Birch-Brk-Bxs-art - 12/8/17

"Decorated Birch Bark Boxes from Novgorod" by HL Marya Kargashina.

NOTE: See also the files: 6-board-chest-art, Welsh-Ark-art, leather-boxes-bib, Medvl-Chests-art, Wr-Birch-Bark-art, Birch-Brk-Wrt-art, bags-baskets-msg.

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NOTICE -

This article was added to this set of files, called Stefan's Florilegium, with the permission of the author. 

These files are available on the Internet at: http://www.florilegium.org

Copyright to the contents of this file remains with the author or translator.

While the author will likely give permission for this work to be reprinted in SCA type publications, please check with the author first or check for any permissions granted at the end of this file.

Thank you,
Mark S. Harris...AKA:..Stefan li Rous
stefan at florilegium.org
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Decorated Birch Bark Boxes from Novgorod
by HL Marya Kargashina

Excavations at Novgorod have yielded many parts and fragments of decorated birch bark boxes, both carved and painted, in varying shapes, from the 11th c. to the 14th c. Boxes were cylindrical or rounded rectangles ranging generally from 8 to 15cm in diameter up to 45cm in height and 60cm in diameter. The lidded round boxes are also called tueses.

Decoration is usually interlace or braids with other geometric borders and bands, often in dissimilar groups of three. Some versions are simpler, with more emphasis on circles. According to Kolchin, painted decoration is in red, brown, light yellow, dark blue or black, with some traces of white found also. Decoration could also include patterns made by biting, or cutwork.

The lid fragments show a pattern of holes around the edge suggesting an applied rim of Some kind. The lids illustrated both from Kolchin and Yarish are mostly incised, but I extrapolated from them for painted designs, as they match the style of the painted side fragments. Kolchin also states that paint disintegrates in the 11th century layers and lower, and may have once been present, based on the later painted examples. Alternately, Yarish asserts that only the larger boxes were painted.

I first decorated purchased boxes in this style, as I was not yet certain exactly how the originals were constructed, nor did I have sufficient birch bark on hand. I used both paper-mache and chipboard boxes, and prefer the effect of the chipboard. Paint was artists acrylics instead of the likely egg tempera, though Kolchin does not state the type of paint used, based on availability, and similar Water TCS1StanCe.

Box 1 is paper-mache, with an lid design that would have been incised or carved rather than drawn (fig1). The use of a compass or dividers is clear, based on the small dots in appropriate places. I therefore used a compass for the circles. The main side pattern is from a fragment (fig3). I was uncertain what was meant by light yellow, so have used multiple possibilities; this box used yellow ocher.

Box 2 is chipboard, with a lid design based on a carved example (figl), and a main side pattern from a fragment (fig3)

Box 3 is chipboard, with a lid design based on a carved example (fig2), and the same main side pattern as box 2. I was uncertain what was meant by light yellow, so have used multiple possibilities; this box used a cadmium yellow.


Boxes 1, 2 and 3

My next step was to make the actual box as well. Without a birch tree I could harvest from. I ordered birch bark in sheets. The birch bark I purchased was too thick to bend, so I soaked it and split it to get a flexible thickness, allowing me to have several different thicknesses to work with.

Once I had obtained birch bark, I needed to determine the construction methods used. The box in figure 5 and 6 is the only example I could find that shows the bottom, and is what I have based my construction on. The body is a single layer of bark overlapped and sewn together with a fibrous material, with a double layer bottom laced on with the same material. Yarish does show an example with multiple layers on the sides, but it is sewn together in the same way under the layer of woven birch bark. Yarish states the modern version of the tues is used for liquids, and water proof, but modern Versions have a different bottom using a wood piece. He states medieval tues bottoms were birch bark.

Neither Kolchin or Brisbane discuss the lacing material, but Yarish states either linden bark or split conifer root is used in his modern examples. As I did not have access to this material I initially tried strips of birch bark, but found them not strong enough at the small size needed. I have used sisal twine as an alternate.

All the lids illustrated show a pattern of holes around the edge: one example has remains of an applied rim. Yarish also shows a multi-layer woven lid; his reconstruction has an inner rim Stitched to the underside of the lid, but this is not visible in the photo of the extant lid. Yarish suggests that either an exterior or interior rim was used on medieval tues lids. I have chosen to make lids with an exterior rim.

Box 4 is the first I've made using the birch bark. I used sisal to lace it, using an awl to create the holes. I used only one layer for the bottom due to the thickness of the piece I was using. The lid has an exterior rim, also laced on. Further examination showed that interlace decoration on extant lids was definitely incised, not painted, as seen in figures 8 and 13, so I choose to incise the decoration. The lid is incised with a 13th c design based on a lid from figures 1 and 13. The sides were incised with designs from figure 3 and 4. I scratched the designs with a bone needle after transferring the design with graphite. The original piece is 5 1/2", mine is slightly smaller at 4 1/2".

		 
sewing the bottom 			failed bark lacing

		
sewing the bottom 			lid before decoration

		
box 4 decorated

Box 5 also uses birch bark, with hemp twine for lacing, and an incised design. I made this box with a double bottom, this time a little larger than the sides, otherwise constructed like box 4, with a lid design based on figures 2 and 8 and side designs from figure 4. I incised the design with an awl on this box, hoping for a more visible design. I also used the other side of the birch bark for the same reason. I switched to the hemp as the sisal was fraying.

  
box 5 lid and side

Sources

Brisbane, Mark, ed., Wood Use in Medieval Novgorod Oxbow, 2007

Kolchin, B.A., Wooden Artefacts from Medieval Novgorod, BAR, 1989

Yarish, Vladimir, Flo Hoppe, and Jim Widess. Plaited Basketry with Birch Bark. New York: Sterling Pub, 2009.


Figure 1. Lids from Kolchin


Figure 2 Lids and side from Kolchin


Figure 3: Side fragments from Kolchin



Figure 4: Side fragments from Kolchin


Figure 5: Extant box (no date) from Brisbane


Figure 6: Bottom of box in Figure 5


Figure 7: Extant lid or bottom (no date) from Brisbane


Figure 8: from Yarish


Figure 9: from Yarnish


Figure 10: From Yarnish


Figure 11: From Yarnish


Figure 12: from Yarnish


Figure 13: from Yarish

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Copyright 2016 by Jessica Smith-Carlock. <Kargashina at gmail.com>. Permission is granted for republication in SCA-related publications, provided the author is credited.  Addresses change, but a reasonable attempt should be made to ensure that the author is notified of the publication and if possible receives a copy.

If this article is reprinted in a publication, please place a notice in the publication that you found this article in the Florilegium. I would also appreciate an email to myself, so that I can track which articles are being reprinted. Thanks. -Stefan.

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Edited by Mark S. Harris	Birch-Brk-Bxs-art	13 of 13