New costumes for some St Thomasguild members

Children grow. Which means that we continuously have to make new costumes for them to fit their new size. While my youngest son benefits from the outgrown clothes of the eldest; the eldest profits from getting new clothes each time he has grown. This time he became old enough to have his own doublet in the 1370 style, with lots of woollen buttons.  For adults, such a doublet is closely fitting the body, however for growing children more space is allowed. This is also true for the sleeves, which are not tightly fitting and .thus do not need to be buttoned at the wrist.

 My oldest son in his new costume in castle Loevestein.

Below the black doublet he wears red trousers with a codpiece (hidden by the doublet). Underneath the trousers are the first pair of shoes made for him. The shoes are based on a 14th century find in Dordrecht, the Netherlands and described in the book "Stepping through time" by Olaf Goubitz. The shoes, made by master historic shoemaker Gert Buurman of the Gelderse Roos, are toggle fastened with an additional drawstring at the bending point.

Standing on an X-chair showing the new shoes.

But not only children get new clothes... I still needed a cloak to keep warm in the evening and I thought it was necessary for our visit to castle Loevestein in March as well.  So I did have a cloak, but the weather proved to be very sunny and warm. My cloak is made in the style that appeared around 1350 and continued into the early 15th century, which means that it is buttoned (mine with eight woollen buttons) at the right shoulder. Unfortunately, there is no good description or find of such cloaks. It appears only on period miniatures or funeral brasses.  I made it 7/12th of a circle. This extra 1/12th circle was in fact unnecessary, half a circle is more than enough to cover the body and have enough room for your arms. The cloak consists of two layers of wool, making it warm and heavy.

 

An apothecary with a blue buttoned cloak from Tacuinum Sanitatis 

(fol. 87v, 15th century, BNF Nouvelle acquisition latine 1673, Paris, France).

My cloak together with a loose hood. ...

 

The difference in shade of the dark grey inside and black outside of the woollen cloak is easily seen. 

The row of buttons is on my right shoulder.

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A box full of planes

While this post is not exactly medieval I found it interesting enough to share. During my furniture making course, the teacher mentioned last week that he had some boxes with old wooden planes, which he would like to give a new home. As I am the medieval man working with with old wooden planes he asked if I would like to have them. Of course I said yes, thinking that some of these planes could be used for re-enactment as well.

Two boxes full of wooden planes.

The boxes were full of planes: some hollows and rounds, a lot of moulding planes, some ploughs, a few German type block planes  (large and small with a horn). Some of these planes did bear marks of the maker on the head of the plane. As I did have a book on Dutch planemakers (Four centuries of Dutch plane makers by Gerrit van der Sterre) I looked if I could find them. The most common markings were those of the firm Nooitgedagt (JN under a crown) and Peter Duessing (PD under a crown) which were produced somewhere between the end of the 19th century and the start of the twentieth. Also a few planes did have HW under a crown. This is the mark of Heinrich Wolsing, a plane maker who was the son of a former employee of Peter Duessing. The production of his planes started in 1836 and they are less commonly found. Few other planes did have the mark SVE under a crown at the head of the plane and S. van Embden, Amsterdam at the side. This was a mark of a plane dealer, who resold planes made by others.

The PVD mark under a figure of an angel.

The last mark, PVD under an angel was found on one of a set of three similar planes equipped with a toat. This proved to be a spectacular find! The mark belonged to the Rotterdam plane maker Pieter van Duijl, who together with his brother Gijsbrechtus van Duijl, produced planes between 1755 and 1766. This plane was around  250 years old! The other two planes are very similar in appearance and construction, but do not bear a mark of the maker.

The view of the marked round plane from above. 

The side and sole view of the marked round plane.

The mark on the blade of the marked round plane.

The marked plane is a round, the others are a hollow and a round with a later added fence. I have no idea if the planes are still completely original or if they have been adapted for another role during time. For instance, hollows and rounds could be made later from a plane with a flat sole. And for the unmarked round plane, it looks like the fence was added more recently with some nails to the plane body. As regards to the plane blades, two have a hard to discern mark (a name?). Also the blades could have been replaced somewhere in time. 

  The set of three planes: round with fence (above), hollow (middle) and the marked round (below).

 

The wedges of the three planes. The right one has a different form and patina, perhaps a later replacement?

 The three blade of the planes: marked round (left), hollow (middle) and round with fence (right)..

 Side and sole of the fenced round plane.

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