[MR] Re: medieval tables

[rmhowe]

The best I can suggest is Mercer's Furniture 700-1400 and his
Oak Furniture which are the most comprehensive of remaining
early furniture illustrations that are left in the illuminated
and real worlds. 

The right edition of Boccaccio's Decameron has quite a lot of
interior furniture in the illustrated edition I have. Of course
it is also full of lovers and the occaisional peeping tom.

Boccacio, Giovanni: Boccaccio's Decameron, 15th-Century Manuscript,
Pognon, Edmond (Texts by)Chief Curator, Bibliotheque Nationale, 
Paris, 	translated by J. Peter Tallon, Productions Liber SA, and
Editions Minerva SA, Fribourg - Geneve, 1978. The hundred miniatures 
in this book were painted between 1430 and 1440 to illustrate the 
French translation of this book completed in 1414. 124 pages, 
almost each of which has one or more than one full color
illumination. There are chests, chairs, beds, benches, bathing 
tubs, buckets on a yoke, Thrones, feast scenes, caskets for burial,
tombs, curious boats with garderobe seats down both sides of each,
warships, many tables on trestles, three legged turned stools, 
lots of hats, pouches, costumes, shoes, a wooden litter to be 
carried by two (different than any I've seen elsewhere), garden
trellises, feastgear, swords and sheathes and knives, a halberd,
a very long torch, a very long cart carrying a denounced knight, 
hunting dogs and spears, candlesticks, horse barding, a bakery,
pewterware, a turning spit and drip pan before the fireplace in 
use, cloaks, buckers and swords, vats, long benches for the eating
tables, a round lantern, etc. 

There is also Italian Rennaisance Interiors of about 15 years ago.
I found the V&A's Medieval Furniture and Carvings to be rather
disapointing and not worth the money.

There are Daniel Diehl's two books, the second is better and
more practical than the first one on Medieval Furniture.

Penelope Eames' Book is better found under the Furniture History
Society volume XIII, you may look for it for years elsewise:
Eames, Penelope: Furniture in England, France and the Netherlands 
from the Twelfth to the Fifteenth Century, London,  Furniture 
History Society, Volume XIII, 1977, 304 pages and at least sixty 
plates, with many additional drawings in text.  Printed in 
England by W.S. Maney and Son, Ltd., Hudson Rd. Leeds LS9 7DL.
A bit dry on types and styles. Has some pictures of mostly
clerical fittings, and some line drawings of a variety of
furniture.

I find the drawings and engravings of Albrecht Durer, via Dover,
to have some interesting details.

A pity we're not in the same general area, as I have built up
folders full, many books on woodworking, at least a shelf full
applicable to Medieval. I made over a thousand pieces in my
former career.

Mahogany is incredibly heavy. I've helped heft huge planks of
the stuff large bedposts were cut and carved from that took
4-5 men. It is also a new world tree primarily. There is of
course Philippine mahogany. Red Mahogany finish is very pretty,
like velvet if done well, but is not something I've ever thought
of as period. Generally, most items in the Medieval period,
in England at least, were of oak. I'm sure there were many other
woods used by the lower classes - when they could get them.

Three legged trestles take up very little room and the boards
were simply laid across them under a cloth generally. You have
two legs, often decorated - perhaps with a stretcher between them
of the front side and a simple single leg in the back. Slightly
splaying them out at the bottoms front and back would add to
stability.

A good illustration of a three legged trestle front is found
in the Medieval Soldier - 15th Century Campaign Life Recreated
in Colour Photographs by Gerry Embleton and John Howe, Windrow
and Greene Ltd., 19A Floral St., London WC2E 9DS, England, 1994,
ISBN 18590365. Often sold about $65, I looked around a bit and
got one for $40 plus shipping. 144 extremely well illustrated
pages by a reenactment group centered in Switzerland.
There are shoes and boots, pouches and purses, a lantern,
candlesticks, a limited amount of furniture, feastgear, knives,
a writing set, pavillions and tents, swords and scabbards, a mace,
leather bottles, a pewter flask, a quiver, an arrow bag, an
arrow basket, an armbrace, a number of chests, a number of buckets,
camp cooking fires, archers and soldiers in full authentic kit,
and gambesons.

Magnus Malleus, OL, GDH, Atlantia / © R.M. Howe, Raleigh, NC.
*Please do not repost my emails to the Rialto, any newsgroup
or the SCA-Universitas List. To do so I regard as a violation
of copyright permissions. You may forward them to your local
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Jenne Heise wrote:
> 
> Hi! Our local sciences minister has suggested that instead of buying
> modern portable tables for demos that we build some period ones. Does
> anyone have patterns for _period_ folding tables? Also, he suggested
> mahogany, but the OED suggests that mahogany wasn't much used in Europe
> before 1740. What kinds of woods would period portable tables have been
> made out of?
> 
>  --
> Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, mka Jennifer Heise        jenne at mail.browser.net
> disclaimer: i speak for no-one and no-one speaks for me.
> "It's no use trying to be clever-- we are all clever here; just try
> to be kind -- a little kind." F.J. Foakes-Jackson