Arts and Crafts in the Middle Ages

J >> Julia De Wolf Addison >> Arts and Crafts in the Middle Ages

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[Illustration: IVORY KNIFE HANDLES, WITH PORTRAITS OF QUEEN ELIZABETH
AND JAMES I. ENGLIS]

The domestic plate of Louis, Duke of Anjou, in 1360, consisted of
over seven hundred pieces, and Charles V. of France had an enormous
treasury of such objects for daily use. Strong rooms and safes were
built during the fourteenth century, for the lodging of the household
valuables. About this time the Dukes of Burgundy were famous for
their splendid table service. Indeed, the craze for domestic display
in this line became so excessive, that in 1356 King John of France
prohibited the further production of such elaborate pieces, "gold or
silver plate, vases, or silver jewelry, of more than one mark of gold,
or silver, excepting for churches." This edict, however, accomplished
little, and was constantly evaded. Many large pieces of silver made
in the period of the Renaissance were made simply with a view to
standing about as ornaments. Cellini alludes to certain vases which
had been ordered from him, saying that "they are called ewers, and
they are placed upon buffets for the purpose of display."

The salt cellar was always a _piece de resistance_, and stood in
the centre of the table. It was often in the form of a ship in
silver. A book entitled "Ffor to serve a Lorde," in 1500, directs
the "boteler" or "panter," to bring forth the principal salt, and to
"set the saler in the myddys of the table." Persons helped themselves
to salt with "a clene kniffe." The seats of honour were all about
the salt, while those of less degree were at the lower end of the
table, and were designated as "below the salt." The silver ship was
commonly an immense piece of plate, containing the napkin, goblet,
and knife and spoon of the host, besides being the receptacle for
the spices and salt. Through fear of poison, the precaution was
taken of keeping it covered. This ship was often known as the "nef,"
and frequently had a name, as if it were the family yacht! One is
recorded as having been named the "Tyger," while a nef belonging to
the Duke of Orleans was called the "Porquepy," meaning porcupine.
One of the historic salts, in another form, is the "Huntsman's
salt," and is kept at All Soul's College, Oxford. The figure of a
huntsman, bears upon its head a rock crystal box with a lid. About
the feet of this figure are several tiny animals and human beings,
so that it looks as if the intent had been to picture some gigantic
legendary hunter--a sort of Gulliver of the chase.

The table was often furnished also with a fountain, in which
drinking-water was kept, and upon which either stood or hung cups
or goblets. These fountains were often of fantastic shapes, and
usually enamelled. One is described as representing a dragon on
a tree top, and another a castle on a hill, with a convenient tap
at some point for drawing off the water.

The London City Companies are rich in their possessions of valuable
plate. Some of the cups are especially beautiful. The Worshipful
Company of Skinners owns some curious loving cups, emblematic of
the names of the donors. There are five Cockayne Loving Cups, made
in the form of cocks, with their tail feathers spread up to form
the handles. The heads have to be removed for drinking. These cups
were bequeathed by William Cockayne, in 1598. Another cup is in
the form of a peacock, walking with two little chicks of minute
proportions on either side of the parent bird. This is inscribed,
"The gift of Mary the daughter of Richard Robinson, and wife to
Thomas Smith and James Peacock, Skinners." Whether the good lady
were a bigamist or took her husbands in rotation, does not transpire.

An interesting cup is owned by the Vintners in London, called the
Milkmaid. The figure of a milkmaid, in laced bodice, holds above
her head a small cup on pivots, so that it finds its level when
the figure is inverted, as is the case when the cup is used, the
petticoat of the milkmaid forming the real goblet. It is constructed
on the same principle as the German figures of court ladies holding
up cups, which are often seen to-day, made on the old pattern. The
cups in the case of this milkmaid are both filled with wine, and
it is quite difficult to drink from the larger cup without spilling
from the small swinging cup which is then below the other. Every
member is expected to perform this feat as a sort of initiation.
It dates from 1658.

[Illustration: THE "MILKMAID CUP"]

One of the most beautiful Corporation cups is at Norwich, where
it is known as the "Petersen" cup. It is shaped like a very thick
and squat chalice, and around its top is a wide border of decorative
lettering, bearing the inscription, "THE + MOST + HERE + OF. + IS
+ DUNNE + BY + PETER + PETERSON +." This craftsman was a Norwich
silversmith of the sixteenth century, very famous in his day, and
a remarkably chaste designer as well. A beautiful ivory cup twelve
inches high, set in silver gilt, called the Grace Cup, of
Thomas a Becket, is inscribed around the top band, "_Vinum tuum bibe
cum gaudio_." It has a hall-mark of a Lombardic letter H, signifying
the year 1445. It is decorated by cherubs, roses, thistles, and
crosses, relieved with garnets and pearls. On another flat band
is the inscription: "_Sobrii estote_," and on the cover,
in Roman capitals, "_Ferare God_." It is owned by the Howard family,
of Corby.

Tankards were sometimes made of such crude materials as leather
(like the "lether bottel" of history), and of wood. In fact, the
inventory of a certain small church in the year 1566 tells of a
"penny tankard of wood," which was used as a "holy water stock."

An extravagant design, of a period really later than we are supposed
to deal with in this book, is a curious cup at Barber's and Surgeon's
Hall, known as the Royal Oak. It is built to suggest an oak tree,--a
naturalistic trunk, with its roots visible, supporting the cup,
which is in the form of a semi-conventional tree, covered with
leaves, detached acorns swinging free on rings from the sides at
intervals!

Richard Redgrave called attention to some of the absurdities of
the exotic work of his day in England. "Rachel at a well, under
an imitative palm tree," he remarks, "draws, not water, but ink;
a grotto of oyster shells with children beside it, contains... an
ink vessel; the milk pail on a maiden's head contains, not goat's
milk, as the animal by her side would lead you to suppose, but a
taper!"

One great secret of good design in metal is to avoid imitating
fragile things in a strong material. The stalk of a flower or leaf,
for instance, if made to do duty in silver to support a heavy cup or
vase, is a very disagreeable thing to contemplate; if the article
were really what it represented, it would break under the strain.
While there should be no deliberate perversion of Nature's forms,
there should be no naturalistic imitation.

CHAPTER II

JEWELRY AND PRECIOUS STONES

We are told that the word "jewel" has come by degrees from Latin,
through French, to its present form; it commenced as a "gaudium"
(joy), and progressed through "jouel" and "joyau" to the familiar
word, as we have it.

The first objects to be made in the form of personal adornment were
necklaces: this may be easily understood, for in certain savage
lands the necklace formed, and still forms, the chief feature in
feminine attire. In this little treatise, however, we cannot deal
with anything so primitive or so early; we must not even take time
to consider the exquisite Greek and Roman jewelry. Amongst the
earliest mediaeval jewels we will study the Anglo-Saxon and the
Byzantine.

Anglo-Saxon and Irish jewelry is famous for delicate filigree, fine
enamels, and flat garnets used in a very decorative way. Niello
was also employed to some extent. It is easy, in looking from the
Bell of St. Patrick to the Book of Kells, to see how the illuminators
were influenced by the goldsmiths in early times,--in Celtic and
Anglo-Saxon work.

[Illustration: SAXON BROOCH]

The earliest forms of brooches were the annular,--that is, a long
pin with a hinged ring at its head for ornament, and the "penannular,"
or pin with a broken circle at its head. Through the opening in the
circle the pin returns, and then with a twist of the ring, it is
held more firmly in the material. Of these two forms are notable
examples in the Arbutus brooch and the celebrated Tara brooch. The
Tara brooch is a perfect museum in itself of the jeweller's art.
It is ornamented with enamel, with jewels set in silver, amber,
scroll filigree, fine chains, Celtic tracery, moulded glass--nearly
every branch of the art is represented in this one treasure, which
was found quite by accident near Drogheda, in 1850, a landslide
having exposed the buried spot where it had lain for centuries.
As many as seventy-six different kinds of workmanship are to be
detected on this curious relic.

[Illustration: THE TARA BROOCH]

At a great Exhibition at Ironmonger's Hall in 1861
there was shown a leaden fibula, quite a dainty piece of personal
ornament, in Anglo-Saxon taste, decorated with a moulded spiral
meander. It was found in the Thames in 1855, and there are only
three other similar brooches of lead known to exist.

Of the Celtic brooches Scott speaks:

"...the brooch of burning gold
That clasps the chieftain's mantle fold,
Wrought and chased with rare device,
Studded fair with gems of price."

One of the most remarkable pieces of Celtic jewelled work is the
bell of St. Patrick, which measures over ten inches in height.
This saint is associated with several bells: one, called the Broken
Bell of St. Brigid, he used on his last crusade against the demons
of Ireland; it is said that when he found his adversaries specially
unyielding, he flung the bell with all his might into the thickest
of their ranks, so that they fled precipitately into the sea, leaving
the island free from their aggressions for seven years, seven months,
and seven days.

One of St. Patrick's bells is known, in Celtic, as the "white toned,"
while another is called the "black sounding." This is an early and
curious instance of the sub-conscious association of the qualities
of sound with those of colour. Viollet le Duc tells how a blind man
was asked if he knew what the colour red was. He replied, "Yes:
red is the sound of the trumpet." And the great architect himself,
when a child, was carried by his nurse into the Cathedral of Notre
Dame in Paris, where he cried with terror because he fancied that
the various organ notes which he heard were being hurled at him
by the stained glass windows, each one represented by a different
colour in the glass!

[Illustration: SHRINE OF THE BELL OF ST. PATRICK]

But the most famous bell in connection with St. Patrick is the one
known by his own name and brought with his relics by Columbkille
only sixty years after the saint's death. The outer case is an
exceedingly rich example of Celtic work. On a ground of brass, fine
gold and silver filigree is applied, in curious interlaces and knots,
and it is set with several jewels, some of large size, in green,
blue, and dull red. In the front are two large tallow-cut Irish
diamonds, and a third was apparently set in a place which is now
vacant. On the back of the bell appears a Celtic inscription in most
decorative lettering all about the edge; the literal translation
of this is: "A prayer for Donnell O'Lochlain, through whom this
bell shrine was made; and for Donnell, the successor of Patrick,
with whom it was made; and for Cahalan O'Mulhollan, the keeper of
the bell, and for Cudilig O'Immainen, with his sons, who covered
it." Donald O'Lochlain was monarch of Ireland in 1083. Donald the
successor of Patrick was the Abbot of Armagh, from 1091 to 1105.
The others were evidently the craftsmen who worked on the shrine.
In many interlaces, especially on the sides, there may be traced
intricate patterns formed of serpents, but as nearly all Celtic
work is similarly ornamented, there is probably nothing personal
in their use in connection with the relic of St. Patrick! Patrick
brought quite a bevy of workmen into Ireland about 440: some were
smiths, Mac Cecht, Laebhan, and Fontchan, who were turned at once
upon making of bells, while some other skilled artificers, Fairill
and Tassach, made patens and chalices. St. Bridget, too, had a
famous goldsmith in her train, one Bishop Coula.

The pectoral cross of St. Cuthbert of Lindisfarne is now to be seen
in Durham. It was buried with the saint, and was discovered with
his body. The four arms are of equal length, and not very heavy in
proportion. It is of gold, made in the seventh century, and is set
with garnets, a very large one in the centre, one somewhat smaller
at the ends of the arms, where the lines widen considerably, and
with smaller ones continuously between.

Among the many jewels which decorated the shrine of Thomas a Becket
at Canterbury was a stone "with an angell of gold poynting thereunto,"
which was a gift from the King of France, who had had it "made
into a ring and wore it on his thumb." Other stones described as
being on this shrine were sumptuous, the whole being damascened
with gold wire, and "in the midst of the gold, rings; or cameos
of sculptured agates, carnelians, and onyx stones." A visitor to
Canterbury in 1500 writes: "Everything is left far behind by a
ruby not larger than a man's thumb nail, which is set to the right
of the altar. The church is rather dark, and when we went to see
it the sun was nearly gone down, and the weather was cloudy, yet
we saw the ruby as well as if it had been in my hand. They say
it was a gift of the King of France."

Possessions of one kind were often converted into another, according
to changing fashions. Philippa of Lancaster had a gold collar made
"out of two bottles and a turret," in 1380.

Mediaeval rosaries were generally composed of beads of coral or
carnelian, and often of gold and pearls as well. Marco Polo tells
of a unique rosary worn by the King of Malabar; one hundred and
four large pearls, with occasional rubies of great price, composed
the string. Marco Polo adds: "He has to say one hundred and four
prayers to his idols every morning and evening."

In the possession of the Shah of Persia is a gold casket studded
with emeralds, which is said to have the magic power of rendering
the owner invisible as long as he remains celibate. I fancy that
this is a safe claim, for the tradition is not likely to be put
to the proof in the case of a Shah! Probably there has never been
an opportunity of testing the miraculous powers of the stones.

The inventory of Lord Lisle contains many interesting side lights
on the jewelry of the period: "a hawthorne of gold, with twenty
diamonds;" "a little tower of gold," and "a pair of beads of gold,
with tassels." Filigree or chain work was termed "perry." In old
papers such as inventories, registers, and the like, there are
frequent mentions of buttons of "gold and perry;" in 1372 Aline
Gerbuge received "one little circle of gold and perry, emeralds
and balasses." Clasps and brooches were used much in the fourteenth
century. They were often called "ouches," and were usually of jewelled
gold. One, an image of St. George, was given by the Black Prince to
John of Gaunt. The Duchess of Bretagne had among other brooches one
with a white griffin, a balas ruby on its shoulder, six sapphires
around it, and then six balasses, and twelve groups of pearls with
diamonds.

Brooches were frequently worn by being stuck in the hat. In a curious
letter from James I. to his son, the monarch writes: "I send for
your wearing the Three Brethren" (evidently a group of three stones)
"...but newly set... which I wolde wish you to weare alone in your
hat, with a Littel black feather." To his favourite Buckingham
he also sends a diamond, saying that his son will lend him also
"an anker" in all probability; but he adds: "If my Babee will not
spare the anker from his Mistress, he may well lend thee his round
brooch to weare, and yett he shall have jewels to weare in his
hat for three grate dayes."

In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the women wore nets in
their hair, composed of gold threads adorned with pearls. At first
two small long rolls by the temples were confined in these nets:
later, the whole back hair was gathered into a large circular
arrangement. These nets were called frets--"a fret of pearls" was
considered a sufficient legacy for a duchess to leave to her daughter.

In the constant resetting and changing of jewels, many important
mediaeval specimens, not to mention exquisite vessels and church
furniture, were melted down and done over by Benvenuto Cellini,
especially at the time that Pope Clement was besieged at the Castle
of St. Angelo.

Probably the most colossal jewel of ancient times was the Peacock
Throne of Delhi. It was in the form of two spread tails of peacocks,
composed entirely of sapphires, emeralds and topazes, feather by
feather and eye by eye, set so as to touch each other. A parrot of
life size carved from a single emerald, stood between the peacocks.

In 1161 the throne of the Emperor in Constantinople is described
by Benjamin of Tudela: "Of gold ornamented with precious stones.
A golden crown hangs over it, suspended on a chain of the same
material, the length of which exactly admits the Emperor to sit
under it. The crown is ornamented with precious stones of inestimable
value. Such is the lustre of these diamonds that even without any
other light, they illumine the room in which they are kept."

The greatest mediaeval jeweller was St. Eloi of Limoges. His history
is an interesting one, and his achievement and rise in life was very
remarkable in the period in which he lived. Eloi was a workman in
Limoges, as a youth, under the famous Abho, in the sixth century;
there he learned the craft of a goldsmith. He was such a splendid
artisan that he soon received commissions for extensive works on his
own account. King Clothaire II. ordered from him a golden throne,
and supplied the gold which was to be used. To the astonishment of
all, Eloi presented the king with _two_ golden thrones (although
it is difficult to imagine what a king would do with duplicate
thrones!), and immediately it was noised abroad that the goldsmith
Eloi was possessed of miraculous powers, since, out of gold sufficient
for one throne, he had constructed two. People of a more practical
turn found out that Eloi had learned the art of alloying the gold,
so as to make it do double duty.

A great many examples of St. Eloi's work might have been seen in
France until the Revolution in 1792, especially at the Abbey of St.
Denis. A ring made by him, with which St. Godiberte was married to
Christ, according to the custom of mediaeval saints, was preserved at
Noyon until 1793, when it disappeared in the Revolution. The Chronicle
says of Eloi: "He made for the king a great numer of gold vesses
enriched with precious stones, and he worked incessantly, seated
with his servant Thillo, a Saxon by birth, who followed the lessons
of his master." St. Eloi founded two institutions for goldsmithing:
one for the production of domestic and secular plate, and the other
for ecclesiastical work exclusively, so that no worker in profane
lines should handle the sacred vessels. The secular branch was
situated near the dwelling of Eloi, in the Cite itself, and was
known as "St. Eloi's Enclosure." When a fire burned them out of
house and shelter, they removed to a suburban quarter, which soon
became known in its turn, as the "Cloture St. Eloi." The religious
branch of the establishment was presided over by the aforesaid
Thillo, and was the Abbey of Solignac, near Limoges. This school
was inaugurated in 631.

While Eloi was working at the court of King Clothaire II., St. Quen
was there as well. The two youths struck up a close friendship, and
afterwards Ouen became his biographer. His description of Eloi's
personal appearance is worth quoting, to show the sort of figure a
mediaeval saint sometimes cut before canonization. "He was tall, with
a ruddy face, his hair and beard curly. His hands well made, and his
fingers long, his face full of angelic sweetness.... At first he
wore habits covered with pearls and precious stones; he had also
belts sewn with pearls. His dress was of linen encrusted with gold,
and the edges of his tunic trimmed with gold embroidery. Indeed, his
clothing was very costly, and some of his dresses were of silk. Such
was his exterior in his first period at court, and he dressed thus
to avoid singularity; but under this garment he wore a rough sack
cloth, and later on, he disposed of all his ornaments to relieve the
distressed; and he might be seen with only a cord round his waist
and common clothes. Sometimes the king, seeing him thus divested of
his rich clothing, would take off his own cloak and girdle and give
them to him, saying: 'It is not suitable that those who dwell for
the world should be richly clad, and that those who despoil
themselves for Christ should be without glory.'"

Among the numerous virtues of St. Eloi was that of a consistent
carrying out of his real beliefs and theories, whether men might
consider him quixotic or not. He was strongly opposed to the institution
of slavery. In those days it would have been futile to preach actual
emancipation. The times were not ripe. But St. Eloi did all that he
could for the cause of freedom by investing most of his money in
slaves, and then setting them at liberty. Sometimes he would "corner"
a whole slave market, buying as many as thirty to a hundred at a
time. Some of these manumitted persons became his own faithful
followers: some entered the religious life, and others devoted their
talents to their benefactor, and worked in his studios for the
furthering of art in the Church.

He once played a trick upon the king. He requested the gift of
a town, in order, as he explained, that he might there build a
ladder by which they might both reach heaven. The king, in the
rather credulous fashion of the times, granted his request, and
waited to see the ladder. St. Eloi promptly built a monastery.
If the monarch did not choose to avail himself of this species of
ladder,--surely it was no fault of the builder!

St. Quen and St. Eloi were consecrated bishops on the same day,
May 14, St. Quen to the Bishopric of Rouen, and Eloi to the See of
Noyon. He made a great hunt for the body of St. Quentin, which had
been unfortunately mislaid, having been buried in the neighbourhood
of Noyon; he turned up every available spot of ground around, within
and beneath the church, until he found a skeleton in a tomb, with
some iron nails. This he proclaimed to be the sacred body, for
the legend was that St. Quentin had been martyred by having nails
driven into his head! Although it was quite evident to others that
these were coffin nails, still St. Eloi insisted upon regarding his
discovery as genuine, and they began diligently to dismember the
remains for distribution among the churches. As they were pulling
one of the teeth, a drop of blood was seen to follow it, which
miracle was hailed by St. Eloi as the one proof wanting. Eloi had
the genuine artistic temperament and his religious zeal was much
influenced by his aesthetic nature. He once preached an excellent
sermon, still preserved, against superstition. He inveighed
particularly against the use of charms and incantations. But he had
his own little streak of superstition in spite of the fact that he
fulminated against it. When he had committed some fault, after
confession, he used to hang bags of relics in his room, and watch
them for a sign of forgiveness. When one of these would turn oily,
or begin to affect the surrounding atmosphere peculiarly, he would
consider it a sign of the forgiveness of heaven. It seems to us
to-day as if he might have looked to his own relic bags before
condemning the ignorant.

St. Eloi died in 659, and was himself distributed to the faithful
in quite a wholesale way. One arm is in Paris. He was canonized
both for his holy life and for his great zeal in art. He was buried
in a silver coffin adorned with gold, and his tomb was said to
work miracles like the shrine of Becket. Indeed, Becket himself
was pretty dressy in the matter of jewels; when he travelled to
Paris, the simple Frenchmen exclaimed: "What a wonderful personage
the King of England must be, if his chancellor can travel in such
state!"

There are various legends about St. Eloi. It is told that a certain
horse once behaved in a very obstreperous way while being shod; St.
Eloi calmly cut off the animal's leg, and fixed the shoe quietly
in position, and then replaced the leg, which grew into place again
immediately, to the pardonable astonishment of all beholders, not
to mention the horse.

St. Eloi was also employed to coin the currency of Dagobert and
Clovis II., and examples of these coins may now be seen, as authentic
records of the style of his work. A century after his death the
monasteries which he had founded were still in operation, and
Charlemagne's crown and sword are very possibly the result of St.
Eloi's teachings to his followers.

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