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Post by bwaze on Dec 12, 2023 9:25:22 GMT
Do we have any sources, museum photos, museum descriptions of late medieval scabbards made from multiple layers of thin wooden slats, basicaly glued veneer - plywood? I know that Peter Johnsson talks about them, but I have never seen any source except his descriptions. I have bought Covering the blade, Archaeological Leather Sheaths and Scabbards, Marquita Volken and Olaf Goubitz, 2020. It was supposed to be THE source on medieval scabbards, but I'm a bit dissapointed. The book mainly focuses on excavated pieces from Dordrecht, Netherlands, and they are mainly 13. and 14. century. The main focus of the book are also knife sheaths which were more numerous as finds. It compares those early sword scabbard pieces with better preserved ones from museums, but very superficially, and when it comes to 15. century scabbards, it mainly just concludes that they are not represented in Dordrecht and that there are plenty of well preserved in museums. Thanks, Obama!
I have seen this illustration shown as a source, but I don't trust Victorian historians much, he also has illustrations on "banded mail" and other errors of that time.
Eugène Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc's ENCYCLOPÉDIE MÉDIÉVAL.
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mrstabby
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Post by mrstabby on Dec 12, 2023 10:37:25 GMT
Interesting, could the things in the illustration just be bolsters to hold the blade in place not going all the way down? (can't read french any longer it seems..) Or the 3 layers might bewood, then twine and lastly leather or something. I don't know for sure, but the only time I could think of this being used is if you don't have enough hard wood for a full scabbard.
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Post by bwaze on Dec 12, 2023 11:27:47 GMT
I don't know, but the image itself doesn't look to me like it shows many wooden layers. Perhaps two, plus layer of textile around, and then leather. Inside layer might also be some other lining. I know fur lilings are not a thing any more in high and late middle ages, but Peter Johnsson has allegedly seen woolen cloth or felt lining in some scabbards, and "Covering the blade" assumes parchment lining for sword scabbards - although it says this doesn't survive in their archeological remains, and they have no information about the extant well preserved scabbards.
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Zen_Hydra
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Post by Zen_Hydra on Dec 12, 2023 15:45:01 GMT
I think making scabbards out of the works of an Old Dutch Master is probably frowned upon.
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seth
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Post by seth on Dec 23, 2023 16:16:03 GMT
I think making scabbards out of the works of an Old Dutch Master is probably frowned upon. But what a flex! "Hey that's a nice DBK scabbard and all, but have you seen my Van Gogh?"
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