Lending A Hand

I'm writing this post to bring an interesting and odd find to the attention of anyone interested in late Medieval European clothing (esp. 15th century), because it offers an opportunity to help in a small important way, in historical costume research.

Today on Academia.edu, Beatrix Nutz, who is leading the research into the clothing-related archaeological finds at Lengberg Castle, posted a short note along with a picture. The note reads simply, "Help – I have a question. Has anyone seen this type of metal (iron and non-ferrous) eye-closure before? These have been found at Lengberg Castle in East Tyrol (Austria) and date to the 15th century. I am trying to find comparisons."

Although I don't usually post pictures from other sites that are not under a Creative Commons license or the like or unless I have special permission, I am reproducing Professor Nutz's photograph in the interest of amplifying the signal on her request for help.

I have never seen this type of closure in a medieval context (not that I have special expertise in that period of costume history).  It's very clearly not a hook and eye, and it doesn't really look like two "eyes" in search of a hook, to me.  Rather, it seems to be a kind of toggle (note how the loop on the item on the right is less wide but fatter in shape than the loop on the item on the left).  It appears that you would insert the "loop" on the rightward device into the "loop" on the leftward one to close your garment. 

If anyone reading this has any knowledge about other medieval finds of this type of object, please get in touch with Professor Nutz.  She is with the Archaeology Department at the University of Innsbruck in Austria.

Early Period Links

I'm still not ready to return to regular costume blogging, but over the past day I've found a number of fascinating Early Period links that I'd like to bring to the attention of my readers.  Most of these involve serious reproduction projects.

First of all, textile geeks and Early Period costuming buffs will want to check out Carolyn Priest-Dorman's latest post (just a day after her re-posted Viking double weave article) about her project to attempt to replicate textile specimen Jorvik 1307.  She started by spinning warp and weft yarns of  thicknesses and wool types to match the original.  I'm always humbled when I read about people taking clothing recreations to this level.

Over at The Reverend's Big Blog of Leather, I found an article by the eponymous Wayne Robinson describing how he made a pair of 6th-7th century CE Anglo-Saxon shoes he made, based on one of the Sutton Hoo finds.  Recent posts by "the Reverend" that are also shoe-related include this short post, with large, clear color pictures, about the world's oldest shoe, and this post and this post about late 16th century shoe horns.

From Irish Archaeology's website comes this recent article about an Iron Age body found in County Offaly wearing a very modern-looking leather-and-metal armband. Known as Old Croghan Man, the find is dated to between 362 BCE and 175 BCE. The article features a beautiful photograph of the armband that deserves a place on one of my Pinterest boards.

Finally, The Greenland Gown Project by Doreen M. Gunkel merits a serious look from students of early and medieval costume. She is in the process of making a replica of one of the 13th century Norse gowns discovered at Herjolfsnaes in Greenland.  She is starting by researching and searching for an appropriate breed of sheep from which to obtain suitable wool fleece to spin into yarn to use to weave fabric for the gown. Ms. Gunkel asks interested readers to register, but registration is free and gets you e-mail updates as she writes about new developments in the project. 

Happy reading!

Some Scholarship on Viking Age Weaving

At the moment, I'm kind of distracted, having lost my full-time contract job (the major source of my income) on Friday, so I'm not ready to blog about my sprang cap project, let alone start working on it.

Instead, I'd like to pass along a link of interest to Viking textile enthusiasts and weaving geeks.  My friend, Carolyn Priest-Dorman, reposted on her new blog, A String Geek's Stash, a great article from 2005 entitled "Viking Age Pick-Up Double Weaves from Sweden and Norway.  It discusses in some detail the Revsund border, the Överhogdal textiles, the Marby fragment, and the Kyrkås hanging.   Best of all (as is typical of Carolyn's work), it contains links to photographs of a number of the textiles discussed, as well as a substantial bibliography.

Although the pieces discussed in Carolyn's article probably came from wall-hangings or other non-clothing household textiles, they shed copious light on weaving techniques that were originally believed to post-date the Viking age, and I commend her article to the attention of anyone interested in Viking Age textiles.

HSM #5--A 15th Century Cap

Right side veiw

Left side view

On Sunday, the very last day of May, I finally finished my 15th century linen cap for the May Historical Sew Fortnightly challenge.  The theme:  practicality. Tonight, I had my husband take photographs of the finished product, and they appear in  this post.

The cap was simple enough to make.  I followed Catrijn vanden Westhende's directions, including the size of the rectangle (though I cut a bit extra on the edges to allow for hemming). I used the photograph accompanying the directions to estimate the length of the tie string . So far as I could tell from the photograph, the tie string was about four times the height of the finished cap, which would be approximately 11 inches.  Four times 11 inches is 44 inches, which is close to four feet; thus, I made my string about 48 inches long, figuring that I could cut off some of the length and re-sew the end if necessary.  However, I did not use a "fine" linen as she suggests, since what I had on hand was the mid-weight linen that fabrics-store.com sells.  Instead, I made the tie string out of the linen--using the same folding and whipstitching technique I use to make Viking apron dress loops.  I don't know what Catrijn used for hers; her photograph is too small to tell.

The failure to use a crisper, stiffer linen may have been a mistake on my part.  As the photographs show (thanks again to my patient husband for taking them), my cap is rather limp.  But otherwise, the cap gives a pretty good period appearance, provided I am careful, when I fold back the cap, to make sure to fold back the top edge at least 2 inches (about 5 cm) and make sure that the back edge is fairly even and not pulled up too far in the middle by the tie string.  Even so, my flaps remain floppy, and don't form the kind of pretty pointed turnbacks that Catrijn's cap has.

It occurred to me that starching the cap might help with this issue  A quick search turned up this site, which claims that the use of laundry starch goes back to the 15th century, but it was a luxury item then, and probably not used by peasant women (except, perhaps, by laundresses advertising their skills). On the other hand, the cap stays on well and covers the head tidily, so it meets the "practicality" requirement of the challenge.  Possibly more experience on my part in fastening the cap onto my head will result in a prettier appearance.  My efforts tonight make the cap look much better than when I first tried it on Sunday night. 

HSM Challenge #5--Practicality

Fabric:  A scrap of  white linen roughly 11 inches by 22 inches (30.5 x 55.5 cm) for the body of the cap, and a second scrap, roughly 1 1/2 inches by 48 inches (3.8 x 122 cm) for the tie string, both torn from a length of linen that was left over from a previous shift project.

Front view

Back view

Pattern:  Catrijn vanden Westhende's directions, referenced above, though it appears that no two costumers who have made such a cap have made it in the same way. 

Year:  Catrijn believes such caps are roughly late 15th century-early 16th century CE.  The images I've found on the Internet (mostly via the Medieval and Renaissance Material Culture website at Larsdatter.com) support this belief.

Notions:   White linen 80/3 thread, Londonderry brand, that was left over from other costuming projects.

How historically accurate is it?   It's entirely handsewn and gives a good period appearance, and the economy of the construction method argues that the design of the cap might have arisen in period.  On the other hand, the linen is probably too limp and slubby for the period, and I have no idea if there is any actual evidence for the use of this type of construction in period.  So let's just say 50%, maybe.
  

Hours to complete: A bit under 3 hours, all told.

First worn:  Right after I finished it, and then for the photographs accompanying this post.

Total cost:  Zero.  All of the materials were leftovers from other projects--making the cap even more practical!

The Pinterest board I made to compare similar caps in medieval art also includes some caps by modern costumers/reenactors.  As I said above, it appears that no two costumers have made this sort of cap in the same way, but in my opinion Catrijn's patternless method is the simplest.