books and articles have annotations on the contents. I hope this may be of help to you to see if a book or article is worth reading.

One of our latest acquisitions is the book 'Corpus der Mittelalterlichen Holzskulptur und Tafelmalerei in Schleswig-Holstein - Band 4' by Uwe Albrecht (Ludwig Verlag, Kiel, Germany). I have included some furniture pieces from this book as an extra in this post.

Side, front and bookshelf of a15th century oak lectern from the Pfarrkirche in Schobüll. The backside is connected by a mortise joint, while the front of the lectern is nailed. Green paint added in the 19th/20th century. Height 35 cm, width 33 cm, and depth 29 cm.

Side and back view of a late 15th century lectern from the St. Nicolai church in Uelvesbüll where it resides on the altar. The lectern made from oak and painted in red, green and gilded parts.  The construction is relatively simple with mortises, while the rail to hold the book is nailed. Height 26 cm, width 53.5 cm, depth 30 cm. Note that the horizontal rail has some V-cuts to provide light for the pattern.

Note that many of the articles, and even some of the books, can be found on internet where they can be read and/or downloaded. The doi (digital object identifier) is a permanent link to such a source. 

Oak sacristy cabinet of around 1500 in the choir of the St. Andreas church in Haddeby (Hedeby). The outside was painted blue, but now mostly the black underpaint remains. The cabinet has two doors which are reinforced with iron strips, and stands on the socalled 'kufen' that protrude 14 cm from the wall. The inside of the cabinet has 4 parts, one of which can be locked separately. The upper door used to have two locks, the lower door one. The upper door is painted on the inside with an image of Christ in misery. The nails (of the iron strips) are bent on the inside of the door and hammered back. Although the cabinet now is fixed inside the wall, the presence of the kufen indicates that it used to be a free-standing armoire. Height 225 cm, width 95 cm, depth 50 cm.

 

Oak sacristy armoire in the choir of the St. Clemens church in Nebel auf Amrum. The armoire likely dates from 1486. Height 176 cm, width 88 cm, depth 51 cm. Upper door 62 cm height, 47.5 cm width; lower door 88 cm height, 47.5 cm width. Back, side and front parts made from vertical boards, connected with dowels. Thickness of the boards is 3.5 cm. The armoire has two doors, each with one lock. Behind the upper door another iron grilled door with lock exists. The lower part has 2 shelves, the upper part none. The iron bands are painted black, the wood on the outside blue. The inside of the doors are painted with a Christ in misery (above) and a resting Christ (below).