Sources: The Old English Hexateuch
Goodness me!
Sorry about the hiatus there, everyone. I've got lots of news!
As some will know, I've moved house to Scotland recently. That's pretty much taken life over for the last month or so, as it's a big move for me, and a stressful thing to do at the best of times. It's been made especially difficult because winter always gets a bit dark and cold and sad for me. The black dog is an infrequent, but vicious little visitor to my happy head, and takes up too much of it.
Anyway, this blog is meant to be about old clothes, so let's talk sources, shall we?
The Old English Hexateuch (AKA MS Cotton Claudius B) is an amazing resource, available for free on the British Library website. It has beautiful, full colour pictures of 11th century Saxon clothing for both the ladies and the gents. You want to see contemporary pictures of what C11th Saxons were wearing? Look here.
Peasant farmers, soldiers, bishops, kings, princes, queens, and everything in between. You get a great range of clothing, colours, and styles represented.
OK, some of the figures represent Biblical characterslike Joseph, and he's arguably wearing fanciful clothing in his luxurious garment of many colours. This thing is basically a V-neck, side-split, short-sleeved coat with...circles on it.
Nice.
I'm not sure it's a garment that was actually worn in the period, unlike the nice, workaday tunics and hose worn by others, and the head scarves, under- and over-dresses the ladies are in, but it's cool!
Could this be representative of a luxury garment seen on higher class men? Did the gentry swan about in funky colourful coats? I like the idea. They certainly had split coats for riding and so on. Swaggering about in a weird blue spotty thing is definitely my style! Some other male figures are in side-split tunics with gold trims. GOLD trims! Something that's extremely rare in the archaeology is gold work on fabric grounds, but this book has tons of it!
And this is the problem with using sources like this. They might not be fully representative of reality. Not in the sense that the content is rubbish, goodness me no.
But the pictures are, at the end of the day, illustrations in a picture book. It's not meant to be a guide for posterity on how contemporary clothing looked. This stuff is in the book to make it richer, more accessible, and more entertaining. Art and artisans were, and are, a luxury in themselves, much like Joseph's coat. Were there really people in gold-trimmed tunics? Yes. Definitely, we have physical evidence of such decorative elements. Did they look like this? Maybe. We can't say either way for 100% certain. Did it have a meaning we don't fully appreciate? I would argue yes, after a millennium, probably it does.
I'm comfortable using manuscripts as resources and source material for reconstructing historical clothing, because I've got 10+ years experience in: getting it wrong, asking qualified friends and colleagues what they think, and testing out my ideas on cloth that I've later squirrelled away to hide from critical eyes!
There is absolutely nothing wrong with using the Hexateuch as a source. It has arguably very useful images of typical, well documented Saxon dress conventions and garments like rucked, belted tunics, hose, vamp stripes or seams on shoes, cloaks with circular brooches, eating with broken-back knives (seaxes), head coverings, dresses, haircuts, weapon forms and so on.
It also contains garments we do't fully understand, like Joseph's coat. Sometimes, sources are difficult buggers. All authors have agendas, no matter how minor, and that always has to be borne in mind.
All I'm saying is that my aim is to make clothing that looks, feels, and wears like original garments. Part of that is being willing to admit that I might be wrong in what I think the past looked like, and being willing to throw some stuff out. It wasn't so long ago that Roman brooches were being identified as writing stili, after all!
My Viking trousers aren't perfect by any means, but I'm fine with that. I can patch, piece, re-cut and re-work them until they are, or box them up and eventually make another pair. That's just part of the process!
Anyway, trot on over to the BL, and have a look at the most gorgeous 1000 year old picture book in their collection! PHWOAR!
Sorry about the hiatus there, everyone. I've got lots of news!
As some will know, I've moved house to Scotland recently. That's pretty much taken life over for the last month or so, as it's a big move for me, and a stressful thing to do at the best of times. It's been made especially difficult because winter always gets a bit dark and cold and sad for me. The black dog is an infrequent, but vicious little visitor to my happy head, and takes up too much of it.
Anyway, this blog is meant to be about old clothes, so let's talk sources, shall we?
The Old English Hexateuch (AKA MS Cotton Claudius B) is an amazing resource, available for free on the British Library website. It has beautiful, full colour pictures of 11th century Saxon clothing for both the ladies and the gents. You want to see contemporary pictures of what C11th Saxons were wearing? Look here.
 |
| Fabulous. Truly fabulous. Typical Saxon appearance: tunics, hose, dress and mantle, brooches, shoes, absurdly very long fingers. |
Peasant farmers, soldiers, bishops, kings, princes, queens, and everything in between. You get a great range of clothing, colours, and styles represented.
OK, some of the figures represent Biblical characterslike Joseph, and he's arguably wearing fanciful clothing in his luxurious garment of many colours. This thing is basically a V-neck, side-split, short-sleeved coat with...circles on it.
 |
| What a gorgeous...thing! Also, dig the vamp stripe shoes and rucked tunics! |
Nice.
I'm not sure it's a garment that was actually worn in the period, unlike the nice, workaday tunics and hose worn by others, and the head scarves, under- and over-dresses the ladies are in, but it's cool!
Could this be representative of a luxury garment seen on higher class men? Did the gentry swan about in funky colourful coats? I like the idea. They certainly had split coats for riding and so on. Swaggering about in a weird blue spotty thing is definitely my style! Some other male figures are in side-split tunics with gold trims. GOLD trims! Something that's extremely rare in the archaeology is gold work on fabric grounds, but this book has tons of it!
 |
| Gold embroidery to weigh down your tunic hem? Yes please! |
And this is the problem with using sources like this. They might not be fully representative of reality. Not in the sense that the content is rubbish, goodness me no.
But the pictures are, at the end of the day, illustrations in a picture book. It's not meant to be a guide for posterity on how contemporary clothing looked. This stuff is in the book to make it richer, more accessible, and more entertaining. Art and artisans were, and are, a luxury in themselves, much like Joseph's coat. Were there really people in gold-trimmed tunics? Yes. Definitely, we have physical evidence of such decorative elements. Did they look like this? Maybe. We can't say either way for 100% certain. Did it have a meaning we don't fully appreciate? I would argue yes, after a millennium, probably it does.
 |
| Reveal to me your secrets. Reveal them unto me, you delicious swine, you! |
I'm comfortable using manuscripts as resources and source material for reconstructing historical clothing, because I've got 10+ years experience in: getting it wrong, asking qualified friends and colleagues what they think, and testing out my ideas on cloth that I've later squirrelled away to hide from critical eyes!
There is absolutely nothing wrong with using the Hexateuch as a source. It has arguably very useful images of typical, well documented Saxon dress conventions and garments like rucked, belted tunics, hose, vamp stripes or seams on shoes, cloaks with circular brooches, eating with broken-back knives (seaxes), head coverings, dresses, haircuts, weapon forms and so on.
It also contains garments we do't fully understand, like Joseph's coat. Sometimes, sources are difficult buggers. All authors have agendas, no matter how minor, and that always has to be borne in mind.
All I'm saying is that my aim is to make clothing that looks, feels, and wears like original garments. Part of that is being willing to admit that I might be wrong in what I think the past looked like, and being willing to throw some stuff out. It wasn't so long ago that Roman brooches were being identified as writing stili, after all!
My Viking trousers aren't perfect by any means, but I'm fine with that. I can patch, piece, re-cut and re-work them until they are, or box them up and eventually make another pair. That's just part of the process!
Anyway, trot on over to the BL, and have a look at the most gorgeous 1000 year old picture book in their collection! PHWOAR!
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