Title: caskets-boxes-bib
Subject: A bibliography on medieval caskets and boxes by Master Magnus Malleus.
Author: Edited by Mark S. Harris
Last saved by: Mark S. Harris
Keywords: medieval, casket, box, carpentry, woodworking, leather, container

caskets-boxes-bib - 12/24/02

A bibliography on medieval caskets and boxes by Master Magnus Malleus.

NOTE: See also the files: caskets-boxes-msg, chests-msg, furniture-msg, chairs-msg, beds-msg, wood-msg, tools-msg, tools-bib, wood-finishes-msg, woodworking-msg.

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stefan at florilegium.org
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Date: Thu, 19 Sep 2002 18:03:54 -0400
From: rmhowe <MMagnusM at bellsouth.net>
Subject: Leather Boxes and Caskets (updated)
To: sca-arts at raven.cc.ukans.edu

> I'm looking for any information dealing with the construction of boxes
  made from leather or wooden boxes covered with leather.
  - thanks, Rolf the Blunt <

Okay, this is an item of mild interest to me so I'll give you a
start... Try:

Anker, Peter: Chests and Caskets; Norway, 1975. 
	The author is the Director of the Museum of Applied Art in 
	Bergen, and an expert on Norwegian folk art. English. 
	Bibl.80 pp. 105 b&w ill. 4 col. ill. 8"x5 1/2". Softbound. 
	ISBN 82-7003-054-6. Code: 2628 Price: $26.50, From:
	info at nordicartbooks.com, Nordic Art Books, 3650 Cross 
	Creek Road Malibu, California, 90265-4946 U.S.A, 
	tel: (310) 456-8762 or (818) 222-1122 / fax:(310) 456-5714
	This is a fascinating history of the chest - and of its 
	smaller relation, the casket - 	their practical uses, 
	social functions, customs associated with them, materials,
	productions, and decorations. Chapters include: Before 
	Drawers and Cupboards; The First Chests; The Dwellings of 
	the Dead; House-Shaped Chests, Arks and Grain Bins; 
	Gothic Chests; The Role of the Chest in the Past; Chests 
	and Benches, The Craft of the Renaissance Joiner; Bridal 
	Chests and Coats of Arms; Baroque Chests, The 17th Century;
	From the Traveller's Chest to the Trunk and the Suit-Case;
	Chests in Rural Storehouses; Rose-Painted Chests (The 
	Halling Chest, the Telemark Chest); Carved Chests, Caskets,
	Chests Today, Chests c. 1000-1900.

Berger, Ewald: Prunk-Kassetten, Europaische Meisterwerke aus Acht
	Jahrhunderten, Ornamental Caskets, Eight Centuries ; 1998: 
	Arnoldsche, Stuttgart, cloth, dj, Text in English and German. 
	The Hans Schell Collection, Graz., profuse color & b/w illus., 
	318 pages, 12 x 10, ornamental caskets / decorative art / 
	metal work /gold boxes.  ISBN 3-925369-83-X   $110. 
	Bestand katloge der Hanns Schell collection; Bd 1. (to be 
	followed by others on cast iron objects, locks and keys, forged 
	steel objects, and guild emblems.) Pp. 336, approximately 500
	illustrations.

Berger, Ewald: Ornamental Coffers; Eight Centuries of European
	Craftsmanship ISBN: 392536983X  Arnoldsche Verlaganstalt GmbH,
	Jan.1999, US 110.00 

Blair, John, and Nigel Ramsey: English Medieval Industries; 1992. An 
	overview of the current level of knowledge in a number of
	disciplines, including wood, leather, fabric, and pewter casting.
	Has some small discussion on the matter.
 
Buckley, J.J.: Some Early Ornamented Leatherwork. Journal of the Royal
	Society of Antiquaries of Ireland vol. XLV, part IV, 1915. 
	pp.300-309 (Cumdachs and Polaires: Medieval Irish Book Shrines 
	and Book Satchels)

Camille, Michael: The Medieval Art of Love, Objects and Subjects of
	Desire, Harry N. Abrams Pubs., 1998, New York, ISBN 0810915448
	Contains a range of objets d'amour including caskets. Pages 67
	and 107 have two different caskets. The style of carving
	looks very two-dimentional, there's a background and a 
	foreground with very little modeling. All the other detail is 
	provided by paint. The one from Cologne on 67 is definitely 
	similar in style to the Swiss casket on 107.  Appears to be
	painted pierced applique put into a carved out depression.

Cherry, John: "The Talbot Casket and Related Late Medieval Caskets"
	Archaeologica 107 (1982): 131-40.

D'Allemagne, Henry Rene: Decorative Antique Ironwork, A Pictorial 
	Treasury, over 4500 illustrations; Dover, New York, 1968, 
	416 pages, PB, ISBN 0486220826, contains many locks, keys 
	and escutcheon plates on pages 36-104, and also contains
	many illustrations of medieval and renaissance chests and 
	almsboxes on pages 391-408. My copy is 1968 but it's in reprint.
	Contains a number of pictures of caskets and fittings. Some
	of them are leather covered. 

: Deutsches Ledermuseum: Kunsthandwerk, Volkskunde, Vˆlkerkunde, 
	Fachtechnik; Deutsches Schuhmuseum; 2.Aufl. Offenbach am Main,
	1961. 154 pp. 58 ills. 

GALL, G‹NTHER.: Leder im europ‰ischen ; Kunsthandwerk. Braunschweig,
	1965. 4to., orcl., xii, 406 pp., w. 16 pl. in color 304 ills.
	in text. (Bibl. f¸r Kunst u. Antiquit‰tenfreunde, Bd. XLIV). 
	Klinkhardt & Biermann - Braunschweig.
	- It is flat out stunning in the variety of items. There are
	fantastic things in it like crown cases, reliquary cases, leather
	caskets and trunks, cases for all sorts of things, many of them
	repouseed in very high relief. There are a number of leather
	covered shields in it. A few early ones, many from around 1600. 
	  On the subject of shoes, it has only a shoe foot reliquary, and 
	I don't recall any saddles. The entries are from many different
	museums and countries. 
	- There are a number of differently styled leather bottels than 
	we are used to seeing although there is a short section on English
	style jacks, bombards, and costrels.
	- There are cases for silver and crystal cups, one particularly 
	fine piece is a leather cover for a fully rigged silver ship
	centerpiece, masts, flags, rigging and all. 
	- There are some knife scabbards but no sword scabbards except for 
	a case for a sword of state.
	- A few of the pieces are religious. Most are secular. The majority
	of the book is simply masterpiece quality work.
	- A number of the pieces such as the shields and caskets are
	illustrated from more than one view, in the case of the caskets
	usually front and back or front and top, but not ends. I was very
	impressed with the number of leather caskets in it. The
	majority of this book is later Middle Ages and Renaissance and 
	the material seems to end about 1920, but there is very little 
	modern work in it. This is one of the ultimate books on the subject.

Hoving, Thomas: Secular Spirit: Life and Art at the End of the Middle
	Ages; Published by E.P. Dutton and Co. in association with 
	Metropolitan Museum of Art, First Edition, Reproductions, photos,
	Cloth, 1975. ISBN (cloth) 052549507x; (paper) 0870990969  
	Many leather items, some have some raised leather with glue/
	dust inserts under it.

Kup, Karl. "Notes on a Fifteenth-Century Cofferet" Connoisseur 140 
	(1957): 62-66. 

Leland, Charles G.: Leather Tooling; Sterling Publishing Co. New York,
	1975. Oak Tree Press, London and Sydney. Various dates. First
	published as Leather Work: A Practical Manual for Learners 
	in England, 1892.
        Not much on caskets or trunks but really excellent on tooling
	and full of medievally inspired designs. Excellent on the subject.

Mullbacher, Eva: Europaische Lederarbeiten vom 14. bis 19. Jahrhundert;
	(European Leatherwork from the 14th to 19th Centuries); Staatliche Museen
	Preussicher Kulturbesitz, Berlin 1988. Aus dem Sammlungen des Berliner 
	Kunstgewerbemuseseums 1988. 19.5 x 24.5 cm., Brosch, 96 pages, 80 b&w
	and 18 color illustrations. Vorwort 3; Einfuhrung 4; Lederarbeiten mit
	geschnittenem dekor, Katalog 1-26 p.6.;  Lederarbeiten mit gemalten Dekor, 	Druck und Golddruck,

Nenno, Rosita: "Gerbeverfahren, Lederverarbeitung, und Zeirtechniken"
	in: Europa"ische Technik in Mittelalter, 800 bis 1400, Tradition
	and Innovation, Ein Handbuch, by Uta Lindgren, Gebr. Mann Verlag,
	Berlin, 1996. ISBN 3786117489. Leather article covers pages 
	487-92, includes closeups of several highly molded caskets.

Newman, Thelma: Leather as Art and Craft: ISBN 0 517 505754, there is
	a photo of a leather covered box from 15th C. Italy from the
	Metropolitan Museum of Art.

de RÈcy, Georges: Leather Work; From the French of Georges de RÈcy 
	(The Decoration of Leather) translated by Maude Nathan, 
	(1905)  Reprinted 2000, The Caber Press, Jack C. Thompson, 
	Editor. http://home.teleport.com/~tcl/caber.htm Originally 
	104 pages reduced to 48, retaining the period Middle Ages and
	Renaissance information and pictures, dropping the modern 
	material. Eleven pictures depict leather caskets (3); An 
	Italian 15th C.case of cut and embossed leather cuir bouilli;
	a French 14th C. Coffret, incised, colored and gilt, a case 
	of cut and punched leather - German, 15th C., an Italian cover 
	of a Case for a cup in wood covered embossed leather -
	cuir bouilli, embossed, painted and gilt, about 1500; A 
	Powder-flask of wood covered with leather - cuir bouilli, 
	cut and embossed - Italian 16th C.; An Italian 	16th C. 
	Shield of cut and embossed cuir bouilli; A Blind stamped 
	leather bookbinding oF the Winchester Domesday Book - 
	English 12th C.; A 15th C. German Brown Leather bookbinding, 
	cut and engraved with punched background - German MS. 
	Chronicle of Events; A blind-stamped Morroco binding with gilt
	roundels and coloured cameo design - Celsus. De Medicina, 
	Venice 1477, A cover of a work box of wood covered with 
	embossed leather, cuir bouilli, German 16th C.. Sections 
	include Tools and Leather, Choice of Skin, Methods of working 
	in leather: tracing the design on the leather, Incising the 
	leather, Modelling Tools, Embossing leather, modelled leather 
	with Punched background, Leather Hangings and Furniture, 
	Some extracts from the report of the committee on leather for 
	bookbinding appointed by the Society of Arts, February 1900.

No chests in this one but some excellent inspiration and tips:
Russell, Janet: English Medieval Leatherwork; Arch. Journal 96 
	(1) 1939, pp. 132-41 and plates I-VI.  Discusses metal 
	stamps, embossed and relief designs, blunt tool engravings, 
	incised designs, cuir bouilli, painting and gilding, 
	guilds, illustrates sheathes, part of a saddle, shoe toe, 
	short select bibliography. Plate I contains a fifteenth 
	century knife sheath with fleur-de-lis stamps in an under 
	and over double lattice running between diamonds (quite 
	attractive), and the upper and 	lower pieces of an embossed
	thirteenth century knife sheath at roughly 2/3 scale size,
	totaling about nine inches each.  Plate II shows an 
	embossed fifteenth century Rondel Dagger Sheath with 
	incised coil decoration;  Part of stamped and incised 
	Fleur-de Lys decoration on a belt (very intricately and 
	numerously stamped; and a small bit of Moulded Relief 
	decoration on a cuir-bouilli inkwell, showing three 
	saints in arcaded little panels over a man (Saint 
	Sebastian probably) with his hands tied behind him and 
	three arrow heads to either side of his arcade, with 
	archers on either side of him in their arcaded panels.  
	Plate III shows an incised knife sheath, fifteenth century
	(9 1/2"); an engraved knife sheath with embossed birds in 
	acanthus scrolls of the 12th C. (8"); and Part of a 
	sword-sheath decorated with punched and engraved fleur-de-lys
	of the 14-15th centuries (13"). Plate IV shows the upper 
	part of a knife sheath, back engraved with animals in
	Acanthus Roundels and the front having designs of chevrons 
	and three shields in both embossed and lightly stamped and
	cut designs. Plate V shows a 14th C. knife sheath with dull
	tool embossed cross-hatch designs; a 15th C. sheath with 
	engraved and pricked design of diamonds with strapping 
	between them and varying designs within them; and a small 
	part of a 13-14th C. zoomorphic design. Plate VI shows a 
	suggested part of a saddle (now taken to be an upper arm guard)
	with foliage and animals.  Plate VII shows the triangular 
	supposed toe of a shoe, which is taken to be the highest 
	degree of Medieval Leather Craftsmanship attained in the 
	late middle ages. The article is probably the best discussion
	of decorative styles of leatherwork and cuir bouilli to be found.

I know a scale case isn't exactly a box but:
Scull, Christopher, with many assorted other authors: Excavation 
	and Survey at Watchfield, 1983-32; Arch. Journal 149, 1992,
	pp.124-281. Includes many photographs and drawings of an early 
	Anglo-Saxon Cemetery and itís inhabitants and their possessions
	from the Vale of the White Horse. Some finds are neolithic to 
	medieval, one is 1700ís knife handle, other finds include 
	glass and bone beads, brooches, weapons, shield rivets, 
	handles and umbos, a deteriorated leather scabbard and a 
	scale case made of leather with scales and weights and 
	inscription, cauldron bits and fittings, tweezers, knives, 
	buckles, saucer brooches and oneís construction, ear spoon, 
	square headed 	brooches, amber, dress pins, skeletal 
	remains with analysis, remains of horn handle for sword,  
	electron pictures of grooves cut in carnelian by a bow drill, 
	reconstructions of the pattern welded sword blades (similar to
	Sutton Hoo but not quite as complex, nine page bibliography. 
	Most things are drawn and not photographed in the text. 
	Excellent coverage of most materials and discussions of 
	specific fields of items by specialists. 

Scurlock, William, ed.: Muzzleloader Magazine's Book of Buckskinning
	VII; Scurlock Publishing Co., Texarkana, TX, 1995, 
	ISBN 188065505-5.
	Contains an excellent post period article on the "Goods of the
	Trunkmaker and His Trade" by Steven M. Lalioff, pp 198-221.
	Descriptions and photographs of original trunks, deed boxes, and
	chests. Also see plates VII-XII. By someone who has a large
	collection and remakes them.

Singer, Charles, et al: A History of Technology, Volume II, 1956,
	Oxford. Covers the Mediterranean Civilization and the Middle Ages.
	Has a whole chapter on leather by Waterer. Includes cofferers.

Snyder, W.E.: The Leathercraftsman. A Textbook on Leatherwork ;
	Worchester: American Handicrafts, (1936). cloth, gilt lettering,
	176pp., Includes; A Brief History of Leather, Leathercraft 
	Through the Ages, Construction and Decorating, Tools, Lacing, 
	Steps in making a leathercraft article etc., etc., 
	Illustrations, index.

Society of Antiquaries of London : Archaeologia; or, Miscellaneous
	Tracts Relating to Antiquity; published by the Society of 
	Antiquaries of London; Volume CVII, London, 1982, pp.222,
	text-illustrations, plates. Includes: Swords and sequence
	in the British Bronze Age; Anglo-Saxon Glass claw-beakers; 
	Anglo-Saxon button brooches; The sanctuary ring of Durham 
	Cathedral; The Talbot Casket and Related Late Medieval 
	Leather Caskets by John Cherry; The stained glass of the 
	chapel of the Vyne and the Chapel of the Holy Ghost, 
	Basingstoke; Ightham Mote: politics and architecture in 
	Early Tudor England.

Stohlman, Al: The Art of Hand Sewing Leather; 1977, 
	Tandy Leather Co., Ft. Worth, TX.

Stohlman, Al and Ann: The Art of Making Leather Cases Volume 1-2-3 ;
	1979, Tandy Leather Co., Ft. Worth, TX.

Stohlman, Al: Coloring Leather, 1985, Tandy Leather Co., Ft. Worth, TX.

Stohlman, Al: How to Carve Leather, 1952, Craftool Co., Ft. Worth, TX.
 	Tandy Leather, various dates. Modern techniques. 
	Modern finish. 

Underhill, Roy: [Video] The Williamsburg Trunkmaker. Woodwright's Shop
	Series. WUNC-TV, Chapel Hill, NC. Mostly on other techniques of
	hand leatherwork but includes some discussion of chests and coffers,
        notably including that the wood was not nailed together but
	glued until the tacks holding the leather were driven in.

Waterer, John William. "Irish Book-Satchels or Budgets"; 
	Medieval Archaeology, Vol. XII, 1968, pp. 70-82., 
	13pp, 4figs, 4 b/w plates IV-VII. 

Waterer, John W.: "Leather" in Connoiseur Period Guides - Tudor
	1500-1603. Edited by Ralph Edwards, Reynal and Company, 
	New York, No Date, 60's-70's? Leather Chapter is 
	pp.149-59 plus plates. Includes forcers, chests, saddle, 
	gloves, buff tunic, Paten box, prayer book casket, 
	leather lantern, flasks, bottells, bookcover, leather 
	bedcover, on plates 81-4.

Waterer, John William: Leather and Craftsmanship; Faber & Faber LTD., 
	London, 66pp, 32 pls, 1950.

Waterer, John William: Leather Craftsmanship; Frederick A. Praeger,
	Publishers, New York and Washington, 1968. Published in England 
	by G. Bell and Sons, Ltd., London. Better than below for this
	purpose. Has a chapter that discusses leather boxes and some 
	of the manner of their construction.  

Waterer,  John W: Leather in Life, Art and Industry; London. 
	Faber & Faber Ltd.; 1946. 320 pp., Frontis, 110 plates, & a 
	further 20 illustrations in the text. With forewords by Sir Charles
	Tennyson and George W. Odey. "An outline of its preparation and 
	uses in Britain yesterday and today together with some reflections
	on its place in the world of synthetics tomorrow." Brief mentions
	of caskets/trunks.

Waterer, John William. "A Historical Forcer."; Connoisseur 134 (1954):
	189-191. A Forcer is a casket.

Waterer has another on Spanish Leather that is supposed to include
	it's use on caskets but it is primarily concerned with 
	embossed late period leather used on walls, furniture, etc.

Will that do for a start? I'm afraid I don't have any more time to
search through diverse tomes today... :)

(c) Master Magnus Malleus, OL, GDH
    Windmasters' Hill, Atlantia

May be forwarded to sca or re-enactor email lists, 
but NOT to the Rialto (rec.org.sca) or ANY other newsgroup.

<the end>

Edited by Mark S. Harris	caskets-boxes-bib	Page  of