lea-bottles-bib

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lea-bottles-bib - 3/25/08

Leather bottle bibliography by Master Magnus Malleus, OL.

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This file is a collection of various messages having a common theme that I have collected from my reading of the various computer networks. Some messages date back to 1989, some may be as recent as yesterday.

This file is part of a collection of files called Stefan's Florilegium. These files are available on the Internet at: http://www.florilegium.org

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Stefan at florilegium.org

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Date: Mon, 02 Jul 2001 14:45:00 -0400

From: rmhowe <MMagnusM at bellsouth.net>

To: list-regia-us at netword.com

CC: "- Stephan's Florilegium" <stefan at texas.net>

Subject: Re: [Regia-NA]....and bottles...

aelfgifu at .com wrote:

>Second question. Can anyone share any info on leather bottles?

>I have seen a picture a clay version of a leather bottle, but

>never a leather bottle itself. Do any survive? Thanks, - ∆theric

............

The leather Bottel book everyone I know uses is:

Baker, O.: Black Jacks and Leather Bottels: Being some account

of Leather Drinking Vessels in England and Incidentally

of Other Ancient Vessels;

Privately printed for W.J. Fieldhouse, n.d. (1921),

limited edition (of an unstated number), 13 x 9", 197pp..

OCLC #1673897 This work is held by 23 libraries in the US

(most of whom will lend copies) and 8 in Britain (although

you may need to go visiting to see them).

This book is out of print and supposedly available in xeroxes

for $40 from the Honorable Company of Cordwainers website,

also the site for the Crispin Colloquy, or elist for

historical shoemakers on the internet. Site url escapes

me now. Probably reachable off of Footwear of the Middle

Ages Site by Marc Carlson. Generally that is found off

the Arts and Sciences Page of the http://www.sca.org/ page.

What you will find is that Baker wrote a number of articles on

leather jacks and bottels and frequently found himself being

shown his own work when he traveled about looking for evidence.

Unfortunately there are only about four pages of instructions

in the book. He deliberately left them out because he was afraid

of counterfeits, never foreseeing the rise of reenactment.

I located one for a friend in Australia for $250 plus shipping.

I have a copy I made legally, and my friend's apprentice has

another original copy. I think there were 250 copies originally

printed and no reprintings since then. So ILL it and make a copy.

It'll cost you less, there are only about four slightly tinted

color images in it. It is NOT worth $250. My friend Melanie

in England sent me a few pages (without citations) from country

craft books, so leather bottels and jacks do turn up in some other

English books as well. Seems like you guys wrote some history

of water distribution books. Citations don't come to mind though.

They were incomplete when I read them on a list.

The best evidence I know of for leather bottels in the Regia

Period is taken from a post on the Medieval Leather list some

time back in 1999. The list keeper is a friend of some of us

Atlantian SCA and he did the citation:

"Bombards, leather drinking vessels and Leather Clothing 27 Jul 99

Gregory Stapleton <gregsta at .net>

medieval-leather at egroups.com (This is now YahooGroups.com)

Hey, Bob, :)

In re-reading Waterer, _Leather and Craftsmanship_, last night,

I found he quotes Alefric's Colloquies, 11th Century, as follows:

"I buy hides and skins and I prepare them by my craft, and I

make of them boots of various kinds, ankle-leathers, shoes,

leather breeches, bottles, bridle-thongs, flasks and budgets,

leather neck-pieces, spur-leathers, halters, bags and pouches,

and nobody would wish to go through the winter without my craft."

Notice! Alefric mentions ***LEATHER BREECHES***, this is

1000's!!! So, this pushes it back a bit for us. :) Now, does

anyone know anything about Alefric's Colloquies? I ordered the

book from Barnes & Noble, because I want to see what else he has

to say, but I wouldn't mind some overview in the meantime.

- Gregory Stapleton"

I know Greg and I don't think he'd mind my reposting the information

he found, as it is the most relevant to the 950-1066 timeline of

Regia. It is the best literary evidence I've seen on many

discussions of leather vessels on various lists.

* A budget, or bouget, is a bag of leather for carrying water,

usually through towns and distributing it. They frequently

are depicted in later heraldry, two bags generally hanging

from either side of a pole.*

............

I would point out that Waterer has two similarly titled books

among his leather books -

Leather and Craftsmanship

and Leather Craftsmanship

which are very different. I know, I own them. I went through

a couple year period where I tracked down numerous leather

working titles and am presently only looking for a half dozen.

Those I don't cite until I have them.

Waterer, John W.: A Guide to the Conservation and Restoration of

Objects Made Wholly or In Part of Leather; London,

Bell & Sons 1972.; 60 pp. , illustrated. First ed..

Waterer, John W: A Guide to Leather Conservation and Restoration;

Issue Price £7.00, ISBN: 0950418226,

Published by: Museum of Leathercraft

The reprint lacks some of the original illustrations.

Waterer, John William. "Irish Book-Satchels or Budgets";

Medieval Archaeology 12 1968, pp. 70-82., 13pp, 4figs,

4 b/w plates IV to VII..

Waterer, John William. "A Historical Forcer."; Connoisseur 134

(1954): 189-191.

Waterer, John W.: "Leather" in Connoiseur Period Guides -

Tudor 1500-1603.

Edited by Ralph Edwards, Reynal and Company, New York,

No Date, 60's-70's? Leather Chapter is pp.149-59 plus

plates. Includes forcers, chests, saddle, gloves, buff

tunic, Paten box, prayer book casket, leather lantern,

flasks, bottells, bookcover, leather bedcover, on plates

81-4.

Waterer, John W. LEATHER. Two Offprints. small 4to, pp.147-190,

illustrations; pp.149-156, 4 plates, illustrations.

Paper wrappers. The first article is reprinted from Singer

& Holmyard: History of Technology, Volume II and the

second is an offprint from an article in the Tudor volume

of the Connoisseur Period Guides (1956). Although they

discuss the general uses of leather, they do contain

references to bookbindings and there is information on

the treatment of pelts. At the back of the first offprint

is "A Note on Parchment" by H. Saxl.

Waterer, John William: Leather and Craftsmanship; Faber & Faber

LTD., London, 66pp, 32 pls, 1950

Waterer, John William: Leather Craftsmanship; Frederick A. Praeger,

Publishers, New York and Washington, 1968. Published in

England by G. Bell and Sons, Ltd., London.

Waterer, John William: Leather and the Warrior : an Account of

the Importance of Leather to the Fighting Man from the

Time of the Ancient Greeks to World War II

ISBN 0 9504182 1 8 Museum of Leathercraft, Bridgestreet,

Northampton, Eng. Issue Price £25.00

Waterer, John W.: Leatherwork in: Roman Crafts by Donald Strong

and David Brown is an accumulation of articles by specialists

in various fields. ISBN 0 7156 0781 2. Published 1976 by

Gerald Duckworth and Company, Ltd., The Old Piano Factory,

43 Gloucester Crescent, London NW1. pp 178-93. Has the

Newstead Horse Mask, leather shield cover, various closeups

and plans of shoes (including pierced work), leather bikini

bottom, Roman tents, and the Roman Saddle from Valkenburg,

Netherlands. Seven good Roman shoes are shown with a number

of sole configurations also. Discussions of stitching,

coloring, tanning etc. are included. A mention was made of

the inablility of alum tanned leather to withstand immersion or long

burial, stating that it was however used

for sails, the Roman word for alum (tawing) being aluta.

Waterer, John W: Leather in Life, Art and Industry; London.

Faber & Faber Ltd.; 1946. 320 pp., Frontis, 110 plates,

& a further 20 illustrations in the text. With forewords

by Sir Charles Tennyson and George W. Odey. "An outline

of its preparation and uses in Britain yesterday and today

together with some reflections on its place in the world

of synthetics tomorrow."

*This one is considered the bible on leatherworking in English.

*Personally, I feel it rates far behind Gall.

Waterer, John William. A Short History of Saddles in Europe.

Northampton: Museum of Leathercraft, 1960 095041820X 12 pages.

Very hard to find on the internet. Not all that great for

the effort either.

Waterer article in Medieval Archeology, Vol. XII (1968) titled

"Irish Book-satchels or Budgets." Pp. 70-82.

Waterer chapter in: Singer, Charles, et al: A History of Technology,

Volume II, 1956, Oxford. Covers the Mediterranean

Civilization and the Middle Ages.

Has a whole chapter on leather by Waterer.

*This is available in almost every good library. Even mine.

Waterer, John William: Spanish Leather: A History of Its Use from

800 to 1800 for Mural Hangings, Screens, Upholstery, Altar

Frontals, Ecclesiastical Vestments, Footwear, Gloves, Pouches

and Caskets; Publisher: London. Faber & Faber.

1st edition, 1971, 130pp. Quarto. 80 plates at rear of book,

colour & b/w. 7 b/w text illustrations; 0571090435

*Don't get excited over this last one. You are not going to find

most of the cited items in it illustrated. What there is

is mostly embossed wall hangings. I don't consider it worth

a fraction of what I paid to get it.

Secondly most of these things are out of print. If they are in

print like Leather and the Warrior you must use search engines

in England to find them as they are not on American Search engines,

or weren't at the time I bought them. I *think* I have all but

the Historical Forcer (casket) article from Connoiseur.

You might try the new http://www.biblion.com/ site for England.

That is a complete listing of Waterer's books and articles btw.

GALL, G‹NTHER.: Leder im europ‰ischen ; Kunsthandwerk. Braunschweig,

1965. 4to., orcl., xii, 406 pp., w. 16 pl. in color 304 ills.

in text. (Bibl. f¸r Kunst u. Antiquit‰tenfreunde, Bd. XLIV).

Klinkhardt & Biermann - Braunschweig.

- It is flat out stunning in the variety of items. There

are fantastic things in it like crown cases, reliquary cases,

leather caskets and trunks, cases for all sorts of things,

many of them repouseed in very high relief. There are a

number of leather covered shields in it. A few early ones,

many from around 1600. On the subject of shoes, it has only

a shoe foot reliquary, and I don't recall any saddles. The

entries are from many different museums and countries.

- There are a number of differently styled leather bottels

than we are used to seeing although there is a short section

on English style jacks, bombards, and costrels.

- There are cases for silver and crystal cups, one

particularly fine piece is a leather cover for a fully rigged

silver ship centerpiece (nef), masts, flags, rigging and all.

- There are some knife scabbards but no sword scabbards

except for a case for a sword of state.

- A few of the pieces are religious. Most are secular.

The majority of the book is simply masterpiece quality work.

- A number of the pieces such as the shields and caskets

are illustrated from more than one view, in the case of

the caskets usually front and back or front and top, but

not ends. I was very impressed with the number of leather

caskets in it. The majority of this book is later Middle

Ages and Renaissance and the material seems to end about

1920, but there is very little modern work in it.

*Frankly, this was hard for me to find, I expect you might have

better results using German antiquarian nets. But this book is

well worth most of the Waterer books thrown together. Mine used

ran me about $120 from Europe. That was cheap for what's in it.

German books, and postage, are much less by comparison with some

other countries like Sweden. I know, I frequently buy from Europe.

Magnus

(This was a slight excerpt from my medieval leather bibliography.)

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