It’s difficult to prove a negative. So when readers suggested there was no such thing as a slant-top chest or container after this post and this one, I knew that the Internet would provide.
Indexer Suzanne Ellison turned up this interesting example from the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. It’s called out as a “desk cupboard,” and the evidence suggests it was elevated on a stand at some point in its history.
Check out the full description of the item and the dendrochronology stuff. It’s nice to see that some of the people at the V&A know their woodworking stuff.
So one example doesn’t prove that this was the item shown in the 14th-century images from the original post. But it does show – as always – that early woodworkers were capable of almost any furniture form we can conceive of today.
Last week I discovered the Balthasar Behem Codex of 1505 (also known as the Codex Picturatus), a compilation of the charters and bylaws of the guilds of Krakow written in German, Polish and Latin. The Codex includes an illustration for each guild, including a carpenter’s workshop and a cooper. Finding the Codex was significant for two reasons: I haven’t seen too many early woodworking images from Eastern Europe, and both images show women working alongside men (my two Polish aunts are cheering!).
In the carpenter’s shop a women is using a bellows to keep the coals under the glue pot warm. In the cooper’s scene a women works on a large cask and a younger women (possibly an apprentice) works on a small bucket. In several illustrations for other guilds women are also working alongside men.
In illustrations from Medieval and Early Modern Europe women (other than the upper classes) are usually seen doing the arduous work of the farm: working in the fields and tending to animals.
When women were portrayed in a woodworker’s shop they are spinning, doing needlework and tending to children. Often, a similar scene is of Mary, Joseph and a young Jesus.
Were the women of Krakow an anomoly? No, they were not. Women can be seen working as stonemasons, blacksmiths, bakers, as well as in the textile trades. The various crafts and trades were family businesses requiring the work of all members of the family. In 1405 in Christine de Pisan’s “Treasure of the City of Ladies,” she advised: the craftswomen…”should learn all the shop details so that she can properly supervise the workers when her husband is away or not paying attention.”
Some of the early research on the role of women and the work they performed in Medieval and Early Modern Europe concluded it was only supportive in nature, or work only done until marriage. These conclusions undervalued both women and the work they did, and these attitudes persisted well into the twentieth century. In the last 30 years a huge amount of research has been done to uncover the details of the daily life of Medieval and Early Modern European women. As more city registries and other archives have been made available, and as more researchers have delved into non-English archives, a very different picture of women (single, married and widowed) has emerged.
The family workshop was a mainstay of the economy and master craftsmen were expected, or required, to be married. The wife was expected to balance her activites between working alongside her husband, manage accounts and sales, oversee apprentices and journeymen and also manage the household. Being the wife of a craftsmen conferred status and reflected her value to the business. In some German records the wife of the master was noted, for example as, “die Frau Bäckerin” (the wife of the baker). Daughters and household maids also worked in the shop. In periods of high demand other women in the community would be hired to work.
Some records show daughters were apprenticed to their fathers although there were few formal provisions for recognizing their apprenticeships as there were for boys. A daughter who had worked in her father’s craft was often viewed as more “marketable” as a wife.
City records and other archives in Spain, France, Germany and England have revealed women working with their fathers or husbands as masons, capenters, doormakers and other crafts in the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries. Women have been documented working on stone and wood structures as day laborers on construction sites.
One of the reasons early reseachers did not recognise the full extent of women working in male-dominated crafts was how women were noted in the records. Women might be documented with their father’s or husband’s name or in terms such as mulier, mullyer, dona, femme or wench. Medieval and Early Modern writers were also largely silent on women’s employment. A woman being fully engaged in an artisan’s workshop or working outside the home did not fit in the conservative and religious views of the the proper role of a women. As for the visual record of women working one has to consider who commisioned the illustrated manuscripts and seasonal calendars and their purpose. The patrons were usually aristocratic and religious figures that were paying for an idealised view of the their estate or world, not an historical documentation.
Another consideration as to why there are few women shown working in male-dominated occupations is the persistence of viewing women as dangerous, polluted and ruinous. An example of this is the blacksmith’s wife. As the story goes (and there are variations) the blacksmith was asked to make nails for the crucifixion of Christ. When he refused, his wife said she would make the nails. The image below is from the Holkham Bible (1327-1335) in the collection of the British Library. This is one of the more destructive images of a woman, as she is engaging in a man’s work, she is enabling a reprehensible act and it has helped perpetuate anti-Semetic ideas. What is factual, is women made nails and otherwise worked in the smith’s shop as part of contributing to the family business. Women continued to make nails as a means of income well into the 19th century.
In a few days or so I’ll continue this short series with the topic of women and the guilds. In the meantime consider this….at the end of the 14th century Giles de Benoyne was allowed an additional apprentice by the founder’s guild of York “because he had no wife” (he was likely a widower).
In 1889 the Balthasar Behem Codex was published in the original languages with black and white illustrations, additional commentary in German and you can find it here.
‘Deduction’ (Bruges, 1467-1468), University of Cambridge Nn.3.2
Sometime between 1463-1464 George Chastellain, Jean de Montferrant and Jean Robertet exchanged poems and epistles that eventually became a manuscript titled, ‘Les Douze Dames de Rhétorique’ (The Twelve Ladies of Rhetoric). Each branch of rhetoric features a poem and the image of a women symbolizing the branch.
The women symbolizing Deduction is shown in a carpenter’s workshop and in the background is a construction site. With her hair covered and wearing an apron Deduction is dressed as a women that would be found helping out in the family workshop. In her role of explaining her branch of rhetoric and the scene in which she is set, she points to her head with one hand while holding a set of tools (square, dividers, plumb) in the other hand.
In her poem she explains: “Without a doubt I arrive late and I am slow to speak to merit an important place in this august assemblage. But, I am relevant, I function and I am quite useful for the completion of any beautiful work. Once it is assembled, one must give it a title because the more a work stands out for its rich materials and beautiful apperance, the more I apply a prudent hand to bring it glory and title.”
The books and tools in the workshop show the combination of thought and knowledge used by the master carpenter to develop and draw the building designs. In the background we see the carpenter’s knowledge and experience turned into the action of constructing several buildings. In this small illustration the craft of the carpenter is a perfect example of applying reasoning and knowlege (gained through experience or consultation) to solve a problem or to attain a specific result.
Now, consider the design and making of the staked chair in the ‘Anarchist’s Design Book’. Illustrations and actual pieces of staked furniture were studied. Experiments with the joint were made. Past chairmaking experience was used to develop designs. Models were constructed to adjust leg angles and test stability. Prototypes were built to work out any flaws. Thought, knowledge and action and the maker has a chair that will last for generations.
Of the many images of woodworking workshops I have found ‘Deduction’ is one of my favorites.
Below are two more versions of ‘Deduction’ probably copied from the one above. The tools in hand and other details are a bit different. Also, one of the authors had himself painted with the twelve ladies.
– Suzanne Ellison
Bayerische Staats Bibliothek, circa 1470
BnF, circa 1401-1500
Jean Montferrant with apparitions of the twelve ladies.
Suzanne Ellison turned up more images of chests from the 14th and early 15th centuries that have lids that may or may not be slanted.
Whether the lid’s cockedness is the result of the builder or the illustrator is immaterial to me – I’m going to build some. I have been impressed by the slant-lid Dutch chests I’ve been building for the last three years for three reasons:
You can’t stack junk on top of them.
They keep the rain off (surprisingly I have found this to be true and helpful).
The slanted lid provides easy access to the contents of the chest. I think most people who have built Dutch tool chests will agree with me that snatching tools out of the top compartment is a breeze thanks to the 30° slant on the lid.
Here are notes on the images from Suzanne:
The top image is from the “Bibliotheque de l’Arsenal,” dated 1300-1400. She is sitting on a flat-top chest but the lid of the chest to the right looks to be slanted.
This one is is from the Morgan Library, dated 1380.
Secret drawers have long fascinated woodworkers and the general public. One of our most popular blog entries from the last nine years was about a secret drawer. And so we present this interesting gallery of 25 news items involving secret compartments and drawers for your reading pleasure.
All were culled from 19th-century sources by researcher Jeff Burks. Be aware that these stories involve murder, misadventure, some racist language and a rare Bible.
