Ruminations on a Tableau

As I was planing some beautiful cherry (thank you, Bjorn) this weekend for a table and benches, my father said something to me that made me go "Oh, duh."

You see, there's this beautiful trestle table from the 14th century that is still in existence. A friend of mine planned and recreated a few of them, then very generously provided me with his plans (thank you, Harvey!) In taking these plans to my father, the engineer (yes, that's where I get it from), he said, "Do you know why the table still exists? because nobody wanted to use the damn thing! It was pretty but it kept falling over!"

While I don't entirely agree that nobody wanted to use it, there is a good deal to be said for the instability of a table that's 24" wide, but has a 15" wide base. Certainly as a merchant's wife, Olivia would not have had an unusable table, or one so prone to falling over that it needed to be kept in a corner or against a wall somewhere. 

So, now to go back and find some designs from late-ish period tables that meet the needs of an active house without a disposable income. Perhaps a perusal of paintings would promote planning progress. I have some thoughts, but will need to ruminate a bit more.

The Feast: Hall Layout

Several months prior to the The Feast of St. Nicholas, I invaded the library of Master G. Emerson True for information and sources. Having done a great deal of imagery research, I had an idea of how I wanted the Great Hall to feel, but I was lacking in layout specifics and sources. Master Emerson was invaluable in the planning and execution of the layout and service of The Feast.

After riffling through a great deal of books, I found the following excerpt, which perfectly described the picture in my mind.

Wooden trestles and boards... were laid out along one or both of the long sides of the Hall, while the high table stood on a raised dais at one end. At that table, the host and his family and special guests ate their meal.¹

The Banquet in the Pine Forest
Sandro Botticelli (1445-1510)

As the expected guest count exceeded what we could accommodate with the borrowed trestle tables, we opted to use the trestle tables for the Above the Salt seating, and the more readily available plastic folding tables for the Below the Salt and off-board seating. For High Table seating, Lord Harvey Wynegoode offered us the use of his brand new 16th century tables for the event. As tables in Tudor times were more heavy and sturdy, due to the Lord's ability to remain in one castle for their tenure¹, these were perfect!

The musician's gallery was typically set in a balcony, or second level at the foot of the Great Hall, when one was available.² As our site was an old church, it was built to accommodate the musician's gallery.

While stools and benches would have been appropriate seating for such a feast, we did not have access to a large number of these. As such, we opted for the limited number of wooded chairs the site provided, for the High Table and Above the salt seats, and the plastic folding chairs for the remaining seating.

The kitchen at our site was located in the basement. Accordingly, we would need a formal staging area. This staging area is called the buttery.

At the far end, opposite the dais, was built the carved wooden screen, with its doors onto the screens passage. This passage led from the kitchen and the buttery to the Hall.¹

Boards were also used in service of medieval feasts¹. These would be laid out with the platters and covered bowls filled, with the bounty of beautiful board to be enjoyed by the guests These boards would be carried from the buttery to the head of the Great hall, and placed on trestles for service. As we had a limited staff and were concerned with the stability of trestles, we chose to place the boards on more sturdy desks.

The Peasant Wedding
Pieter Bruegel (1567)

¹C Anne Wilson, The Appetite and the Eye (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1991)
²Maggie Black, Medieval Cookery: Recipes & History (Swindon: English Heritage, 2003)

Carpenter on the Go

Within the Society, one of the many things I dabble in is woodworking. I say "dabble," but I have been doing real woodworking (from plans to finished product) for more than 20 years. My most recent SCA project was a collapsible table that I had seen many people carrying around at events. I started by looking at my favorite woodworking site to find some plans to work from. I found these plans and went off running!

First, I had to pick out the wood. I found some oak from an old bed frame and an old broom for the structural pieces. I found this lovely piece of idunno wood for the table top. It's some kind of soft wood, which means it scratches easily, but it was what we had that fit the size (and we all know that free is better than $). It will also be easy to replace, when that time comes.

Next, I cut all the pieces out and did some light sanding The legs all needed to be rounded. This required a vice and a belt sander. Very exact work, here. 

Next up - routing the table top pieces and the brace pieces. After this, lots of sanding. And more sanding. And a little more sanding. Once all the sanding was done, I assembled the table, per the instructions in the plans, and generously applied five coats of linseed oil. 

Overall, the project was fairly easy to construct. The plans were well written and easy to follow. If I were to do it again, I would choose a better wood for the table tops. After just 2 uses, there are deep gouges in the tops. I did know this would happen, given the soft wood I used, but I was not expecting it to happen so quickly.