[MR] * English Medieval Chests book at KA&SF

[rmhowe]

I suggested a reprint last year of _Church Chests of the Twelfth
and Thirteenth Centuries in England_ to Jack Thompson of the
Caber Press, who reprints obscure titles on diverse subjects.
He does manuscript and book restoration professionally and
has a printing business as well. They came out at Christmas.

I bought two original articles from hard to find journals of 
a bit over 90 years ago and decided the details of at least one
of them should be more widely disseminated to the reenactor
community. Jack Thompson agreed and his version came out a bit
reduced, entirely newly typeset, and the measurements on some of
the original hand drawn illustrations were re-marked for clarity.
It took him a year to prepare. There are also plates in the book.

This xiii & 102 page paperback contains the later Gothic Chests
illustrations from the second article (it was a book review of
a book on chests) as well. There are some removable sheets in 
the back with about twenty chip carved roundels that were rubbed 
from the original chests - reproduction size is noted so you can
make your own copies to scale.

If you want to know how chests were made, see the joints,
have some measurements, etc. then this may well be the book
for you. Most furniture books have only exterior views.
This one has quite a number of unusual interior and joining details.
There are a variety of chest styles and carvings - none of
which looks clerical. The chests just happened to survive
-in- the churches and are not specifically styled chests -for- 
churches. They would be very appropriate for your general use 
and homes. Chests before this period depicted in the book were 
primarily dug-out and iron bound logs, so it represents a good
cross-section of the medieval chests in England when you add 
in the plates from the (not text reprinted) review article in 
the back of the book.

If you wonder at the odd one that is dovetailed - in the review 
it was dated at the thirteenth century on the basis of the 
metalwork alone. (It might be a clinker and miss-dated.)

I will have only 14 of these things at the Kingdom A&S Festival.
The new local woodworking group in Windmasters' Hill has spoken 
for ten previous ones (including one for Duke Badouin). 

I'm not planning on buying/selling any more of these books, and 
I'm not re-mailing them. If you want them mailed to you see the 
information on the Caber Press below. I got these -specifically- 
for the Arts and Sciences Festival - only the first dozen 
practically disappeared locally and I reordered for KA&SF.
Just received them this afternoon, and leaving for VA tomorrow.
Honestly I was worried they might not arrive in time.

Since in NC I have to pay taxes on anything I buy/order out of 
state the cost will be $13.72 up from $12.95 but you will still 
save nearly several dollars in shipping. 
FIRST COME, FIRST SERVED - when you see me.

The cost of the book to you is about a third of what the original
articles cost me from England and I thought they were worth sharing.

If you would like one of these see me at KASF and have cash please.
A -ten and four ones- as I'm not a merchant and won't have a large 
amount of cash on me at this time; I'd really rather not mess
with checks, and I don't do credit cards. So this is fair notice. 

I'm kind of hard to miss - 50, 300lb, 6'3", glasses, beard, and 
very long hair, and will probably be pushing around or sitting 
in a green upholstered wooden office chair that travels with us. 

On the other hand you can also buy these direct from Jack
and get a few other odd books as well. I don't receive any
percentage of the books he sells. I'm just trying to get them
started in Atlantia. Shipping on a single book is $3.50 in the
U.S. from Jack. So far they are available only from Jack,
a couple of western SCA merchants, and -very temporarily- me.
Amazon will eventually list them but there is no ISBN number
on them. Jack takes checks and money orders, but not credit 
cards. So if you miss me you can still buy one.

Jack C. Thompson
Thompson Conservation Lab. / Caber Press
7549 N. Fenwick
Portland, OR  97217
503/735-3942  (voice/fax)
www.teleport.com/~tcl/
home.teleport.com/~tcl/caber.htm
tcl at teleport.com

About two years ago I encouraged the reprint of the Mastermyr Find -
A Viking Age Tool Chest from Gotland that had the best selection
of wood working, metal working, and some cooking tools of any
survival from the middle ages by Norm Larson Books. 
He sells those for $18 plus $2 shipping in the U.S..
  Norm Larson Books, 
  5426 E. Hwy 246, Lompoc, CA 93436.
  Fax 805-735-8367, Ph 800-743-4766
  Postage is $2 for first book plus $.50 for each additional book 
  to a maximum of $5.00.      larbooks at impulse.net

It took me three years to find an original hardback from Sweden,
so you get the idea. There were 800 printed originally. Now
the number of reenactors/SCA has increased markedly.

I figure if we can get enough accurate information out that
artefact reproduction will improve markedly - and one of the things
most of you generally need is a chest for camping, feast, or home.
Getting these things reprinted is simply a service.

Master Magnus Malleus, OL, GDH © 2001 R.M. Howe
*No reposting my writings to newsgroups, especially rec.org.sca, or
the SCA-Universitas elist. I view this as violating copyright
restrictions. As long as it's to reenactor or SCA -closed- subscriber
based email lists or individuals I don't mind. It's meant to 
help people without aggravating me.*