Leather Costrel
.JPG)
A leather costrel
embellished with the West Kingdom populace badge. Submitted for judging in the Heraldry in any
Mode Competition at Oerthan Winter Coronet, AS 47.
A costrel is a barrel shaped bottle
used for carrying liquids—water, or possibly wine and beer. Costrels were often made of leather and
sealed with wax or pitch; although ceramic examples have been found[i]. Examples exist from the late 1300’s at the
latest, and was used up through the 18th century, at the earliest. They ranged in size from tiny ones holding
maybe a cup[ii],
to gigantic versions which may have been used to collect wine taxes[iii].
In addition; the Oxford English
Dictionary has this to say about the costrel: “A vessel for holding or carrying
wine or other liquid; a large bottle with an ear or ears by which it could be
suspended from the waist (whence the antiquarian designation “pilgrim’s
bottle”) or small wooden keg similarly used, in which sense it is still in
dialect use.” The earliest reference to costrels in the OED was by Sir Ferumbr,
in 1380.
Extant Examples
My rendition of this piece was
based on two seperate extant examples.
The first, used as the model and construction plan, resides in the
Limerick City Museum. The Limerick Costrel
dates from the mid to late 15th century, and is slightly over 10
inches tall. Unfortunately, due to the
angle the photograph was taken at, I was unable to work out the proportions. If you look closely you can see several of
the design features. I chose this
particular example because it is in excellent condition and has a shape
pleasing to my eye.
The other
costrel documents the use of simple heraldry on these pieces. This one is a bit
smaller (just over 7 inches tall), and potentially a hundred years older than
the other. While it is in much poorer
condition than the above example, you can clearly see two simple shields tooled
into the leather—I also got inspiration from the pattern of bands on this costrel,
although I did not go to the extent of embossing the leather with a pattern
suggestive of wood grain.
The Pattern
As I discussed in the paragraphs
above, I took several design features from the Limerick City Costrel. The most visible is the flat bottom, which
allows it to actually be set down—this is the least important as it doesn’t
have anything to do with the structural integrity of the vessel. The other features involve the multiple
layers of leather in several spots—around the edges, the “ears”, and the
additional layer in the neck. The
purposes of these, beyond simple re-enforcement of the leather[1],
is to help produce a vessel which is almost watertight before sealing.
The pattern for the main body of a
costrel is simple—it is, essentially, a rectangle with somewhat shaped
ends. The fun part of the patterning was
trying to determine how long the body needed to be, although I figured out a
simple way to deal with that. The ends
are also fairly simple—a circle the desired diameter (this is your base
height), flat bottomed or stretched as desired—plus your seam allowance. That’s it—the rest is cut out of scraps and
consisted of a strip of leather a little wider than your seam and the
circumference of the end in length (one per side, please), and the extra two
layers per side for the handles.
Materials and tools
used.
The most important of the materials
used is, of course, the leather. I chose
a 5oz vegetable tanned leather for my rendition because it appears to be a
appropriate weight for this size vessel, and—more importantly—I already had it
on hand.
For the stitching I used a fairly
coarse, but even, two-ply linen thread.
While modernly, sinew or nylon is commonly used, I wanted to go with a
more period option.
Other materials used were the
acrylic paint (to be discussed in a different section), and beeswax. It seems that pitch was the more common
sealing agent in period. However, I
chose beeswax over pitch because pitch tends to flavour everything that touches
it, and I can easily acquire the wax from my stash.
On the hardware—I think the most
important piece for this would be the awl.
I used a basic round awl (more period may have been rectangular or oval[1]),
modern leather scissors (a form of specialized knife would be the medieval
option), and basic saddler’s needles (hog bristles were used for leather sewing[i]). Also used were paint brushes and the stylus I
used for the tooling. And pliers—a small
pair of pliers are indispensable in pulling the needle through the layers of
leather.
Decoration
The decoration on this is
fairly basic, and inspired by the decorated example shown above, albeit
simplified. It consists of simple bands
running to the bottom of the vessel[1]--some
of which are decorated with chevrons—and the shield containing the West Kingdom
Populace badge[2]. The decorations are simple because I plan on
making heavy use of the finished product, and I don’t know how far I can stress
the leather without reducing durability.
On the paint: No, acrylic paints
were not in use during the middle ages.
For that matter, there are few remaining examples of painted leather
from the Middle Ages[i]. In all likelihood, leather painting was done on
occasion, but the paint it’self did not survive the ages. I chose to paint the Populace badge because I
wanted it to stand out from the background and used acrylic paint because prior
experience has shown me that it can be waxed over without harm.
Construction
The first part of the
construction (after cutting) is nice and simple. Line up your top pieces and layers—leaving an
opening for the neck (mine was about an inch)—and sew. As an experiment, I decided to use a wheat
paste hold the separate layers together while stitching. After this bit was sewn, I soaked the neck,
stretched it out with an appropriate sized dowel and let it dry[1].
The sides were considerably
trickier. I did paste the rand[2]
to the main body, but it did not stay during the rigors of construction. I worked by feel for the most part, punching
only a couple holes at a time, soaking and shaping the seam allowance one
section at a time. This is not how you
should do this step…the much easier way, although more time consuming, would be
to build a mold for the ends and allow the leather to dry over it before
construction. This way the seam allowance
would at the right angles needed for the stitching. I chose to skip this step because I had
neither the time nor resources to create a wooden mold.
After all the stitching was
finally done it was time to mold the leather.
This was achieved by soaking the vessel in hot tap water until
saturated, pouring the water out again, then filling it with sand—in my case, I
used popcorn kernels (less mess)—and packing it tight with a dowel. After finishing this step, I’m not so sure
they used this method to mold the costrel in period, or if they did it wasn’t
packed to bulging like I did[3]. The dowel was left in the neck while the
costrel dried over a couple days—the leather has to be absolutely bone dry
before being waxed, if not painted.
After the molding, I has to stitch
the neck liner in[4]. This was made by skiving a small strip of
leather down to about 1/3rd the original thickness and tapering the
ends. I then carefully sewed it in with
the usual saddle stitch.
At
this point, I had three simple things left to do before the costrel was
completely finished…
I cut the rectangular holes for
the strap with my sheath knife, as it was the best tool for the job—and at
hand. Somewhere in the early 1500s the
strap holes change from a rectangle/oblong to a round one. The decorations also became a bit more
intricate, sometimes with elaborate molding.
The stopper is carved of a
recently cut piece of birch (again, with my belt knife). As it is unseasoned, I have no doubt that I
will have to replace it before too long.
The waxing process was fairly
straight forwarded. Pour ladles of hot
wax over the vessel, and heat over an open flame to help it soak into the
leather. Repeat for the inside, pouring
the excess wax out the spout.
The wheat paste was an interesting
experiment, and one which I would call successful. The recipe I used was from Marc Carlson’s
leatherworking page and is as follows;
“1/4 cup White Flour; 1/16 tsp Alum or Salt; 1 cup water. Combine the
flour and the alum or salt. Add the water, eliminating lumps. Bring to a boil
for a minute, constantly stirring. If it thickens, add water.”[i]
The paste did do its job of
keeping the separate pieces from moving and sliding—it’s not meant to be
permanent, but rather is the leatherworkers version of pinning. To use, just rub it into the leather and
apply pressure to the pieces while drying.
In addition, the paste may be kept in the refrigerator in between uses
and does work while cold.
The stitching holding the costrel
together is a saddle stitch (a form of double running stitch, with a needle on
each end of the thread), with the occasional stitch containing an overhand knot
inside the leather. Normally when I do
leather working I will incise the leather (to sink the thread below the leather[5]),
and run a pricking wheel along the channel to space my stitches. I did not do so in this case because there is
no evidence for the use of either in period.
What I would do Different in the Future
Number one--I would use a
mold to shape the ends. This would help
solve several issues, such as the ends not quite being large enough
(mis-estimated the seam allowances), and allow me to hopefully get straighter
lines of stitching in this area. I would
also probably incise the decorations, rather than tooling them—they would stand
out better this way. Something else to
consider would be period colouring agents or paints.
What I learned
Where to start? I learned how to pattern this type of vessel
(yes, fairly simple, but those seam allowances…) and the importance of
molds. I learned how to tie an overhand
knot within the awl hole (insurance against broken threads). I also had to learn some basic painting
techniques and leather tooling skills (very basic, but I had not done them
before). In addition I learned the hard
way that a ¼ inch seam allowance wasn’t quite enough with leather this
thickness.
Construction
Time: A bit over Eleven Hours.
Received 28 out of 30 in the competition, with one point out of each Workmanship and attractiveness. Comment was “Edge of painting could be neater. Good learning piece. Appreciate the documentation.”
Bibliography:
http://leatherworkingreverend.wordpress.com/2011/04/14/mary-rose-costrel-81a5749/ A recreation of a costrel found on the Mary
Rose. It is also the webpage which
contains the instructions I went off of.
http://www.historiclife.com/pdf/Flasks.pdf The document containing the photos of the
extant costrels.
[1]
A period sewing awl is a project for another time.
[1]
Interestingly, most of the costrels seem to have been only decorated on the one
side.
[1] While
I originally wanted to make use of the three badges (West, Oertha, and
Selviergard), I ran into difficulties with scale and the lack of an actual
badge for my local group.
[1]
This molding step could probably have been skipped and done during the final
shaping.
[2]
To borrow a term from shoemaking…The rand is the narrow strip of leather
forming the welt on those shoes which have them.
[3]
If you look at the extant examples you can see that the ends are flat, not
bulging outwards like mine.
[4]
I’m not sure what the purpose of this is, but several originals I’ve seen have
it, so I figured I’d include it. I
believe that the purpose is to cover the seams and create a smoother surface
for the stopper, and therefore a better seal.
[5]
I found that you can get a better
version of the same by dampening the surfaces of the leather and pulling the
thread good and tight so that it digs it’self in.
[1] http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/search_the_collection_database/search_object_details.aspx?objectid=23950&partid=1&output=Places%2F!!%2FOR%2F!!%2F42360%2F!%2F42360-3-2%2F!%2FFound%2FAcquired+London%2F!%2F%2F!!%2F%2F!!!%2F&orig=%2Fresearch%2Fsearch_the_collection_database%2Fadvanced_search.aspx¤tPage=7&numpages=10
Such as this 15th – 16th century example in the British
Museum
[1] http://sevenstarwheel.wordpress.com/2011/11/27/ashmolean-tudor-costrel-for-those-really-long-trips/ Huge costrel
[1] http://www.personal.utulsa.edu/~marc-carlson/leather/plwt.html#pl4
Wheat paste. I do not know if this is a
period recipe.
© John Frey, 2014. The Author of this work retains full copyright for this material. Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this document for non-commercial private research or educational purposes provided the copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved on all copies. Photos of my work may not be duplicated.
No comments:
Post a Comment