Embedded Files
Project: Pounding Silver Leaf, The Mirror of Queen Cartimandua
Scribal Material Challenge
Yes…I thought that I was crazy, too. In over my bloody head. However, as a Silversmith and a lover of experimental archaeology, I adore a challenge…every challenge has a wondrous lesson.
This one was, indeed, of those in which the lesson was a test of patience and mettle.
Documentation on the making of metal leaf in period, whether of Gold or Silver, is sparse at best. We do know that gold leaf has been made for thousands of years and it is documented in De Diversis Artibus, a 12th Century methodological treatise by Theophilus. Practical information about the methods of making leaf is relegated to videos of workmen pounding away at these packets made of multiple layers of vellum parchment which hold in between the layers sheets of precious metal, following the instructions which Theophilus set forth (Theophilus, 39-41) This is what intrigued me; watching the rhythm of the large wooden or brass mallet being brought down with a simple yet forceful *Thud* upon the assemblage, making the metal within thinner and thinner ever so slowly with each strike.
I set about beginning this challenge the same way I begin the making of any jewelry or accoutrement project in my shop...by pouring a small ingot of Silver. The silver that I used in based on an alloy found on an ingot from the Cuerdale Hoard (10th Century Deposit of Viking Hacksilver and ingots, as well as Anglo-Saxon and Carolingian jewellery), with a composition consisting of 97.6%Ag/2.4%Cu (Graham-Campbell, 192). I cast an ingot in my soapstone ingot mould weighing .5oz. From here the process of flattening began in earnest.
I began by hammering the ingot flat with a large, convex face hammer upon my anvil, annealing after 6-7 blows to keep the silver from developing cracks or stress fractures early on. When the ingot was beaten to a strip 12.5”L x 1.3W”, I then cut the strip into equal portions of 2.1”L each. At this point the thinness of the strip was approximately 0.6mm (I do not have a micrometer handy so I compared it to sheet metal in my shop and it was closest in equivalency to 24g metal sheet). The time had come to make the “packet”. I didn’t have much vellum in my shop except for several pieces of Torah vellum from my Illumination kit (I know, I am about to use high quality vellum for illumination to squash silver sheet flat, making it useless for its intended purpose), so I cut the vellum into 6 equal pieces. These were bound between a folded piece of 1oz vegetable tanned leather and then it was all held together with blue painters’ tape, making a 2.5”x3.5” packet. With the pieces of silver in between each small sheet of vellum I began the process of pounding them thinner with a small, leather softening hammer with a flat, 2.25” face. Pounding and pounding, every 100 blows removing the silver to inspect it and to anneal the sheets as silver alloys need more regular annealing than pure metals.
I did this 54 times over the course of three days. Yep, just over 5400 blows, each one making the silver sheet thinner and wider within the packet. Each time the silver reached a size that could potentially become constricting I cut the silver sheet within the packet in half and put aside the extra. Near the end of the experiment I began to see that the metal’s tolerance was near its limit, stress fracturing riddling the very thin sheets, about the same thickness of carbon paper. At this point I stopped and knew that the rest would crumble if I continued.
So I actually have Silver foil, not leaf. Some pieces are thin enough to be able to be used in an illumination (Upcoming project coming soon!) but not with the beautiful fluidity of classic gold Leaf. Did I fail? Not in the least. While I did not make leaf, I learned a great deal about what the metal can DO…far more than I have in my years of making Jewellery.
Photo Album: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?vanity=strongfordarts&set=a.10157660549186262
Sources:
Theophilus, De Diversis Artibus, Book One, Chapter 23, Translated into English by J.G. Hawthorne and C.S. Smith, “On Divers Arts:The Treatise of Theophilus”, Chicago University Press, 1963, pp. 39-41
Graham-Campbell, James (Editor), “The Cuerdale Hoard and related Viking Age silver and gold from Britain and Ireland in the British Museum”, The British Museum Press, London, p.192
Jewlery or Item of Adornment Challenge
The Mirror of Queen Cartimandua
“Magic Mirror on the Wall” is a simple phrase that speaks of great Vanity and the efforts one would go to attain a “perfect” visage upon the reflective surface. Philosophical musings aside, Mirrors are not only accessories where the beauty of its user is constantly tested, they can be articles of beauty in and of themselves. Oh the Jewellery of Vanity!
Among the most enigmatic items of “Jewellery” during the Iron Age are the La Tene Mirrors of Celtic Britain. Although they number over two dozen and dating from the 3rd Century BCE to the 1st Century CE, these mirrors have become synonymous with Insular Celtic Art. What makes them enigmatic is that the contexts in which many were found vary greatly, from cist graves with cremated remains to under the floor of an excavated Roman villa or in a field, found by amateur detectorists, among other items of a decorative nature. Did they belong to women of High Status? Many thought so until one such example (Johns, 2006) was found in a cist burial along with a sword in the Isles of Scilly of the Cornish coast, bringing the notions that they were gender specific into question (Jordan).
These mirrors have always intrigued me…the painstaking work that went into their manufacture and decoration literally screams “I belonged to a person of Wealth and Power” (Hence my rendition being that for Queen Cartimandua of the Brigantes Tribe during the mid-1st Century CE). How to translate that symbolism that has transcended the millennia since their initial creation in my humble shop? Humbly, by hand.
Sanity is something that I have rarely been blamed with.
I started by researching their various shapes and methods of construction…oblong to round bronze faces, cast handles, their use of geometry in the decorative designs all in keeping with the La Tene style which they are pure exemplars of. I based my rendition not on one piece but several extant pieces, bringing a myriad pieces into the design of this one. The organization of Celtic motifs within the confines of the mirror back is a study completely in an of itself. I used a Lyre Loop with Flanking Coils Design (Joy, 82) which comprises of three circular elements connected by central rising linework. The piece itself is comprised of two elements, the flat mirror body and the handle. The body is made from a sheet of CDA521 Bronze Alloy (92%CU/8%Sn) commercially available. The handle is cast from the same alloy using the lost wax method. The decoration of the space inside the motifs became the most time consuming aspect of the entire build. Each of the over 4000 tiny lines of cross hatching that make up the positive space inside the motifs were incised with a steel stylus by hand, leading to cramped fingers and long breaks between sessions (oh to be young and pain free again!). Once the incised decoration was completed, the face of the mirror was then hand polished with grades of Aluminum-Oxide abrasives, from 400 to 2500grit, sanded wet, and then the final “Mirror Shine” was done with a blend of suet and peat ash. Assembly was done with three bronze rivets. Needless to say my arms were exceptionally tired.
Such an item, as simple as it might look, speaks volumes about the care which artisans took in creating these for their patrons. These mirrors could not have been made for just any person in Celtic society. Archaeological context aside, their rich decoration and manufacture alone denote High Status…Items fit for chieftain or, in this case, a Queen. In our modern context Mirrors are used by all, however a mirror such as this would still be used by either a person who could afford such work or admired its beauty, regardless of its actual and final usage.
Photo Album: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?vanity=strongfordarts&set=a.10157660552166262
Sources
Markoff, Steven C. www. Celticmirrors.org
Joy, Jody. Reflections on Celtic Art: The re-examination of Celtic Mirror Decoration. Rethinking Celtic Art, Garrow, Duncan, Editor, pp. 77-94 (2008)
Jordan, A.M. Her Mirror, His Sword: Unbinding Binary Gender and Sex Assumptions in Iron Age British Mortuary Traditions. J Archaeol Method Theory 23, 870–899 (2016).
Page updated
Report abuse