mazers-msg - 12/1/18

Medieval drinking bowls originally of hardwood.

NOTE: See also the files: utensils-msg, iron-pot-care-msg, ovens-msg, nefs-msg, aquamaniles-msg, p-tableware-msg, drinkng-strws-msg, wood-utn-care-msg, merch-pottery-msg.

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This file is a collection of various messages having a common theme that I have collected from my reading of the various computer networks. Some messages date back to 1989, some may be as recent as yesterday.

This file is part of a collection of files called Stefan's Florilegium. These files are available on the Internet at: http://www.florilegium.org

I have done a limited amount of editing. Messages having to do with separate topics were sometimes split into different files and sometimes extraneous information was removed. For instance, the message IDs were removed to save space and remove clutter.

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Thank you,
    Mark S. Harris                  AKA:  THLord Stefan li Rous
                                          Stefan at florilegium.org
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Date: Tue, 15 Jun 1999 18:46:02 -0400
From: rmhowe <magnusm at ncsu.edu>
To: sca-arts at raven.cc.ukans.edu
Subject: Re: Mazers?

Kristen M. Sieber wrote:
> Does anyone know where I can get mazers?  Or turn
> mundane objects into mazers.  I've only actually seen
> pottery ones, but I understand they were made out of a
> variety of materials.  Thanks.
> ===
> Morgaine of Glastonbury
> MKA Kristen Morgaine Sieber
> Barony of Aquaterra
> Kingdom of An Tir
> lady_gawain at yahoo.com

You'll find mazers were generally made of wood.
You'll get the most information on them in books on Treen -
woodenware used in the kitchen. There are half a dozen that have
been written. The best is by a man named Pinto.
Mazers often had a lid, often had a metal rim or lining.
Sometimes carved or engraved. Sometimes with slogans.

Magnus


Date: Tue, 15 Jun 1999 22:03:46 EDT
From: <LrdRas at aol.com>
To: sca-arts at raven.cc.ukans.edu, steps at antir.sca.org
Subject: Re: Mazers?

ma*zer (noun)

[Middle English, from Middle French mazere, of Germanic origin; akin to Old
High German masar gnarled excrescence on a tree]

First appeared 14th Century

 : a large drinking bowl orig. of a hard wood

Ras


Date: Wed, 16 Jun 1999 11:06:38 -0400
From: "Gray, Heather" <Heather at Quodata.Com>
To: "'sca-arts at raven.cc.ukans.edu'" <sca-arts at raven.cc.ukans.edu>
Subject: RE: Mazers?

I remember reading up on mazers years ago -- yes, generally out of wood (the
bowl part, that is), sometimes footed, sometimes not.  The word is based on
the bowl having been popularly made from a type of speckled Maple -- I think
it referred to the pattern in the wood.  The bowl of most of the ones I saw
were wider than they were deep (kind of like the old Roman drinking bowls
shape-wise, I think, although I don't know what those were made of, and they
were called something else, like cratella).  Many came to be framed in
metal, like Magnus was saying, and some of these belonged to families,
guilds, universities, and might have a metal disk inside in the center of
the bowl with the arms/crest on it.  The footed ones end up looking a bit
like a wide-bowled goblet.  Been trying to find an example on the 'net, and
interestingly enough there's a beer brewing contest that uses the term mazer
cup for the prize cup. The cups they were using for tasting were ceramic
though, and not as wide as the medieval ones, but one had 2 small handles,
like a welcome cup, which looked nice. Here are a few links:

For some fascinating ones that are nothing like the English ones, see a
current maker in WI of Norwegian style wooden things:
http://www.norskwoodworks.com:8001/ale.htm

Something a little closer to the English/Roman style:
http://www.tomthomson.org/tc18.htm  (second cup on page)

Scottish early 17th c., appears to be silver, and theorized to have had a
leather covering on the base.
http://www.artantique.com/asprey/asprey6.htm

Birmingham City Museum and Art Gallery Chamberlain Square, Birmingham, B3
3DH, Telephone: 0121 303 2834 (In England) has a collection of them, called
the Pinto Collection of Treen

A Definition of Treen
http://www.csranet.com/~jsuich/ychtml/lex00003.htm

The books by Edward Pinto ("Treen and other wooden bygones...." and also
:Treen; or, Small woodware throughout the ages") is available at our
university library, so perhaps it is in yours as well.

This one is called a mazer, and is medieval in origin, but perhaps has been
named a mazer because of the ceremonial nature the cup sometimes have, like
at medieval universities.  It is made from a horn, and is framed in metal,
with a stand. At Corpus Christi College, University of Cambridge (UK):
http://www.corpus.cam.ac.uk/College/Pictures/horn.html

Elwynne


Date: Tue, 08 Aug 2000 17:15:48 -0400
From: rmhowe <MMagnusM@bellsouth.net>
To: sca-arts@raven.cc.ukans.edu
Subject: Re: Mazers

Every time I have previously read articles on mazers in books they
were made of a cup generally of maple, sometimes with a similar cover, 
often rimmed and footed in silver, also sometimes with a silver engraved 
plate in the bottom. Mazer referring to maple as it were. Beautiful
things. I think I may have photographed one or two at the DeWitt-
Wallace Decorative Arts Museum in Williamsburg, VA two. (They have 
a number of assorted Scottish quaiches there as well.)

Perhaps Mazer is a name traditional to _this_ one, or a previous owner.
Perhaps the original name bestower was a bit groggy at the time.

See:
An Illustrated History of English Plate by Charles James Jackson,
	Hardback, Dover, two volumes.
also:
Hope, W. H. St. John: On the English Medieval Drinking Bowls Called
Mazers;
	Archaeologia, 1886-87, Vol. 50, pp.129-93 plus plates.

Both are very good. I have them.

See also some books on Treen (Woodenware). I'd take a look but mine
are behind a big stack at the moment. Pinto is a leading authority.
I'm pretty sure there are at least four books, I think I have this.
Until we get some new bookcases up I'm a bit afraid of 
bookslides.

Magnus


Date: Thu, 28 Dec 2000 15:42:24 -0500
From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
Subject: Re: SC - mazers????

>> The brewers, vintners, mazers and bakers produced these goods if the
>> estate could maintain them, and they were responsible for meeting the
>> household production needs

Nisha Martin wrote:
> My ignorance is showing....what's a mazer? Thanks.

In addition to being a vessel, a mazer is also a term used to describe
people who make mead.

Adamantius


Date: Thu, 28 Dec 2000 14:54:02 -0500
From: "Daniel Phelps" <phelpsd at gate.net>
Subject: Re: SC - mazers????

Was asked:
what's a mazer?

Check out the book "Wassail! In Mazers of Mead" chapter XIII Horns, Mazers
and Mether Cups.  A mazer is a wooden drinking vessel.  Quote, "The wooden
vessels, whether ornamented with silver or not, are known as mazers, from a
Middle English word related to maple, which was the favorite wood for the
vessel.  The Icelandic word mosurr, (NOTE THERE IS A DOUBLE DOT OVER THE O)
which is obviously the same as mazer, means a maple-tree.  The Old French is
maselin and in that form we find it in Chaucer.  The old Germanic word
ma'sa' means a spot and it has been suggested that the spotted nature of the
grain of maple wood lead to this name."  He goes on to talk of reference to
period mazers made of ash, birch, alder, rosemary-tree, and reference to
those with two lugs.  He further talks of ornamentation of silver and/or
gilt with a foot added.  He the describes and classifies some extant period
specimens.  Large communal bowl types like the Scrope, Rochester and
Bannatyne or Bute mazers are the described in detail.  He the digresses and
writes about mazers left in period wills, literary and legal reference.
Returning to the main discussion he says that "There are three stages in the
development of the mazer in the Middle ages.  From the fourteenth to
fifteenth centuries the bowls were generally deep, with plain, narrow,
silver bands.  From the middle of the fifthteenth century to the middle of
the sixtieth century the bowls became shallower.  In the succeeding
Elizabethan period metal straps connecting the band round the rim to the
foot were often added."

He then talks about stemmed mazers made for individual use.  He proceeds to
discuss several existing Scottish examples and ends with a discussion of the
transition of that mazer form to silver goblets.  He provides two
illustrations of period examples one of the communal type and one of the
individual footed type.  The communal type looks like a large rounded bowl
described:

"the rim, base and side strips are of silver and the bowl is of  wood."

The second is described:

"The bowl is of wood, and the stem and rim is of silver"

Its form is like that of a saucer champagne glass as illustrated in my "Mr.
Boston Deluxe Official Bartender's Guide"

Hope this helps.

Daniel Raoul


From: "Daniel Phelps" <phelpsd at gate.net>
To: <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Date: Tue, 25 Sep 2001 18:24:30 -0400
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Wassail was How old are drinking straws?

>> My copy of "Wassail! In Mazers of Mead" G.R. Gayre Phillimore & Sons. Ltd.
>> London 1948, page 31 figures 2 & 3 shows line drawings of "Beer drinking
>> through tubes in ancient Babylonia" and "Bottling Beer by syphon in Ancient
>> Egypt."  Unforunately it does not give a reference to their sources.

Stefan replied:
>Thanks. I don't think I remember anyone mentioning this book previously.
>It sounds like it might be good for researching some other things like
>wassail, mazers and mead.
>
>So what kinds of things does it cover? What is your opinion of it?
>
>I assume that is long out of print, though.

I think that it has been republished.  It is subtitled "An account of Mead,
Metheglin, Sack and other Ancient Liquors, and of the Mazer Cups out of
which they were drunk, with comment upon the Drinking Customs of our
forebears".   That about sums it up.  Heavy on the "primary source"
references; Rig-Veda, Virgil, Plutarch, misc. Roman.,  Homer misc. Greek ,
Beowulf, Geoffrey of Monmouth, Heimskrigla, The Mabinogion, Kalevala,
Chaucer, Hieronymus Cardanus, Shakespear, Pepys, Digbie, Milton, The Goodman
of Paris, Spenser, Rabelais to name some of the more well known.    Lots of
anthropological African sources by the way.  Oddly I don't think it
references "The Tain".

If you check the archives I quoted extensively from it in our discussion of
mazer cups a little while back. 

Daniel Raoul

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Edited by Mark S. Harris	mazers-msg	Page 2 of 5