PW-Jewelry-Box-art - 3/8/09 "Pierced Work Walnut Jewelry Box" by Lady Stephanie Lilburn. NOTE: See also the files: 6-board-chest-art, chests-msg, caskets-boxes-msg, caskets-boxes-bib, Lea-Hardware-art, woodworking-msg, wood-finishes-msg, wood-msg, tools-msg. ************************************************************************ NOTICE - This article was submitted to me by the author for inclusion in this set of files, called Stefan's Florilegium. 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 ************************************************************************ This is the documentation for Lady Stephanie's entry in the Ansteorran Kingdom Arts & Sciences Competition in 2008. Pierced Work Walnut Jewelry Box 15th Century Italy by Lady Stephanie Lilburn Abstract This is a walnut jewelry box with pierced work sides and top. This abstract summarizes the process of creating the box, as well as the research into period methods of constructing such boxes. For additional information, please see the body of my documentation, the photographs of period examples, and the copy of the pattern for the box I purchased from the Timber Lace Company. The fret saw came to Italy from Arab countries in the 15th century. The brace, a sort of handle for a drill bit, came into use around the same time. These two innovations allowed for the drilling of small holes into wood, followed by the thin blade of the fret saw. The woodworker could then carve a delicate pattern in thin woods. Wood as thin as one quarter or one eighth inch was used in intarsia by the Italians. Patterns to be carved were pounced on the wood for the cutter to follow. Because this is messy and the patterns are easily smeared, I photocopied my pattern and glued it to the wood with rubber cement. This allows the pattern to be removed easily after all the cuts are made. Due to the extreme amount of time hand drilling and sawing would take, I used a drill press to drill the entry holes for my saw blade, and a scroll saw to make the cuts. Even with these power tools, it took over forty hours to make the cuts and assemble the box. Woodworkers used whatever woods were available in the area for their projects. Some woods were more prized than others. Oak was the most prized. European Oak is very expensive, however. I chose walnut because it is available in both Europe and North America, although the cultivars are somewhat different. It is also easier to work than oak. The box was constructed using butt joints, a common joint used on most of the period examples I found. I used modern woodworking glue, a type of casein glue. While hide glue was often used to glue up intarsia panels and in furniture making, it will melt in hot and humid conditions. This makes its use problematic in the Texas climate. The box is lined with velveteen material to protect the jewelry and enhance the beauty of the box. Working with extremely thin wood is frustrating because it warps so easily. It also vibrates to pieces when using the scroll saw if you do not use a great deal of care. Cutting the joints so that they are straight and join properly is also difficult. It takes a great deal of practice to do so. Making a box this ornate took over forty hours of work, even with the scroll saw. It would take months by hand. In addition, using a fret saw effectively to cut ornate shapes takes both strength and dexterity. Short History of Woodworking Wood has been worked into usable objects since the dawn of recorded history. The Hebrew God commanded Noah to build an ark of gopher wood in the Hebrew Bible, and Joseph, Jesus' foster father, was a carpenter. Wood was not just worked, however. Human beings seem to have an intrinsic need to make their surroundings beautiful, even when making something utilitarian such as spoons, boxes or simple storage chests [1]. As can be seen in the illustrations section of this document, a simple cabinet to hold linen in the tomb of Tutankhamum was made of exotic wood and decorated with pierced carving. [2] For most of history, woodworkers started with an uncut tree. After the tree was felled, or was purchased already felled from a local landowner, it was cut into lengths from around eight to twenty feet. These lengths were then either split with an ax and wedges into planks or sawn into planks, depending on the era and manpower available. If split, the planks were roughly shaped with an adze, a type of smoothing ax, before being taken into the shop for further use. [3] By the fifteenth century, it was possible for woodworkers to buy planks sawn by a sawmill, saving them much labor. [4] Tools. One frustration for the student of medieval tools is the tendency of woodworkers to use tools until they wore out, then either recycle them into new tools or sell them as scrap. [5] This means that relatively few tools have been found that could be dated with any certainty. When found, however, tools across time remain astonishingly similar. With the exception of the brace, a sort of handle for a hand drill, and the fret saw, woodworking tools did not change very much from Roman times until around the eighteenth century. [6] The tools from the Mastermyr Find, a tool chest found in a Gotland, Sweden bog that dates to around the middle of the 12th century, and the tools on the Mary Rose, Henry VIII's warship, are very similar. The fret saw first appeared in the 10th century in the Arab countries. The ornate pierced wood screens used to separate parts of rooms from one another were probably made using this saw. [7] Italian intarsia makers began to use a fret saw during the 15th century. This saw has a long, thin blade that can be inserted into a hole made by a drill bit and used to saw delicate patterns in wood. This made much more ornate patterns possible in very thin wood than could have been made by using a chisel to remove the wood. [8] Items made of wood tended to suffer a fate similar to the tools that made them: they were used until they wore out, then either recycled into another item or burned. This means that the wooden implements and furniture used by the vast majority of the populace did not survive. Only items used by the very rich or by the church tended to make their way into museums, leaving large gaps in the understanding of what items existed and were used. Fragile items, such as items made of pierced carving, survived even less frequently than more robust items, such as chairs or chests. Fretwork Boxes I was able to locate two clear examples of what might be termed fretwork, or pierced carving that removes large portions of the wood while leaving a delicate design behind. Both are in the collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum. The first, a 13th century casket, is made of carved and painted wood overlaid with pierced ivory panels [9]. The wood is painted black to show up clearly behind the spaces in the ivory. This piece was made in southern Italy. In the pictures (see period examples section), one can clearly see the brads holding the ivory to the wooden underbox. The second example is a box from France or Spain that dates from around 1450 c.e. [10] The box, while listed as a casket, is also mentioned as a good example of a box used for storing jewelry and trinkets. It is made from wood, covered with colored paper, then had fretwork panels inset over the colored paper. The fretwork panels are quite ornate and must have taken a long time to carve by hand. When I inquired what type of wood the box was made of, I received an email from Antonia Brodie, the assistant curator in the Department of Furniture, Textiles, and Fashion stating that it was probably made of pearwood. The box that I have made is a jewelry box. It is similar in design to the wooden box with fretwood over a solid inner box mentioned above. This type of construction is found in other boxes. A photograph of a carved 8th-10th century Scottish box in Finlay (1973) shows very clearly the inner box with the carved panels fixed to the outside (see period illustrations in the documentation). My box differs in that the boxes I have found have a solid inner box with the fretwork panels glued and/or nailed to the inner box, while this box is only fretwork panels. However, there are ivory boxes made in this manner that are still in existence [11]. The pattern was bought from the Timber Lace company and is included in the pattern section of my documentation. While intarsia makers used a cartoon, or drawing, of the finished work, they pounced the pattern on the specific piece to be cut out. This is messy and the pattern becomes smeared easily. I photocopied the pattern and glued it on the walnut using rubber cement. After drilling entry holes and using a scroll saw to cut the pierced work, I peeled off the pattern and sanded the wood to remove any adhesive left behind. I used the scroll saw instead of a fret saw because the time it would have taken to do the pierced carving by hand was prohibitive. Woods Used What woods were used in medieval woodworking? The short answer is whatever woods were at hand. Hunter (n.d.) mentions that before the 16th century, different types of wood in England such as sallow, willow, plumtree, hardbeam, and elm were used, but by the 16th century, they used primarily oak. European Oak is very difficult to obtain and very expensive. Walnut is available in both Europe and North America, although the cultivars are somewhat different. Due to expense, I used North American walnut. The box is built using end joints glued with modern woodworking glue, a type of casein glue [12]. While hide glue was often used to glue up intarsia panels and in furniture making, it will melt in hot and humid conditions [13]. This makes its use problematic in the Texas climate. The box is lined with velveteen material to protect the jewelry and enhance the beauty of the box. Lessons Learned Working with extremely thin wood is frustrating because it warps so easily. It also vibrates to pieces when using the scroll saw if you do not use a great deal of care. Cutting the joints so that they are straight and join properly is also difficult. It takes a great deal of practice to do so. Making a box this ornate took over forty hours of work, even with the scroll saw. It would take months by hand. In addition, using a fret saw effectively to cut ornate shapes takes both strength and dexterity. Footnotes [1] Johnson (n.d.) [2] Tour Egypt website [3] Johnson (n.d.), Bealer (1996), Halstead (2003). [4] Halstead (2003) [5] Halstead (2003) [6] Johnson (n.d.), Bealer (1980), Halstead (2003) [7] Wilmering (1999) [8] Wilmering (1999) [9] Museum number 6974-1860 [10] Museum number 1206-1864 [11] MacGregor (1985) [12] Heath (2007) [13] Heath (2007), Wilmering (1999) Bibliography Bealer, A. (1996). Old Ways of Working Wood: The Techniques and Tools of a Time-Honored Craft, Revised Edition. Edison, NJ: Castle Books. Finlay, I. (1973). Celtic Art: An Introduction. Park Ridge, NJ: Noyes Press. Halstead, G. (Autumn, 2003). European Woodworking Tools: 600-1600 C.E. The Compleat Anachronist, Milpitas, CA: SCA. Halstead, G. (N.d.) Interior Wood Finishing in Medieval and Renaissance Europe. Posted in file section of medieval woodworking yahoo groups. Heath, M. (1st Quarter, 2007). A practical guide to medieval adhesives. The Compleat Anachronist, Milpitas, CA: SCA. Hunter, S. (n.d.) Medieval Woods: An examination of the woods common in Medieval Life and their North American Counterparts. Posted in file section of medieval woodworking yahoo groups. Johnson, R. (n.d.) A Brief Introduction to Woodworking in the Viking Age. http://www.ostvik.org/articles/viking_wood1.html. MacGregor, A. (1985). Bone, Antler, Ivory, & Horn: The Technology of Skeletal Materials Since the Roman Period. Totowa, NJ: Barnes & Noble Books. Wilmering, A. (1999). The Gubbio Studiolo and its conservation: II Italian Renaissance Intarsia and the Conservation of the Gubbio Studiolo. NY: The Metropolitan Museum of Art. ------ Copyright 2007 by Stephanie Smith, Ph.D. 433 County Road 1006, Wolfe City, Texas 75496. . 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 receives a copy. If this article is reprinted in a publication, I would appreciate 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. Edited by Mark S. Harris PW-Jewelry-Box-art Page 6 of 6