This pouch is modeled after several reliquary pouches from
the late 14th and early 15th centuries embroidered in
brick stitch. These pouches are mostly
traced to production in areas now part of modern Germany, however, some are
labeled as originating in Italy.
Reliquary bags were used throughout the medieval period to
store various relics reputedly from saints, apostles, or other religious
figures. These bags might be kept
individually or stored inside small altars or ornate crafted reliquaries, as
seen in the portable alter commissioned by Countess Gertrude of Braunschweig
from Lower Saxony ca. 1045.
Although modeled after religious devotional items, this
pouch was created for a secular purpose.
Cloth purses are seen in many medieval manuscripts in the late 14th
and early 15th century. Most
are in use by women, often worn between the layers of her clothing. The style of these purses is consistent
with the extant examples of reliquary pouches: a small drawstring bag with
tassels and a string to hang (presumably from a belt). Pouches in illuminations often appear to be
of a solid color with no embroidered pattern and several examples from
excavations in London reveal pouches made of patterned material, but no
embroidery. Despite these unadorned
examples, it can be surmised that women of means would possess pouches with
rich decoration similar to alms purses from earlier in the 14th
century decorated in the Opus Anglicanum technique.
 |
| Examples of women with small drawstring purses from the Tacuinum Sanitatis |
Design
I took initial inspiration for
this pouch from an extent example in the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A). Master Richard Wymarc (m.k.a. Timothy J. Mitchell) has already recreated
this bag and I used his resource, “A Stitch Out of Time: 14th and 15th Century German Counted Thread Embroidery” as a starting point for my piece. As the author was fortunate enough to view
the piece up close, I relied on his observations for some design decisions.
 |
| My inspiration pieces: from the V&A (top) and the Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage © KIK-IRPA, Brussels (bottom) |
I chose to keep the
original dimensions of the pouch (approx. 3 3/8 inches square). I wanted to use the same pattern of German
Brick Stitch, but chose to alter the color combination to match the colors of
my husband’s SCA heraldry. I kept the
green and the white the same, but changed the original areas of blue to black,
and red to yellow. I did not want the
yellow to be washed out next to the white and chose a bright yellow that would
give enough contrast in the finished piece.
Although this piece in the V&A
does not include a drawstring, there are holes in the upper band indicating the
presence of a drawstring originally. I
wanted to include a drawstring and a cord to hang the pouch from a belt similar
to another example in the V&A. My final design of the cords and tassels came
from an example in the Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage (RICH) in Brussels (Object #10152670). This example shows a hanging cord, separate
drawstrings with small tassels, and two multi-colored tassels at the bottom
corners. The catalog image also gives a
very detailed view of the side seam construction.
Materials
The examples in museum collections indicate a linen ground for the embroidery. I chose tightly woven white linen (Alba
Maxima) that is close to even weave, but not marketed as such. I used white because I did not want a darker
color to show through the white linen embroidery thread.
For the white embroidery,
I chose white 100/3 linen thread. This thread is a fine even spin that has a
similar thickness to the silk embroidery thread used in the piece. For the colored embroidery, I selected to use
Au ver à soie Ovale flat silk thread in yellow, black, and green. This type of silk is known as a reeled or
filament silk thread. It is not tightly
spun and as a result, I could cover a larger area without the ground showing
through. It also gives a luxurious sheen
to the piece.
There is little information about the linings of extant
purses other than the material being silk. In some cases, this is because the lining has
not survived. I chose to line the pouch
in red damask silk.
The Turk’s Head knots are made from silk gimp, a type of
cord. I made the gimp following a
tutorial from Medieval Silkwork. The core is three strands of natural colored
linen thread and I wound yellow silk around it until I had a length of about 50
cm. This gave me enough cord to form two
small Turk’s Head Knots.
Construction
Bags of this type
were typically one piece, with the front and back embroidered as a seamless
unit and then folded along what becomes a side of the pouch. I chose to have the fold for this bag along
the bottom for visual symmetry.
I used a rectangular embroidery frame to hold the fabric at
an even tension.
The embroidery was completed using the technique for brick stitch as
described by Mitchell in Section 2: Recreating the Style. From his close examination of the extant
pieces, he has determined the most likely course of the thread by the grouping
of warp and weft in the ground fabric.
I worked the white linen embroidery first and then filled in the colored silk sections.
After completing the embroidery, I attached the silk
lining. I decided to sew the long edges
and form a tube of the lining and embroidery.
I then turned it right side out and folded the bag horizontally along
the center line. This placed the raw
edges at the mouth of the bag and provided a clean side seam.
I finished the seams using a
technique originally described on the blog MedievalSilkwork by Machteld. I chose to use both yellow and green thread
for this technique and integrated the ends into the tassels at the bottom
corners.
The original bag has a strip of fabric around the top edge
and I chose to use a strip of white linen
matching the ground fabric and linen embroidery. By comparing the total measurement of the
pouch with the percentage of space the strip takes up, I determined it was at
its widest 1/2 inch and at its narrowest 5/16 inch. I chose to make my border 1/4 inch wide. I attached this strip after I completed the
side seams and attached the purse strings.
This concealed the raw ends under the linen and creates a neat
appearance. This border has no eyelets
for the drawstring, which is simply threaded through holes made with an awl. This is by design and is consistent with the
extant examples from the V&A as well as the RICH.
 |
| Inside of pouch before the white strip is added to the top - in this image the purse hanger is tucked inside after being sewn to the inside edges. |
The drawstring and
cord were constructed from finger loop braiding. I used green silk to make the cords: a smaller round braid for the drawstrings and a
wider flat braid for the purse string. I made two sections of braids for the
drawstring and wove them through the holes with the beginnings of the braids on
opposite sides of the pouch. When the
two ends are pulled, the pouch closes easily.
The tassels were constructed using a mix of green and yellow
silk. To
construct the tassels I wound a strand of green and yellow simultaneously
around a card until I reached the desired thickness. I then tied a piece of green silk through the
top of the cluster of threads and cut the loops that formed at one end. A piece of white linen was used to tie the
center of the tassel. The tassels were then threaded through the
corners of the pouch and tied off on the inside. Another piece of white linen was used to tie
the center of the tassel in order to integrate the ends of the thread from the side
seams.
The knots are Turk’s Head Knots are constructed from the
yellow silk gimp. I used an online visual tutorial to begin the knots using a piece of card as the support. I then worked them with my fingers to the
desired size.
As in any large project, I would do several things differently. Here are a few:
Being a novice embroiderer, the back of the work was not as neat as I would have liked. At times, I had to double back if I missed a spot.
The flat braid I used for the purse hanger is not as flat as desired even after several attempts. There are several mistakes I noticed in the braid, which contributes to the braid rolling, but this was by far my best attempt with regard to tension.
I am pleased with how the Turk’s Head knots turned out, but working them down to the desired size from the initial card support was frustrating and time consuming. I ultimately decided to leave them off the drawstring, because I could not make them small enough to keep from slipping off the cord. I plan to attempt these knots in the future in order to find an easier way to make them small enough.
Bibliography
The flat braid I used for the purse hanger is not as flat as desired even after several attempts. There are several mistakes I noticed in the braid, which contributes to the braid rolling, but this was by far my best attempt with regard to tension.
I am pleased with how the Turk’s Head knots turned out, but working them down to the desired size from the initial card support was frustrating and time consuming. I ultimately decided to leave them off the drawstring, because I could not make them small enough to keep from slipping off the cord. I plan to attempt these knots in the future in order to find an easier way to make them small enough.
Bibliography
Literary
Luisa Cogliati
Arano, The Medieval Health Handbook:
Tacuinum Sanitatis, (New York: George Braziller) 1976.
Elisabeth
Crowfoot, Frances Pritchard, and Kay Staniland, Medieval Finds from Excavations in London : 4 Textiles and Clothing
1150-1450, (Woodbridge: The Boydell Press) 2002.
Geoff Egan and
Frances Pritchard, Medieval Finds from
Excavations in London : 4 Dress Accessories 1150-1450, (Woodbridge: The
Boydell Press) 2002.
Tasha Dandelion
Kelly, La cotte simple, http://cottesimple.com/.
Timothy J.
Mitchell, “A Stitch Out of Time: 14th and 15th Century German Counted ThreadEmbroidery,” accessed December 5, 2012, http://wymarc.com/asoot/asoot.php.
Medieval Silkewerk, accessed March 7,
2013, http://www.silkewerk.com/.
Medieval Silkwork, accessed November 10,
2012, http://m-silkwork.blogspot.com/.
“Treasures ofHeaven: Saints, Relics, and Devotion in Medieval Europe,” accessed February 16,
2013. http://learn.columbia.edu/treasuresofheaven/.
“Turk’s HeadKnot,” accessed March 2, 2013, http://www.animatedknots.com/turkshead/.
Objects
Bag, 14thcentury, linen embroidered in silk, 14.5 cm x 12.5 cm, Object # 8313-1863,
Victoria & Albert Museum, London, accessed January 9, 2013,
http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O115592/bag-unknown/.
Bag, 14thcentury, linen embroidered in silk, Object # 8699-1863, Victoria & Albert
Museum, London, accessed January 9,
2013, http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O144713/bag-unknown/.
Bourse-reliquaire, 10 cm x 10 cm, Object # 10069247, Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage, Brussels,
accessed March 1, 2013, http://www.kikirpa.be/EN/45/63/Photolibrary.htm.
Bourse-reliquaire, 7 cm x 7 cm, Object # 10152662, Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage, Brussels, accessed
March 1, 2013, http://www.kikirpa.be/EN/45/63/Photolibrary.htm.
Bourse-reliquaire, 7 cm x 7 cm, Object # 10152670, Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage, Brussels, accessed
March 1, 2013, http://www.kikirpa.be/EN/45/63/Photolibrary.htm.
Link to the complete documentation in PDF:
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