caskets-boxes-bib

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caskets-boxes-bib - 12/24/02

A bibliography on medieval caskets and boxes by Master Magnus Malleus.

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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

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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Date: Thu, 19 Sep 2002 18:03:54 -0400

From: rmhowe <MMagnusM at bellsouth.net>

Subject: Leather Boxes and Caskets (updated)

To: sca-arts at raven.cc.ukans.edu

> I'm looking for any information dealing with the construction of boxes

made from leather or wooden boxes covered with leather.

- thanks, Rolf the Blunt <

Okay, this is an item of mild interest to me so I'll give you a

start... Try:

Anker, Peter: Chests and Caskets; Norway, 1975.

The author is the Director of the Museum of Applied Art in

Bergen, and an expert on Norwegian folk art. English.

Bibl.80 pp. 105 b&w ill. 4 col. ill. 8"x5 1/2". Softbound.

ISBN 82-7003-054-6. Code: 2628 Price: $26.50, From:

info at nordicartbooks.com, Nordic Art Books, 3650 Cross

Creek Road Malibu, California, 90265-4946 U.S.A,

tel: (310) 456-8762 or (818) 222-1122 / fax:(310) 456-5714

This is a fascinating history of the chest - and of its

smaller relation, the casket - their practical uses,

social functions, customs associated with them, materials,

productions, and decorations. Chapters include: Before

Drawers and Cupboards; The First Chests; The Dwellings of

the Dead; House-Shaped Chests, Arks and Grain Bins;

Gothic Chests; The Role of the Chest in the Past; Chests

and Benches, The Craft of the Renaissance Joiner; Bridal

Chests and Coats of Arms; Baroque Chests, The 17th Century;

From the Traveller's Chest to the Trunk and the Suit-Case;

Chests in Rural Storehouses; Rose-Painted Chests (The

Halling Chest, the Telemark Chest); Carved Chests, Caskets,

Chests Today, Chests c. 1000-1900.

Berger, Ewald: Prunk-Kassetten, Europaische Meisterwerke aus Acht

Jahrhunderten, Ornamental Caskets, Eight Centuries ; 1998:

Arnoldsche, Stuttgart, cloth, dj, Text in English and German.

The Hans Schell Collection, Graz., profuse color & b/w illus.,

318 pages, 12 x 10, ornamental caskets / decorative art /

metal work /gold boxes. ISBN 3-925369-83-X $110.

Bestand katloge der Hanns Schell collection; Bd 1. (to be

followed by others on cast iron objects, locks and keys, forged

steel objects, and guild emblems.) Pp. 336, approximately 500

illustrations.

Berger, Ewald: Ornamental Coffers; Eight Centuries of European

Craftsmanship ISBN: 392536983X Arnoldsche Verlaganstalt GmbH,

Jan.1999, US 110.00

Blair, John, and Nigel Ramsey: English Medieval Industries; 1992. An

overview of the current level of knowledge in a number of

disciplines, including wood, leather, fabric, and pewter casting.

Has some small discussion on the matter.

Buckley, J.J.: Some Early Ornamented Leatherwork. Journal of the Royal

Society of Antiquaries of Ireland vol. XLV, part IV, 1915.

pp.300-309 (Cumdachs and Polaires: Medieval Irish Book Shrines

and Book Satchels)

Camille, Michael: The Medieval Art of Love, Objects and Subjects of

Desire, Harry N. Abrams Pubs., 1998, New York, ISBN 0810915448

Contains a range of objets d'amour including caskets. Pages 67

and 107 have two different caskets. The style of carving

looks very two-dimentional, there's a background and a

foreground with very little modeling. All the other detail is

provided by paint. The one from Cologne on 67 is definitely

similar in style to the Swiss casket on 107. Appears to be

painted pierced applique put into a carved out depression.

Cherry, John: "The Talbot Casket and Related Late Medieval Caskets"

Archaeologica 107 (1982): 131-40.

D'Allemagne, Henry Rene: Decorative Antique Ironwork, A Pictorial

Treasury, over 4500 illustrations; Dover, New York, 1968,

416 pages, PB, ISBN 0486220826, contains many locks, keys

and escutcheon plates on pages 36-104, and also contains

many illustrations of medieval and renaissance chests and

almsboxes on pages 391-408. My copy is 1968 but it's in reprint.

Contains a number of pictures of caskets and fittings. Some

of them are leather covered.

: Deutsches Ledermuseum: Kunsthandwerk, Volkskunde, Vˆlkerkunde,

Fachtechnik; Deutsches Schuhmuseum; 2.Aufl. Offenbach am Main,

1961. 154 pp. 58 ills.

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, 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. This is one of the ultimate books on the subject.

Hoving, Thomas: Secular Spirit: Life and Art at the End of the Middle

Ages; Published by E.P. Dutton and Co. in association with

Metropolitan Museum of Art, First Edition, Reproductions, photos,

Cloth, 1975. ISBN (cloth) 052549507x; (paper) 0870990969

Many leather items, some have some raised leather with glue/

dust inserts under it.

Kup, Karl. "Notes on a Fifteenth-Century Cofferet" Connoisseur 140

(1957): 62-66.

Leland, Charles G.: Leather Tooling; Sterling Publishing Co. New York,

1975. Oak Tree Press, London and Sydney. Various dates. First

published as Leather Work: A Practical Manual for Learners

in England, 1892.

Not much on caskets or trunks but really excellent on tooling

and full of medievally inspired designs. Excellent on the subject.

Mullbacher, Eva: Europaische Lederarbeiten vom 14. bis 19. Jahrhundert;

(European Leatherwork from the 14th to 19th Centuries); Staatliche Museen

Preussicher Kulturbesitz, Berlin 1988. Aus dem Sammlungen des Berliner

Kunstgewerbemuseseums 1988. 19.5 x 24.5 cm., Brosch, 96 pages, 80 b&w

and 18 color illustrations. Vorwort 3; Einfuhrung 4; Lederarbeiten mit

geschnittenem dekor, Katalog 1-26 p.6.; Lederarbeiten mit gemalten Dekor, Druck und Golddruck,

Nenno, Rosita: "Gerbeverfahren, Lederverarbeitung, und Zeirtechniken"

in: Europa"ische Technik in Mittelalter, 800 bis 1400, Tradition

and Innovation, Ein Handbuch, by Uta Lindgren, Gebr. Mann Verlag,

Berlin, 1996. ISBN 3786117489. Leather article covers pages

487-92, includes closeups of several highly molded caskets.

Newman, Thelma: Leather as Art and Craft: ISBN 0 517 505754, there is

a photo of a leather covered box from 15th C. Italy from the

Metropolitan Museum of Art.

de RÈcy, Georges: Leather Work; From the French of Georges de RÈcy

(The Decoration of Leather) translated by Maude Nathan,

(1905) Reprinted 2000, The Caber Press, Jack C. Thompson,

Editor. http://home.teleport.com/~tcl/caber.htm Originally

104 pages reduced to 48, retaining the period Middle Ages and

Renaissance information and pictures, dropping the modern

material. Eleven pictures depict leather caskets (3); An

Italian 15th C.case of cut and embossed leather cuir bouilli;

a French 14th C. Coffret, incised, colored and gilt, a case

of cut and punched leather - German, 15th C., an Italian cover

of a Case for a cup in wood covered embossed leather -

cuir bouilli, embossed, painted and gilt, about 1500; A

Powder-flask of wood covered with leather - cuir bouilli,

cut and embossed - Italian 16th C.; An Italian 16th C.

Shield of cut and embossed cuir bouilli; A Blind stamped

leather bookbinding oF the Winchester Domesday Book -

English 12th C.; A 15th C. German Brown Leather bookbinding,

cut and engraved with punched background - German MS.

Chronicle of Events; A blind-stamped Morroco binding with gilt

roundels and coloured cameo design - Celsus. De Medicina,

Venice 1477, A cover of a work box of wood covered with

embossed leather, cuir bouilli, German 16th C.. Sections

include Tools and Leather, Choice of Skin, Methods of working

in leather: tracing the design on the leather, Incising the

leather, Modelling Tools, Embossing leather, modelled leather

with Punched background, Leather Hangings and Furniture,

Some extracts from the report of the committee on leather for

bookbinding appointed by the Society of Arts, February 1900.

No chests in this one but some excellent inspiration and tips:

Russell, Janet: English Medieval Leatherwork; Arch. Journal 96

(1) 1939, pp. 132-41 and plates I-VI. Discusses metal

stamps, embossed and relief designs, blunt tool engravings,

incised designs, cuir bouilli, painting and gilding,

guilds, illustrates sheathes, part of a saddle, shoe toe,

short select bibliography. Plate I contains a fifteenth

century knife sheath with fleur-de-lis stamps in an under

and over double lattice running between diamonds (quite

attractive), and the upper and lower pieces of an embossed

thirteenth century knife sheath at roughly 2/3 scale size,

totaling about nine inches each. Plate II shows an

embossed fifteenth century Rondel Dagger Sheath with

incised coil decoration; Part of stamped and incised

Fleur-de Lys decoration on a belt (very intricately and

numerously stamped; and a small bit of Moulded Relief

decoration on a cuir-bouilli inkwell, showing three

saints in arcaded little panels over a man (Saint

Sebastian probably) with his hands tied behind him and

three arrow heads to either side of his arcade, with

archers on either side of him in their arcaded panels.

Plate III shows an incised knife sheath, fifteenth century

(9 1/2"); an engraved knife sheath with embossed birds in

acanthus scrolls of the 12th C. (8"); and Part of a

sword-sheath decorated with punched and engraved fleur-de-lys

of the 14-15th centuries (13"). Plate IV shows the upper

part of a knife sheath, back engraved with animals in

Acanthus Roundels and the front having designs of chevrons

and three shields in both embossed and lightly stamped and

cut designs. Plate V shows a 14th C. knife sheath with dull

tool embossed cross-hatch designs; a 15th C. sheath with

engraved and pricked design of diamonds with strapping

between them and varying designs within them; and a small

part of a 13-14th C. zoomorphic design. Plate VI shows a

suggested part of a saddle (now taken to be an upper arm guard)

with foliage and animals. Plate VII shows the triangular

supposed toe of a shoe, which is taken to be the highest

degree of Medieval Leather Craftsmanship attained in the

late middle ages. The article is probably the best discussion

of decorative styles of leatherwork and cuir bouilli to be found.

I know a scale case isn't exactly a box but:

Scull, Christopher, with many assorted other authors: Excavation

and Survey at Watchfield, 1983-32; Arch. Journal 149, 1992,

pp.124-281. Includes many photographs and drawings of an early

Anglo-Saxon Cemetery and itís inhabitants and their possessions

from the Vale of the White Horse. Some finds are neolithic to

medieval, one is 1700ís knife handle, other finds include

glass and bone beads, brooches, weapons, shield rivets,

handles and umbos, a deteriorated leather scabbard and a

scale case made of leather with scales and weights and

inscription, cauldron bits and fittings, tweezers, knives,

buckles, saucer brooches and oneís construction, ear spoon,

square headed brooches, amber, dress pins, skeletal

remains with analysis, remains of horn handle for sword,

electron pictures of grooves cut in carnelian by a bow drill,

reconstructions of the pattern welded sword blades (similar to

Sutton Hoo but not quite as complex, nine page bibliography.

Most things are drawn and not photographed in the text.

Excellent coverage of most materials and discussions of

specific fields of items by specialists.

Scurlock, William, ed.: Muzzleloader Magazine's Book of Buckskinning

VII; Scurlock Publishing Co., Texarkana, TX, 1995,

ISBN 188065505-5.

Contains an excellent post period article on the "Goods of the

Trunkmaker and His Trade" by Steven M. Lalioff, pp 198-221.

Descriptions and photographs of original trunks, deed boxes, and

chests. Also see plates VII-XII. By someone who has a large

collection and remakes them.

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. Includes cofferers.

Snyder, W.E.: The Leathercraftsman. A Textbook on Leatherwork ;

Worchester: American Handicrafts, (1936). cloth, gilt lettering,

176pp., Includes; A Brief History of Leather, Leathercraft

Through the Ages, Construction and Decorating, Tools, Lacing,

Steps in making a leathercraft article etc., etc.,

Illustrations, index.

Society of Antiquaries of London : Archaeologia; or, Miscellaneous

Tracts Relating to Antiquity; published by the Society of

Antiquaries of London; Volume CVII, London, 1982, pp.222,

text-illustrations, plates. Includes: Swords and sequence

in the British Bronze Age; Anglo-Saxon Glass claw-beakers;

Anglo-Saxon button brooches; The sanctuary ring of Durham

Cathedral; The Talbot Casket and Related Late Medieval

Leather Caskets by John Cherry; The stained glass of the

chapel of the Vyne and the Chapel of the Holy Ghost,

Basingstoke; Ightham Mote: politics and architecture in

Early Tudor England.

Stohlman, Al: The Art of Hand Sewing Leather; 1977,

Tandy Leather Co., Ft. Worth, TX.

Stohlman, Al and Ann: The Art of Making Leather Cases Volume 1-2-3 ;

1979, Tandy Leather Co., Ft. Worth, TX.

Stohlman, Al: Coloring Leather, 1985, Tandy Leather Co., Ft. Worth, TX.

Stohlman, Al: How to Carve Leather, 1952, Craftool Co., Ft. Worth, TX.

Tandy Leather, various dates. Modern techniques.

Modern finish.

Underhill, Roy: [Video] The Williamsburg Trunkmaker. Woodwright's Shop

Series. WUNC-TV, Chapel Hill, NC. Mostly on other techniques of

hand leatherwork but includes some discussion of chests and coffers,

notably including that the wood was not nailed together but

glued until the tacks holding the leather were driven in.

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

Medieval Archaeology, Vol. XII, 1968, pp. 70-82.,

13pp, 4figs, 4 b/w plates IV-VII.

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 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. Better than below for this

purpose. Has a chapter that discusses leather boxes and some

of the manner of their construction.

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." Brief mentions

of caskets/trunks.

Waterer, John William. "A Historical Forcer."; Connoisseur 134 (1954):

189-191. A Forcer is a casket.

Waterer has another on Spanish Leather that is supposed to include

it's use on caskets but it is primarily concerned with

embossed late period leather used on walls, furniture, etc.

Will that do for a start? I'm afraid I don't have any more time to

search through diverse tomes today... :)

Windmasters' Hill, Atlantia

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