Tag: Fighting

PGC2019: Mistress katherine kerr’s Torse and Lambrequin (Mantling)

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Mistress katherine kerr’s latest entry falls into the category of “Is this a dagger I see before me?”

In her words:

“I felt it my duty to help my consort present a good-looking corpse..er..combatant on the Field of Mars and so decided to make him a torse and matching lambrequin to adorn his helm and make it easier to identify him, alive or dead.

The torse and mantling are commonly depicted in heraldic illustrations, the torse being a twisted roll of fabric holding the billowing drapery of the lambrequin or mantling.

German Wappenbuchs (rolls of arms) show the use of torse and mantling in heraldry; illustrated manuscripts like the Nuremberg Tournament and Parade Album show knights riding into tournaments with torse, mantling and crests.

Album: https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/22.229/

Both torse and mantling reflect Sir Radbot’s livery colours of argent and sable, with references to his rat charges in the form of a number of small metal rat charms on the torse and rat dagging on the mantling. The torse is a general match to my own consort head roll, and has a long tail of silk, as seen in the Schembert Carnivals.”

 Schembert Carnival: https://publicdomainreview.org/collections/radical-fashion-from-the-schembart-carnival-1590/

https://www.lesenluminures.com/artworks/categories/4/9486-p-schembart-ldquo-hiding-beard-rdquo-carnival-book-p-c.-1540-1550/

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PGC2019 Mistress katherine kerr’s pennants

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It is important, when taking to the field in a tournament for the Crown, that people know who is contesting. These pennants identify my contract with Sir Radbot von Borg, bearing our arms and a shared sigil.

Matching heraldic pennants for tourney display have been upgraded from the vinyl stick-on rats we used at May Crown! Painted flags and pennants were commissionable items, as Cennini mentions in The Craftsman’s Handbook. The cats are modelled on the 12-14C manuscript marginalia we used on our large tourney banner; the rat-chasing-cat-chasing-rat motif comes from a 1610 emblem book by Sebastián de Covarrubias Horozco, representing a world turned topsy-turvey:
Anda agora el mundo tal
que no se cual va tras cual

It’s upside-down!
Now, who can say
Who’s the chaser
And who the prey?

I prefer to think of a contemporaneous adage which warned that “when the cat and the rat join forces, the farmer should beware!”

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PGC2019 Mistress katherine kerr’s bond of manrent, and amendments

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The Bond of Manrent between Sir Radbot and me has been extended with an addendum to hold force unto May Crown ASLV. I have been recording Sir Radbot’s tournament wins and losses at both Crown events and the Baronial monthly wappenshaws. To that I have  attached some momentos of the Rose Tourneys he has entered.

The on-going record of Sir Radbot’s tournament standings, and any subsequent honours, is being recorded in the form of an Elizabethan-style jousting cheque, partially in Latin. The script is a secretary hand with sepia (squid-derived) ink using a dip pen.
I had surmised that period contracts would have extensions and assumed these would be cut and sealed onto the originals or sewn together; I have seen examples of manorial accounts and correspondence tied together for archiving. More recently I came across an example of parchment and paper amendments sewn to an original indentured deed of conveyance concerning the sale of land in Stratford in 1611. 
Bargain and sale deed:http://collections.shakespeare.org.uk/search/archive/er2711-bargain-and-sale-wood-street-stratford-04121611-item/page/114

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VPC2017: Lady Melissa’s Painted Shield

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Lady Melissa’s first entry for the Pentathlon Challenge is this painted shield. It is entered in the category Embellish It – adding decoration to an existing item.

She says:

This entry falls under the category “Embellish it”. Nathanael had gone through two previous shields, and I avoided anything fancy on this third one in case it met a quick end like the others. However, as the improved construction and quality of material appeared to be holding up, I decided that the pentathalon entry was a good excuse to get it looking flash. The design is my own: a white stag done in an approximation of the Mammen style (with some deviations to ensure that it was obvious to the viewer that it is a stag and not a generic knotwork beast). Modern paints.

A plain shield
A glorious one

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