Category: Blog Post

PGC2019: Meisterin Christian Baier’s Pearl and Garnet Goldhaube

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Category: An accessory your persona may have owned, made, used, or gifted. “With scarfs, and fans, and double change of bravery, With amber bracelets, beads, and all this knavery.”

A gold silk goldhaub, decorated with small garnet and pearl beads


Persona period inspiration and use:

Goldhaubes were the coifs / “hairnets” worn by women of the 16th C Saxon court.  The dowry of Magdalene of Saxony lists a number of haubes, most with pearls and some with metal ornaments, or spangles. At least one of these haubes was noted as having been made by Magdalene’s mother, the Duchess, so this could be a project that a noble woman might make for herself or for a family member or friend.Christian is not fond of hats and headwear, but finds these haubes are generally the least annoying appropriate hair covering.  

This haube is intended to match an under-construction red velvet gown with guards of yellow and white silk brocade.



Design, Materials and Construction: 

These haubes were variously constructed, some appear to be made from embroidered or patterned fabric, some from cords knotted or constructed into a net; illustrations suggest that these were less likely to be made using more traditional hair-netting techniques like sprang, however men in this period wore “hairnets” which do seem to be made more often in those techniques.  Haubes were usually made of gold cords and/or narrow wares, or gold fabrics, often patterned in black; and were usually embellished with pearls, spangles and other ornaments.

Materials: gold metal-thread net fabric, lined with silk, pearls of two colours, garnets, metal thread, and gold cord. The haube is lined with fine bright yellow silk to both ensure the haube more closely tones with the brocade of the gown’s brocade, and to hide “fake” hair used to imitate haristyles of the period.

Construction: the fabric was embellished with pearls, cords, and semiprecious stones; lined with silk, and attached to a decorative band also decorated with pearls and garnets.


Reference:

  • 1526 Nürnberg wedding record:  H. Doege, “Das von Questzische Hochzeistbüchlein, 1526”, Waffen und Kostümkunde, 1922. 
  • Schulordnungen, schulbücher, und pädagogische miscellaneen aus den landen deutscher zunge: Im auftrage der Gesellschaft für deutsche erziehungs- und schulgeschichte, Band 34.  Translated here: https://jillwheezul.livejournal.com/tag/magdalena%20of%20saxony
  • Goldhaubes in Textiler Hausrat, Kleidung und Textilien von Nurnberg, 1500 – 1650 by Jutta Zander-Seidel, p.119-125.
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PGC2019: Isabel Maria’s Alquerque Board

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 Isabel Maria shares project for the category of “what revels are in hand? Is there no play, To ease the anguish of a torturing hour?” 

A wooden board, with the geometric design of an Alquerque board painted on it

Purpose

Despite having a good selection of SCA period games, I really wanted some more specifically Spanish games to add to my repertoire.  It became necessary to do some research to find quintessentially Spanish games.  Early on I learned about the different styles of playing cards, and eventually managed to acquire a modern set of them, but that was not enough.  So I asked “what board games were played in 16th Century Aragon, Catalan or even Portugal?”

These questions lead me to the game of Alquerque.  We have proof of it being played in the 13th Century, but things get rather more sparse thereon out.  However, it is generally accepted as having been introduced to the New World, where it was promptly adapted to suit the locals tastes, creating the game of kolowis awithlaknannai.  With that in mind, it seems reasonable that it would still be known in Spain during the waning years of the 16th Century. 

Construction & Shopping

Simple, solid pine board stained to make it look like more expensive wood, and mimic period board games.  The geometric design was carefully measured out before being drawn on in pencil and carved out. The carved design was then painted with gesso in preparation for painting.  In order to satisfy Isabel María’s preferences for surface ornamentation, additional decorations will be taken from a variety of 16th century game boards and combined before being added to the carved areas of the game board.

The game requires 12 counters for each player.  I play the game with 24 pewter jettons (12 portcullis side up and the other 12 with the jester up) until I find some better tokens.

Verdict

A fun wee game that can tax the brain after a hard days camping.  Goes well with a light Spanish wine and small quantities of consequence free gambling.

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PGC2019: Christian Baier’s Landsknecht Shirt

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Category: A garment your persona may have worn. “With silken coats, and caps, and golden rings, with ruffs, and cuffs, and farthingales, and things.”

White, long-sleeved, linen shirt displayed on a mannequin

Persona period inspiration and use:

Christian has an alter ego as the wife of a Landsknecht (German mercenary soldiers, late 15th and 16th-century).  The making of personal linens for the family was traditionally a task for the woman of the household. 

This shirt was undertaken as a project to while away lockdown.  The shirt needs to be suitable for camping at Canterbury Faire; e.g. a high neck to protect against the sun, and minimal embellishments (e.g. embroidery) in order to be easily and repeatedly laundered.



Design, Materials and Construction: 

There are no landsknecht extant shirts from this period, so the design, materials, construction, and fastening systems had to be extrapolated from extant German shirts from the late 15thC, a German child’s shirt from the early 16thC, and other men’s shirts from the early, mid, and late 16th C.

There are hundreds, perhaps thousands, of representations of landsknechts shirts in prints from the period.  These images show a variety of possible shirt styles and designs (in terms of cut, fastening, embellishments etc), and details can be filled in from extant garments and images of the shirts of elite men e.g. Matthaeus Schwarz.

The linen fabric of this shirt is coarser than the fine linen that would have been used for an elite shirt.  The shirt was hand sewn with linen thread; following the construction of some extent garments, the main construction seams were sewn in thicker linen thread and the finishing / detail work in finer thread.

Given lockdown resources, I had to use linen fabric ties for the neck and cuff fastenings, but these actually worked out better than expected.

Reference: 

  • Patterns of Fashion No. 4; The cut and construction of linen shirts, smocks, neckwear, headwear and accessories for men and women c. 1540 – 1660. Janet Arnold, 2008.
  • The First Book of Fashion; The Book of Clothes of Matthaeus and Veit Konrad Schwarz of Augsburg. Editor(s): Ulinka Rublack, Maria Hayward, Jenny Tiramani, 2015.
  • Textiler Hausrat, Kleidung und Textilien von Nurnberg, 1500 – 1650 by Jutta Zander-Seidel.
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PGC2019: Baronessa Isabel Maria’s Manto

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Isabel Maria shares her black linen voile manto, in the category “with scarfs and fans and double change of bravery With amber bracelets bead and all this knavery” as an example of an accessory her persona would have owned and used.

A photo of shiny black linen voile folded artistically, with narrow scalloped lace sewn along one edge.

“Both versions of Juan de Alcega’s Libro de Geometria, Pratica, y Traca (1580 and 1589) contain several cutting diagrams for a garment called a manto.  Alcega suggests that such a garment be made of anascote, seda or clarisea.  He also states that the appropriate length is from top of the head to the ankle.  This would appear to suggest it is some kind of all-encompassing veil or modesty wrap.  At this point I asked “how and when was this garment worn in period?”.

Marcelin Defourneaux, in Daily Life in Spain in the Golden Age, describes the wearing of the tapados (or veils) as “cloaks which completely covered them and which were pulled down over their faces, allowing only one eye to peep out.”  He later quotes the Council of Castille saying (during the reign of Philip II) “The custom of women to o veiled has become so excessive that it is now prejudicial to the best interest of the state, for, because of this fashion a father no longer recognises his daughter, not a husband  his wife…” and states that Philip II forbade its use, but without success.  Similarly, he quotes a contemporary writer railing against the practice of folding, and refolding the veil to hide all but the left eye describing it as “a lacivious thing”.

This sounds exactly like the kind of garment any fashionable lady simply must have in her wardrobe.

Pattern

Alcega has numerous cutting diagrams showing the most efficient way to cut this garment out of different types and widths of fabric, for example:

A pattern for a manto from Alcega's pattern book

Construction

Rather than piecing the garment as shown in Alcega, I was able to cut it out of one length, as my linen voile was sufficiently wide, unlike period fabrics.  I hand stitched a narrow rolled hem around the whole piece and then added a narrow black lace to the hem based on a 1590 image found on Indumentaria y Costumbres en Espana.  While the edging adds interest to the garment, it also makes it easier to control the fabric, as it is a simple matter to tell if you are gripping the edge you want, or something else.

Sadly, I haven’t been able to get a picture of me wearing the manto, but here is an image of the finished item.

A half circle manto of black linen voile, edged with narrow scalloped lace, folded into a cone shape

Verdict

This is a pretty and thoroughly inconvenient garment to wear, but perhaps that will change with practice?

Resources

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PGC2019: Meisterin Christian Baier’s Genovese Tart

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Category: An item of food or drink your persona may have grown, prepared, consumed, or known of.  “Do you think because you are virtuous, that there shall be no more cakes and ale?”

Persona period inspiration and use:

This recipe comes from Sabina Welserin’s cookbook, Das Kochbuch der Sabina Welserin (1553). The Welser were international mercantile bankers and venture capitalists, members, with the Fugger and the Hochstetter families, of the mercantile patriciate of Augsburg.  These recipes, compiled for a rich urban German household, seem suitable for a noble Saxon women like Christian, although she probably would not have baked them herself. The recipe collection was not originally intended for publication or circulation; it may have been possibly written by the Sabina herself, but was more probably written by her kitchen professionals on her behalf.

I made these pies to take for a picnic lunch at an event; they are ideal for this purpose as they taste good hot or cold, and (as the pies have a top crust) they travel well.  For picnics I tend to make small finger-food-sized pies for convenience, but when cooking a feast these pies work equally well as individual or ‘family’ sized pies.  They are a good protein dish for vegetarians, and also a useful pie for those who don’t eat eggs.



Design, Materials and Construction: 

  • Recipe 30: To make Genovese tart.  Take eighteen ounces of chard or spinach, three ounces of grated cheese, two and one half ounces of olive oil and the fresh cheese from six ounces of curdled milk. And blanch the herbs and chop them small and stir it all together and make a good covered tart with it.
  • The Kochbuch has a number of recipes for pastry, or you could substitute your own recipe.  I tend to use less olive oil than the original recipe, to make a less-wet filling, which makes the pie more robust for travel and I prefer the taste.  The flavours of this tart will vary with the greens, or the types of cheeses, you choose (see Bach for a discussion of German cheeses). You can make fresh cheese yourself, or use any type of fresh cheese you prefer.   
  • I forgot to take a photograph on the day, so please forgive the tatty-looking leftover pie that made it into my lunch box several days later.


Reference:

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PGC2019: Meisterin Christian Baier’s Apple and Raisin Pies

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Category: An item of food or drink your persona may have grown, prepared, consumed, or known of.  Do you think because you are virtuous, that there shall be no more cakes and ale?

Persona period inspiration and use:

  • The Kochbuch of Sabina Welserin contains many recipes for fruit pies, and this seemed a good choice for sweet treat for a picnic lunch at an event.  I decided on an apple pie as it was too early in the season for most of the other fruits.  The book includes numerous apple pie recipes, and, looking for something a little different, I came across a description (but not recipe) for an apple and raisin pie from Philippine Welser that appealed.
  • Philippine Welser, wife of Archduke Ferdinand II of Further Austria, and a member of the same family as Sabina, edited and published her own recipe collection, De re coquinaria, in 1545.  This has not been published in English, but some recipes are included or described in Bach.



Design, Materials and Construction: 

Recipe: Sabina Welser has a recipe (number 14) in which apples are sliced, “floated” in fat until brown, layered in a pie with spices and raisins, and baked with a crust on top.  For the convenience of the picnic, I was making small individual pies, which made layering fiddly, so I choose a simpler recipe described by Bach as “chopped apples, precooked in fat with raisins, sugar, fat, and cinnamon”.  I chopped some apples and, along with some raisins, sautéed these gently in butter (my preferred choice of fat for a vegetarian friendly pie), and mixed in sugar and cinnamon to taste.  This was baked in a pie with a double (top and bottom) crust.

I completely forgot to take a photograph of these pies (although they did look just like the Genovese Tarts).  They were delicious.

Reference:

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PGC2019: Baronessa Isabel Maria’s Spanish Hairstyle

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Category: To refine gold to paint the lily To throw a perfume on the violet.   At your toilette: hairstyling, make up, beauty products, skincare, ointments, unguents, perfumes, etc


Purpose

Where choosing jewellery is the final touch to completing an ensemble, selecting the hairstyle is often the first decision I make after choosing my wardrobe for an event.  I like to take my time and use good tools to ensure a secure, period-plausible hairstyle.  It gives me a moment to get used to the clothing, and let things settle before adding the accessories and jewellery.

As I am also partial to experimenting with different tools, jewels, headwear and hairstyles, this is a long-term and ongoing pet project.  New hairsticks, combs, pomades, needles, and threads are regularly acquired and tested (sometimes to destruction) to recreate something I have seen in a period source.

Tools

  • Combs of varying coarseness (for detangling and cleaning hair as well as smoothing hairstyles)
  • Brush (for smoothing hairstyles)
  • Needles & threads & snips (for tying off plaits, sewing hair into place, and getting it loose again)
  • Pomade (for holding ends together, and flyaways in place)
  • Mirror
  • Gravoir (for cleanly parting hair and holding sections out of the way)
  • Hairsticks (for holding and enhancing hairdos)
  • Ribbons and jewels (for enhancing hairstyles)
  • Lambs wool (for adding volume without much additional mass)
  • Bump clips (for adding volume, in place of wool, or hair rats)

The above is a selection of my most commonly used hair related items.  As the box has limited space, the kit is contains is normally carefully curated to reflect the wardrobe packed for an event such as Canterbury Faire.

Methods

Please watch this YouTube video from the Known World Colegio de Iberia to see how the various tools above are used, and my new favourite Spanish hairstyle is constructed: https://youtu.be/qlCoVQYTZQU

Verdict

Using the tools is great for getting into the mindset before an event, or for preparing for the day while camping. (However, I really must sharpen snips for getting out of hairstyles more expediently.)

This hairstyle is secure and comfortable.  As the majority of the mass is centered over my neck, my head is not continuously pulled backwards, resulting in less fatigue and fewer headaches that my usual large, coiled plait.

Additional Resources

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PGC2019: Lady Eyja Gunnarsdottir’s Games Box

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Lady Eyja shares a box of period games, created as a gift of Largess.  She describes it in her own words:

“I have created a Games box featuring the game of Tablut. This is a version of the Tafl games played throughout the Norse world. On the other side of the lid is nine mens Morris, which was also known to be played in the same era.
This was created as a Largess gift, as I wanted to create something fun and useful for a Norse persona. The recipient’s heraldry is yellow and red, and is reflected in the board and playing pieces. The box and playing pieces were purchased then hand painted.

I created a small linen bag for the playing pieces which has a fingerloop braided drawstring and the owners device embroidered onto it.

There is plenty of space in the box for more games to be added over time.
Something a bit different to what I usually do, but now I am keen to make my own games collection in the future.”

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PGC2019: Lady Melisande de Massard’s Mittens & Socks

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Lady Melisande enters a cozy pair of mittens and a snugly pair of socks in the category “With silken coats, and caps, and golden rings, with ruffs, and cuffs, and farthingales and things“. 

“When camping I find it most convenient to clothe myself in Norse garb – comfortable, easy to work in and easily laundered!

Some of the members of the Heorot household were planning a household event where we would spend the weekend camping in a living history style. Originally planned for an Easter weekend I thought to myself ‘this could be a little chilly – what I need are some mittens and socks!!’. 

I purchased some pre-spun, natural wool, and with a wooden needle and the kind assistance of Lady Katherine (who showed me the Coptic stitch and how to get started), I first tried my hand at a pair of mittens. The first mitten is a little mis-shapen but I was a lot happier with the second which is much more evenly shaped. I was surprised at how quickly they made up and, encouraged by how the mittens turned, out I purchased more wool and got started on a pair of socks.

Looking at images of extant finds, and reproductions (and again with help from Lady Katherine when it came to the heel!) I gave it a go. Sir Callum had given me the gift of a beautiful new needle made of antler – such a different experience using that over the wooden one! I love it! I would like to have used a contrasting coloured wool for the last few rows around the ankle (as per some of the extant finds) but not having any suitable wool at the time I shall leave that for another pair. The socks are so comfortable and the mittens lovely and warm. 

We had to postpone the camping weekend but I’ll be ready to go when we set another date – I just hope it’s not in mid-summer!”

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PGC2019 Baronessa Isabel Maria’s Practical Hairdressing Class

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When I am forgotten as I shall be and sleep in dull cold marble … Say I taught thee.  Baronessa Isabel Maria recounts a class she taught earlier this year:

“At Canterbury Faire I reprised a class on practical period hairdressing for women, that Meisterin Christian and I had previously taught at the 2016 Southron Gaard Collegium.

With a view to making period hairstyling more accessible to people, the class touches on different styles seen in period, along with the techniques and tools to recreate them.  Plausibly period techniques are explored and compared to modern methods for suitability, ease of use, and security of the hairstyle.  The class culminates with a demonstration of hair sewing, on a volunteer.

Meistern Christian and I maintain the class notes on the Hous Amberherthe webpage, in addition to a pinterest board devoted to pre-1600 hair maintenance.”

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