Deerskin Pouch With Dyed Madder Tablet Woven Edges

Introduction:

This is a deerskin pouch sewn together with madder-dyed silk tablet woven edges. Leather pouches were popular in England in the 13th and 14th centuries, and several other types of pouches have been found with tablet woven edges. (Egan & Pritchard 348-350) There are photos of a two of these purses in the appendix. These leather pouches were common among many classes of people. Adding silk embellishments denotes a wealthier owner. Chaucer even mentions leather purses adorned with silk in The Miller's Tale, from The Canterbury Tales. He describes the wife of the Carpenter as wearing "a purs of lether, tasseled with silk, and perled with lauton". (Chaucer, lines 3250-3251)

The purse is made from one rectangular piece of leather. The purse is sewn together using tablet weaving. The weft of the weaving is attached to a needle, which is passed between the shed of the weaving and then sewn on to the fabric. This is repeated in a circular manner, resulting in a seam of a tablet woven edge. Diagram A in the appendix from Crowfoot illustrates the process.

Background:

As mentioned before, there are several examples of purses found from London dating from the 13th- 14th Centuries. One leather pouch from the Museum of London (accession # 20732) still has the silk tablet woven edges attached. Another small possibly deerskin pouch from a London excavation, Egan & Pritchard describes as having stitch holes around the top and along the seams. "A decorative edging, which was probably worked with tablets, must therefore have been added to pouch originally." (Egan & Pritchard 344) A photo of this purse is in the Appendix Diagram D.

A purse of a rectangular silk cloth was also found in the same area and time frame as the previous mentioned purse. (Appendix Figure E) This particular purse is still in remarkable condition. It is sewn together with silk tablet woven edges, starting along one side, spilt at the top and rejoined into the other side. The ends were made into tassels, and a fingerloop braid was slotted through a hole in the corner for a handle. (Egan & Pritchard 348)

The Dyeing Process

The weaving was done with 60/2 silk, dyed with madder. There are numerous cases of finds of silk dyed with madder in the 13th -14th Century England. (Walton, Crowfoot et al, 199) Madder root (Rubia tinctorum L.) and wild Madder (Rubia peregrine L.) are the most common dye found in the later period British Isles. 62% of textile samples dated from a late 14th century London excavation showed a positive test for madder. (Crowfoot et al, 200)

A mordant, alum, was first used on the silk thread to help hold the dye & give it a bright color. A mordant helps the fabric absorb dye. According to Singer et al this was the most common mordant of the time. Iron or calcium could have also been used, but tends to give duller shades. However since the water at my house is hard, this may explain why the silk is more of a saffron color.

Alum was added to a pot of several gallons of water, and then heated slowly to about 130 degrees Fahrenheit. Meanwhile, the silk was soaked in lukewarm water, to help avoid shocking the silk thread when put into the mordant. After the alum water had been removed from the heat source & allowed to cool, the silk was added into the pot. The silk was left in the mordant pot overnight to absorb the alum.

The next day, approximately 1 lb of madder root (Rubia tinctorum L.) was cut & grounded into another pot with several gallons of water. The mixture then was heated to 130 degrees Fahrenheit to let the dye from the madder come out. The temperature was held steady below 140 so the silk would not melt from the heat. The heat was applied for about 2 hours, and mixture was cooled. The silk was left in the dye pot to absorb the dye for approximately 2 weeks. The silk was then taken out, rinsed, and hung to dry.

Technique/Design Process

The purse is made from a rectangular piece of white deerskin, folded double along its bottom side. Egan & Pritchard describe several rectangular pouches made from deerskin and sheepskin. (Egan & Pritchard 344-347) Also, there are a few pouches with silk edges that are in white leather. (Schmedding 255) I decided to make the purse of this leather since it was better looking and much softer than the sheepskin that I had found.

The size of the pouch is 9 x 11 cm. Pouches in Egan range from 8 x 7 cm, to 4 x 9 cm. (Egan & Pritchard 348) The basic idea of the tablet-woven edge is to join the seams together forming a tubular woven edge, which gives a stronger edge than just sewing alone. (Crowfoot et al 161) I used 4 cards of silk, size 60/2 for the weaving. Egan and Pritchard states that the leather pouches used 2-4 tablets of a standard four-hole tablet for the woven seams. (Egan and Pritchard 348) Leather tablet woven edged pouches compared to cloth pouches tend to have less tablets due to the leather not fraying. (Crowfoot et al, 135) {Though I did find a silk cloth purse edged with a 2 tablet woven edge. (Egan and Pritchard 348) }

(Orginial Documentation had a chart comparing the widith versus the height of above pouches & mine)

The tablets for this project were threaded alternating S & Z. A plain weave for the design of the weaving was used, as found in many pouches of this period. (Egan and Pritchard, 346, 348; Crowfoot et al 135 ) I also used cardboard tablets, since the wooden tablets I have access to would cut the silk, and I do not have more period appropriate bone tablets.

I first used a post loom (see Figure B in appendix) for initial setup of the weaving, as was common in the 13-14th Century. The weaving went up one side seam, and then was split into two cards for each side of the top of the pouch. As the weaving progressed, I switched to a clay warp weight on the end. (Figures C & G)This was to faciliate an easier split and thereby rejoining of the two sides of the weaving. I have done a similar cloth piece earlier with adding a third perpendicular post to the loom, but decided this time after consultation with other weavers to use warp weights. This was done so the deerskin would not stretch when was pulled apart at the top spilt. The top seams were then woven separately on each side. I then brought the two sets of the 2 tablets back together into 4 tablets to go down the other side seam. The extra string was then made into tassels, as was characteristic of some period pouches. (Appendix Figure E) The tassels are made by wrapping a single silk thread round and round the other threads. This thread is then pulled down through the center, securing the tassel.

The drawstrings are fingerloop braids worked in the same 60/2 silk. They are the 5 loop flat purse string braids, found on numerous pieces through out the period. (Swales & Williams 2-6) They are attached through slots in the leather, as 1694 and 1695 in the Museum of London. (Figure D)

Conclusion:

I really like the look of the dyed silk with the white deerskin. This purse is small, but quite useful. Dyeing the silk, then weaving it along the seams of the leather was something that was a slow process. I was extremely concerned that the deerskin would be pulled out of shape using the 3 posts of the loom technique that I had tried before with a cloth woven edge seam. Overall, I believe this project turned out very well. I really enjoy having an item that I believe recreates as much as possible something a mid 13th century person might own and use.

Bibliography:

· Chaucer, Geoffrey . (republished 1995) The Canterbury Tales, Penguin Press: New York.

· Collingwood, Peter. The Techniques of Tablet Weaving. McMinnville:Robin and Russ Handweavers, Inc., 1982

· Crowfoot, Elisabeth, Frances Pritchard & Kay Staniland. Textiles and Clothing 1150-1450. Woodbridge: The Boydell Press. 2001.

· Egan, Geoff & Frances Pritchard Dress Accessories 1150-1450. Woodbridge: The Boydell Press. 2002.

· Goodwin, Jill. A Dyer's Manual. London: Pelham Books. 1982.

· Hall, Dr. Allan R. and Philippa Tomlinson. "Archaeological Records of Dye Plants- An Update-With A Note on Fuller's Teasels" . Dyes in History & Archaeology Vol 8, 1989

· Hoffman, Marta. The Warp-Weighted Loom. Norway:Universitetsforlaget, 1964

· Talyor, GW. "Detection and Identification of Dyes on Anglo-Scandinavian Textiles" Studies in Conservation Vol 28, 1983.

· Singer, C, E Holmyard, Alan R.Hall, T Williams. History of Technology Vol 2, (1956).

· Smedding, B. "Mittelalterliche Textilien in Kirchen und Klostern der Scweiz" Schrite der Abegg-Stiftung, Bern.

· Spies, Nancy. Ecclesiastical Pomp & Aristocratic Circumstance. Jarrettsvill:Arelate Studio, 2000

· Swales, Lois & Zoe Kuhn Williams. The Compleat Anachronist 108: Fingerloop Braids. SCA Inc, 2000.

· Walton, Penelope. Dyes on Historical and Archaelogical Textiles- York Archaeological Trust October, 1986.

(The Appendix and photos/figures in the orginal documention has been removed when posted online.)