The Armour Archive

I'm looking for some ideas for upcoming projects for decorating both inside and outside to give it a medieval theme of an upperclass type of status through to anything one might find in a castle perhaps. Anything anyone has recreations of or even pictures from manuscripts are most welcome to give me some ideas. I'm not limiting myself to any particular time frame suffice to say I'm open to anything up until say 1500 that one would consider medieval. Thanks.

Do it yourself medieval furniture is always a good fit.

Bascot has built chests and benches for me. I've acquired "Savaranola-style" chairs, tapestries, Koran stands for books, and prints of early manuscripts to decorate our walls. Several medieval replica weapons adorn my walls, alongside the family photos.

Is that what you mean?

Chests are never out of place; especially with lots of nice wrought iron.

Seriously, though, they were and are good for storage, for sitting on, for piling your books and harness on, and they're semi-portable. A pretty standard feature in any upper-class medieval household, many of which were constantly on the move. Some were equiped with linked ring-handles so that you could pull them up, slide a pole through them, and two (or more) servants could tote it along to the next room or the next estate.

Being a blacksmith, I could advocate pricket candle sticks, iron cookware and such; but the best thing to do is start looking at contemporary illustrations of household scenes for your period. Start with reality and see what the illuminators thought was important enough to show.

As for outside, short of a pair of iron-bound cross-timbered doors (with really BIG knockers), a nice set of cressets or torch holders for illuminating your entrance were not that unusual. A ring post for hitching horses would be useful until the beast could be taken around to the stable. Grills at the windows would be nice, but very expensive if done in the right style (not the American Jailhouse style, more like Sam Yellen).

Okay, to a carpenter everything looks like a nail, and to a blacksmith, everything needs some iron. Hope this helps.

yes thanks those are good suggestions. I am looking into finding some pictures of candelabras, especially any that hung from the roof. I have seen a candalabra prop such as this that looks like a wheel suspended from the roof with candles around its circumferance - but have no idea if this was taken from an authentic design.

I also am interested in making a throne type chair similar in appearance to a picture of a gothic chair I picked up off the archive ages ago. The only thing is it appears to be made of thick ply and I am not sure that would be very strong (or too authentic?) so if anyone has any suggestions on throne type chair onstruction tips/suggestions please let me know my woodworking knowledge is limited.

BTW I'm not looking to replicate these things 100% authentically but I would like them to resemble authentic items as much as is possible while still being practical enough to be made. Cheers.

http://www.designtoscano.com/

for ideas

May I commend to your attention "Masterpieces" a book on building furniture as shown in paintings. Most of the paintings are medieval and renaissance and each project comes with plans cutting list and order of work. Note the methods used are modern so don't be afraid.

MASTERPIECES. Making Furniture from Paintings 20 Original Designs & Complete Working Instructions for Recreating Furniture that Appears in Masterpieces of World Art
Ball, Richard, Campbell, Peter.(ISBN:0688024882)

abebooks.com has 6 copies listed 2 under $20!

I would also suggest looking through books of hours for snazzy ideas.

Be carefull with window grills, many locations mandate that they be removable for fire safety.

This would ba a great project to get a forge going---hot worked iron looks so different from cold worked iron and there are several books on household iron work out there...

Thomas

It may be a bit late in period for you, but some of the interiors of "Casa Bardicci" camp are impressive, considering that it's a portable structure - Check out the pix, starting about halfway down http://images.pennsic.net/cgi-bin/penns ... i?cat=Bojo

As for chairs, I was trying to remember what they called those "X" type chairs, which seem to cover a good many periods. All I could think of was "Savonarola chair", and google found me this page: "Illlustrated History of Folding chairs / medieval" - http://www.designboom.com/eng/education ... ieval.html - some nice ideas for camp chairs there.

Wyrm wrote:I'm looking for some ideas for upcoming projects for decorating both inside and outside to give it a medieval theme of an upperclass type of status through to anything one might find in a castle perhaps. Anything anyone has recreations of or even pictures from manuscripts are most welcome to give me some ideas. I'm not limiting myself to any particular time frame suffice to say I'm open to anything up until say 1500 that one would consider medieval. Thanks.

http://www.masterjoyner.com/chairssto.html

My dear friend has the actual Dantesca chair pictured; we use it at Pennsic and it's wonderful.

Hope this helps,
Leo

Start from the ground up - Tile the floor. You don't have to used these expensive ones - http://www.historictile.com/shop.html . There are much cheaper ceramic tiles. Even better - get a few of the pricey ones & mix them in with the cheaper ones around the border.

And WHATEVER you do, avoid those crappy victorian prints. I'm sick to death of seeing "The Accolade"!

You prefer The Stairwell? A friend emailed it to me, do you need it for wallpaper on your computer?

I have a few images of an English manor that was taken apart and rooms are rebuild in the Philly museum:

http://home.armourarchive.org/members/f ... philly.htm

You might also want to see A Modern Medieval Home Companion, as well as the BBC guide to Gothic-style interior decorating.

You might also like The Stencil Library, especially their Gothic, Medieval and Tudor range.

If you have lots of money to burn, here is a great place to do it. The stereo speakers on the misc page are unreal.


http://www.art6.net/arteso/index.html

thankyou for those links they are all great, I've found some fantastic images from them. your suggestions are all appreciated.