This summer I recreated a mid 14th century helmet with a nasal piece, this is its story.

Prologue

Our decision to attend the 2016 re-enactment of the battle of Wisby of 1361 meant I had a big deadline to come up with a whole new suit of armour. As it was my wish to partake in the battle on horseback I could no longer use my old 14th century armour of a foot soldier (which had not been updated since 2004 anyway and shamed me to hell). Luckily I was able to buy several good pieces of armour second hand (thanks Jan!), so I could focus on making the few still missing items myself.
This also gave me the opportunity to recreate a piece that was particularly special to me because I discovered it over ten years ago: a nasal of a bascinet helmet. This piece, which had been excavated at the market square of the town of Amersfoort by its archaeological service in 1991, was published in the book 'Nering en vermaak' with the subscript that its original purpose was unknown. I recognized it for what it was, contacted the archaeologists in 2005, took photos and measurements and was asked to write a small article:

Brokamp, B. (2005), Een raadsel opgelost; vondst blijkt onderdeel wapenuitrusting. In: Oudheidkundige Vereniging Flehite, Kroniek: Tijdschrift Historisch Amersfoort, jaargang 7, nr. 4, pp. 2-3. Amersfoort: Museum Flehite.

When Doug Strong asked me in 2011 if he could use one of my photos in his to be published volumes on surviving plate armour 1250-1430, I photoshopped one to look good and send it to him. This photo has mysteriously made it onto pinterest a year ago, with a wrong dating (1330-1380). We know from the archaeological publication that the cattle drinking pond in which it was found was filled in around 1375 with rubbish from the market square (such as the nasal).

Left: The photo I took of the Amersfoort nasal in 2005. Right: My photoshop clean-up of that photo in 2011.

The Amersfoort nasal did not consist of steel plate of X mm, but was made out of a thick slab, slightly hollowed out at the backside. This made it very sturdy and not likely to get bend easily when hit by a weapon.

About nasals

In the late 13th century it was common practice for knights to wear an iron or steel skullcap in combination with a maille hood (which was separate or part of a maille shirt) and an all enclosing helm over these two. The helm offered good protection against lances and arrows but could be taken off to be better able to do close combat with swords and such (and be still protected by the skullcap).
This skullcap, known as bascinet in English and French and as huve/hube in Dutch and German (meaning cap), evolved in the early 14th century into a helmet that came further down the sides and back of the head. Also the maille hood was dispensed with, instead a maille curtain was attached to the bascinet. In the Holy Roman Empire armourers started experimenting with lengthening this maille curtain in a triangular shape upwards over the nose, where it could be temporarily attached to the brow of the helmet. By 1330 this flap of maille was replaced by an iron or steel plate counterpart, a nasal piece, which stayed in use as late as 1370, judging by its depiction in funerary art until that time.

Left: A Bildindex picture of the effigy of Rudolf I von Hogenberg (+1336) in Rottenburg am Neckar. Right: A Bildindex picture of the effigy of Gunter von Schwarzburg (+1349) in Frankfurt am Main.

According to the late 19th century armour historian Boeheim this nasal piece was called a bretèche. I assume he meant in France, but he does not state a source (!!!) or further explanation in his Handbuch der Waffenkunde. A Flemish manuscript about the story of Gawain, written in 1350, does tell us the probable Dutch / German name: a nesebant (noseband).

Mettien heifti tswaert verheven
Ende gheraectene weder metter hant,
Ende cloofde hem helm ende nesebant,
Ende sloech hem in al toten tanden,
Doe trac hijt uut met beden handen,

Which I translate as:

"At once he lifted the sword
And hit (him) again with (the force of) the hand,
And cleaved his helm and noseband,
And smashed him in all unto the teeth,
Then he pulled it out with both hands,"

As you can see here, the sword cut through a helm and through a noseband. You could argue that this noseband might be a part of the helm but why then mention them separately? The logical explanation would be that the noseband belonged to a smaller helmet underneath the helm. Around this time helms were still carried on top of bascinets, as you can find in depictions in contemporary art but also in a description of the armour of men at arms in the year 1351 in the Limburger Chronicle.

... mit iren gekroneten helmen, darunder hatten si ire kleine ponthuben.

Which I translate as:

"... with their crowned helms, and underneath these they had their small pointy bascinets."

The noseband has the added advantage that it helps to stabilize the helm on top, which might explain why we see the bascinet with noseband often depicted on funerary monuments of knights but not so much in depictions of foot soldiers (who would not have worn a helm on their bascinet). Taking this thought further, I would best justify using such a setup within Deventer Burgerscap if my alter ego, merchant Henrik ter Brugghen, was a mounted man at arms. Luckily he is mentioned specifically as such in the Deventer accountbook of 1375. He was an alderman this year and with a few other aldermen lead several military campaigns on horseback of the city militia.

Reconstruction

In 2009 I made a simple small bascinet of 1.5 mm thick mild steel, but I never got round to furnishing it with a liner and maille. This was the perfect victim to install a new noseband on, which is what I did.

The bascinet that I made in 2009, photo taken prior to installing the vervelles (tubes for attaching the maille).

I made the noseband out of a thick slab of steel: a bit of hammering and a lot of stock removal. Of course I kept a picture of the original noseband nearby, printed on a 1 on 1 scale, for instant reference.

Time to create the latch to keep the noseband in place on the bascinet.

Noseband and latch finished.

Left: Deutsches Historisches Museum, Berlin, c. 1370, photo by Roel Renmans. Right: Gunter of Schwarzburg effigy again (+ 1349), photo by me (2005).

Both the bascinet on the left and on the right in the above picture were a general inspiration for this project and for the method of fastening the noseband to the bascinet brow. The DHM bascinet probably had a visor instead of a noseband, but the latch system was likely nearly the same. I have not yet seen convincing evidence of a turning pin system. There is a bascinet in the Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nuremberg that seems to show this, but this pin is so flimsy that I guess it is a later addition by some collector or curator.
These days many bascinets are made way too large, because 95 % are not custom made for clients (or if they are, the producer still does a shitty job) and because of the whole current thing of 'medieval battle as a sport where you beat each other up' it is necessary to have a really thick layer of padding to prevent concussions. I wanted to keep my bascinet snug like the originals and depictions in art, and keep the ability to wear a helm over it. As you can see, in also keeping the measurements of the original noseband, the proportions of both together are still good. While if I had a too large bascinet, the noseband would have dwarfed next to it or I would have had to alter its shape. In the next photo you can see the size of my old bascinet, bought in 2001, next to the size of my new one with noseband. I could literally put the new one inside the old one.

Making the liner for the bascinet, and comparing my old and new bascinet (the latter with the new liner installed)

Left: Making a pattern for the maille liner from an old bedsheet and the pattern for the leather strap in paper. Right: The nearly finished liner which is waiting for the maille to go on top before I could see where to cut off the lower edge so they would line up.

Left: The way too large piece of maille that I had bought from India and needed to be cut short a lot, and triangles added up along the face opening of the bascinet. Right: the leather strap for attaching the maille and maille liner (that is why there are two rows of holes).

Here I am over halfway tailoring the maille. Left: Effigy of Gottfried von Arnsberg (+1372) in Cologne, whose length of maille I tried to copy. Right: Effigy of Lodewijk van Lichtervelde (+1375) in Koolskamp, whose small protruding chin and leather band running across the brow I used as inspiration.

Due to the fact that the organisation of the Battle of Wisby event asked me to portray the Danish king Waldemar I decided to make a crown that would go on top of the bascinet. As I still wanted to put a great helm on top, it needed to lie flat against the helmet surface. Also as I wanted to be able to take it off, I needed to give it 'loops' that could temporarily attach it to the vervelles. To cover the two frontal loops I opted for the leather band to run across the brow, like in the Lichtervelde effigy.

The end result, while me being King Waldemar at the battle of Wisby. Photo by Vera Bos.

Here I am wearing the bascinet underneath the helm, it worked fine.

I have a new knife!

 

Phase I: Documentation

Ever since I received my copy of the book 'Der Pritzwalker Silberfund; Schmuck des späten Mittelalters' in 2010, it has been on my bucket-list to have a knife made with a silver handle-mount like the one displayed on page 31.
This mount was part of a hoard that was discovered by father and daughter Amunde in 1858 at the parish of Burs on the Baltic island of Gotland. It had been buried there in 1361 for safekeeping when the Danes invaded the island. The Gotlanders were slaughtered at the battles of Mästerby and Wisby and we can assume that the owner of the hoard was one of them, since the treasure was never reclaimed. It is now kept in the Historiska Museet (Swedish History Museum) in Stockholm.

from Krabath, S. (2006), Der Pritzwalker Silberfund; Schmuck des späten Mittelalters

Masterpieces mentioned in north German goldsmith guild statutes

It is this type of knife-mount that was one of the masterpieces that a goldsmith-journeyman had to make before he could become a master of his trade. We find this mentioned in the goldsmith guild statutes of several important Hanseatic towns of the fourteenth century and even as far west as Groningen in the early sixteenth century. The underlined parts of the text are about the knife-mount in particular and I have translated these bits for you.


Stade, early fourteenth century
Quicunque aurifaber volens fieri suus ipsius dominus debet facere annulum aureum, fibulam anglicam, fibulam subarracionis gheblakmalet et anulum cultello circumdatum dictum byworp eciam gheblakmalet.
- 'a ring around the knife, called a byworp, also inlaid with niello' -

Riga, 1360
Vortmer we sulhere wille werden, de sal maken en gulden vingerin mit vinsteren und ene Engelsche brazen, und ene hanttruwe brazen geblackmalet, und einen biworp mit smelte; desse clenode sal he wisen den mesteren und den olderluden des ammetes.
- 'a biworp with enamel' -

Hamburg, 1375
Darna scholen de wergkmeister darto zeen, dat he sin ampt wol kone, unde schal maken eyn guldene vingern mit wormeshoveden unde eyn par bende mit smelte to eneme meste, by des wergkmeisters brede.
- 'a pair of bands with enamel for a knife' -

Wismar, 1380
Vortmer, welk goltsmit sines sulves wil werden, de schal tovorn maken en guldene vynghern, ene enghelsche breetzen vnde ene hanttruwe gheblackmalede breetzen unde enen byworp ghelecht umme een mees, ok gheblakmalet.
- 'a byworp laid around a knife, also inlaid with niello' -

Riga, 1393
Und he sal maken dre stucke werkes, dat en en gulden vingerlin, dat ander 1 paar biworpe mit text-buckstaven, dat derde en hantrouwe bratze, und de dre stucke werkes sal he vor dat werk bringen.
- 'one pair of biworpe with letters' -

Lüneburg, around 1400
Item schal he maken dre stucke werkes in des werkmesters bode: dat erste is eyn gulden vingeren myt vinsteren und myt wormeshoveden; dat ander is eyn par byworpe myt swibogen und myt dereken darynne und amlegeret; dat drudde is eyn handtruwebratze gegraven myt bökstaven und amlegeret.
- 'a pair of byworpe with arches and with doors (?) therein and enameled' -

Wismar, 1403
Item Wen hir danne en knecht en Goldtschmidt werdt de schal also syn werck maken Int Erste enen golden rinck mit ener hogen kasten und mit twene drakenkopken und eme Bresse mit enem engell, und ene bresse mit der vortruwing gheblackmalt, und enen byworp baven up dat Mess, ock gheblakmalt
- 'a byworp on top of the knife, also inlaid with niello' -

Groningen, 1512
de twe stucke werckes soelen zijn twe bewarpe myt beesten ghesneden onder glas gheanuliert ende elck beworp sal hebben een sunderlinge manieer. Dat derde werck sal syn een gulden gestrengede rynck gedreit vergadert
- 'two bewarpe cut with beasts and enameled with glass and each beworp shall be in a different manner' -

Other sources and thoughts

In the Historical Museum of Szczecin in Poland (the former Hanseatic town of Stettin) another three extant pieces of these 'byworpe' are kept. They were part of a local hoard that was buried in the early fifteenth century. Hugh McDonald made the following photo when he was there in 2013, for which he has my gratitude. Two of these have the same opening from which the knife blade can protrude as the Gotland specimen has.

photo by Hugh McDonald (2013) of three silver knife mounts in the Historical Museum of Szczecin

Alas, I know of no extant examples of silver knife mounts from the Low Countries. There is evidence though that knife handles were indeed furnished with silver over here in the fourteenth century too. In the 1358-1359 household account of Dutch nobleman Jan van Blois there are three entries for knives mounted with silver, for example: Item den selven een mes mit sulver beslaghen, 40 sc.
Because the medieval goldsmith guild statutes of Deventer are no longer around, it is unclear if these mounts were called 'byworpe' there as well. The fact that Deventer was situated on the border of the Low German language region and the fact that they were called 'beworp' in Groningen in 1512, gives food for thought though.

Phase II: Reconstruction

The design

In Deventer Burgerscap I portray a merchant called Henrik ter Brugghen. In the war of the Hanseatic League with Denmark in 1367-1370 he was one of Deventers soldiers on campaign in Denmark and Skane, so he might have picked up the knife there. And as Deventer merchants also traded intensively with the Baltic area through the Hansa network, it seems logical that Henrik might also have bought a knife with silver mounts on one of his business trips there. As you can see the provenance of the knife makes for a great conversation piece at living history events today.

With this in mind I decided to have a knife reproduced, using the Gotland extant mount. I asked a friend who works at the Historiska Museet if he could come by detailed photos of it. In response, the museum had the piece photographed and put them online in their collection database, for which I am very grateful. The text says + HELP MARIA -+ HELP x IHESVS. The 'collar' through which the blade should go seems to have been gilt.

photos by Historiska Museet (2015) of the knife mount from Burs, Gotland

In the north German goldsmith statutes sometimes a pair of mounts are mentioned. Therefor, I opted for a pair of mounts on the reproduction as well. I thought it easiest to have the top mount to be a copy of the extant one too, but with a cap on the end instead of the 'blade-collar'. Because of the mention of wormeshoveden / drakenkopken (wyrmheads / dragonheads) on rings in the statutes, and because of the mural paintings in Archeon being from house Drakenburg in Utrecht (one of my research projects), I chose a wyrm / dragon as cap decoration. I found a good example of such a beast in the fourteenth century finds from Wiener Neustadt in Austria.

from Hofer, N. (2014), Der Schatzfundt von Wiener Neustadt

from Hirschberg, R. M. (2005), Messerformen im Hochmittelalter unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der Mark Brandenburg

drawing by Bertus Brokamp (2016)

The replica

In October 2015 I contacted Anton & Ludmila of Gothic Cast and asked if they could make this knife for me and gave them the above design info. I requested a blade with iron core and steel cutting edge, for the handle to be made in walnut burl wood and to have gilding on the mounts' collar, arches and end cap.
A few weeks ago, at the Battle of Wisby reenactment at Wisby, they gave it to me in person. It was pretty special to get this knife there; a knife with a silver mount that was based on the one that had been buried nearby in Burs, because of that same war in 1361. And although the knife differs from my design (it is straight all along, instead of having the sleek curves from tip to end), I still think it looks majestic! Or should I say Mercantile? ;-)







Now I just need a good scabbard to go with it....

I was in Lund for a conference. And next to the conference building was the historical museum of Lund. It was filled with late medieval archeological finds. I already knew about some interesting finds because of two books I have:

I actually found all of the objects from these books (from 1937 and 1938!) in the museum. And much, much more! Here are some highlights from the museum (I will focus on the leather because that is my primary interest, but they also have knives, swords, a big collection of wall candle sticks et cetera). The museum has conveniently placed identification numbers at every object so you are not immediately overwhelmed with useful information like the location of the find or the estimated age. Instead, you can look up some information in a database, which is in Swedish but not convenient(at least for me) to use. You can find all kinds of useful information in this database, like the catalogue number and when it was found and what the identification number of the dig site was. Swedish friends, if you know how to use the online database from Kulturen at http://carl.kulturen.com to extract something useful, please let me know.


This nice dagger scabbard is also described in Kulturen 1937. In this book, they don't show the gold coated chape, so I'm not sure if the one in the museum is original and belonging to the dagger. The leather is original, and decoratively pierced, probably with an awl, through vertical impressed lines. The dagger itself is described on a separate page in the same book, and was also found at a different location during the same excavation, so I'm not sure if the dagher and the scabbard belong together either. The dagger is estimated to be from 1275-1350.


Here is a classic pouch from the 14th and 15th century. It is a rectangular piece of leather, folded in half and sewn on the side edges. At the top, two leather tongs pass through a series of incisions. There are impressed folds between each incision. The harmonica folds don't occur naturally, you have to make them by wetting the leather, using a blunt object to press the lines into the leather and then folding the leather and letting it dry so the leather keeps the folds. This pouch is first sewn together and then turned inside out. in the top right, you can see that one of the ends of the leather thongs broadens and has some stitch holes. It's quite similar to one of the Schleswig pouches. There is also a small hole in the bottom middle of the pouch. Some of these pouches had decorative leather strings attached to the bottom (Schleswig), but it is not clear from this hole if it was made intentional or not.


Here are some nice leather gloves. The two top gloves are working mittens. They are quite large, covering a large part of your wrists. there is a small leather loop sewn in so you can hang them on your belt or on a hook. Very convenient.


This is a very interesting purse that originally had some metal mount and a decorative leather thong passing through a series of slits cut in a semicircle. I don't know from which period it is.


There were many, many shoes. Here is a nice detail of a shoe with an incision, probably deliberate because the shoe was too small for the wearer. Also notice the nice leather edge, very well preserved.


Here is a nice old shoe with the seam on top. This type started in the 9th century and was in that period a 1-piece shoe, so the sole and upper were one piece of leather. Here you can see that the sole is already a separate part, indicating that it's from a later period. This specific shoe isn't in Kulturen 1938, but a similar shoe in the book is dated to the 13th century.


A nice leather belt with gothic letters and a leather knife scabbard. The scabbard is for a broken back seax, so probably not after the 11th century, Kulturen (1937) mentions similarities with the hunting knife of Charles the great, which is from the 10th or 11th century.


Two nice knife handles carved in the shape of a female figure. The left is from ivory, from the 14th century. The right probably as well.


Left: a nice lantern made from copper-alloy sheet. Right: another purse, looks like goat leather, with a single leather tong passing through the slits. It doesn't have clear folds which makes sense when the leather is goat because goat leather doesn't hold impressions very well.


Some random shoemaker stuff, two lasts, some pegs, cutting tools, etc. Too bad that more information on these objects is missing as well, but that seems to be the trend these days in museums: don't give too much information or the visitor might be overwhelmed by it. Don't tell them where we found it, or from what period it is or visitors will get recurring nightmares where they wake up in the middle of the night, sweating and screaming: "1275-1325!!! Lund! Lund! Lund!", while their bodies contort by the violent muscular contractions that renowned scientists from Harvard and Yale have directly linked to unprotected museum visits where the unsuspecting visitor was ruthlessly exposed to extremely high doses of information, forever traumatizing these poor victims whose sole purpose in life now consists of nothing more than either to simply keep living until the next breath is produced by their pulsating bodies or to find a way of making the perfect chocolate topping for whipped cream pie (seen in 14 % of studied subjects).


Left: A large leather pouch. Note that the fold is on the left and it is sewn on the bottom and right. The diagonal line is probably because it was deposited while folded diagonally. The holes are very larges, indicating that it was probably sewn with a leather string. Right: These look like small round pouches.


A small leather pouch, again with a decorative outer seam.


Detail of one of the knife sheaths with fleur-de-lys stamps, which is a common late medieval motif in all of north-west europe. There was also a nice sword scabbard with fleur-de-lys stamps


Detail of the edge of a shoe, with decorative and reinforcing leather thong.


Some of the many shoes in the museum.

Eergisteren heeft Deventer Burgerscap de nieuwe tentoonstelling in het Rotterdamse Boijmans van Beuningen museum bekeken: De weg naar Van Eyck Er waren negentig kunstwerken, overwegend schilderstukken, te zien van kunst rond het jaar 1400, eindigend bij Van Eyck. Er zaten stukken tussen van hoge schilderkwaliteit, maar ook van lage (maar daarom niet minder waardevol) en van groot en klein formaat (bijvoorbeeld reisaltaartjes). Sommige stukken waren bekend, zoals het portret van Lijsbeth van Duvenvoorde, andere weer minder (en daarom interessant om eens te zien!).

Met ons kleine groepje vielen we danig op als twintigers en dertigers tussen de zee van grijze kopjes. En natuurlijk ook omdat onze focus erg op de weergegeven kleding en accesoires lag. Isis was vanzelfsprekend op gefronste hoofddoeken jacht. Nijso zocht naar de leren voorwerpen, etc. We genoten erg van alles en waren na een paar uur verzadigd met indrukken.

Natuurlijk is het de vraag in hoeverre de afgebeelde mode gebruikt kan worden binnen de groep. De mode van rond 1400 was toch weer net een tikje anders dan die rond 1370. Ik had stiekem gehoopt dat ze ook stukken zouden tentoon stellen van die paar decennia eerder. Helaas bleken ze veelal op zijn vroegst van 1390.
Een meevaller daarentegen was het vierluik van het Mayer van den Bergh / Walters Art Gallery. Dit kleine altaar uit de zuidelijke Nederlanden werd normaal gezien op ca. 1400 gedateerd. Maar doordat het in deze tentoonstelling was opgenomen is het nader onderzocht en is men op stijlvormen tot een nieuwe datering van ca. 1380 gekomen. Een stuk bruikbaarder dus voor Deventer Burgerscap!

The day before yesterday Deventer Burgerscap went to the new exhibition in the Rotterdam museum of Boijmans van Beuningen: The road to Van Eyck. Over ninety pieces, mostly paintings, from c. 1400 were on display there. They were high and low in quality of painting techniques (I like to see the difference, also what was available back then), they were big and small (for example travel altars). Some were well known, like the portrait of Lijsbeth van Duvenvoorde, others less so (and therefor nice to see!).
Our little group stood out quite a bit, us being in our twenties and thirties among a sea of grey haired people. And because of our focus on the depicted clothing and accessories. Isis was on the hunt for frilled veils. Nijso was looking for leather objects, etc. We enjoyed ourselves a lot and were satiated with the images after a few hours.

One can ask oneself what the value is for us to look at fashion from around 1400, since we portray 1370 and yes there is a difference between the two. Upfront I had hoped there might have been more pieces on display of those earlier decades. Alas, the earliest often were from 1390.
There was one lucky strike though. The quadriptych of Mayer van den Bergh / Walters Art Gallery. This small altar from the Southern Low Countries was normally dated to c. 1400. But because it had been included in this exhibition and therefor re-examined, a new dating was concluded based on style: c. 1380. A whole lot more useful for Deventer Burgerscap then!