Institute of Carpenters

In Part 1 the term ‘Gothic’ was investigated and here in Part 2 we will look at some woodwork that has survived from the medieval Gothic period. On the large structural side and of special interest are two great timber pieces existing from the fourteenth century: the Lantern at the crossing of Ely Cathedral (1322-1349) (1) and the Hammerbeam Roof at Westminster Hall (c1390) (2). These occurred at the close of the Decorative period and within the first fifty years of the Perpendicular period respectively. It is generally agreed that they are two of the finest pieces of woodwork from the Gothic era. It is worth looking these up on the internet, there are many sites where you can get good pictures of these structures.

Seating Furniture

Because of the limitation of the article’s length we will concentrate on seating furniture (benches, chairs, thrones, settles and stools, pews and stalls), following some of the themes that are expressed in the Gothic style. Firstly we need to acknowledge that great seating designs can be found long before the Gothic period; they can be found in wall paintings, mosaic and sculpture in Egyptian, Assyrian and Greek. Seating types from antiquity are limited to three main styles: the klismos (photograph 1 and diagram 1); the throne or settle type, thronos (photograph 4); and the third is the X-frame or folding stool design, diphros okladias, (diagram 2). The klismos is the forerunner of our light-framed dining chair, although in antiquity it was probably made of bronze, and it has no medieval or Gothic equivalent, but we will see it again when we discuss Gothic Revival furniture. The throne/settle and the X-frame chair or stool does have a life in the medieval period.

 

The throne/settle suggests two variations: type 1 being a four legged stool with the back legs carried straight up and connected by one or more horizontal rails with or without vertical slats (see photograph 2 for solid back type); type 2 is a framed up box with the styles of the framing carried up to make a back and at the sides to make what would be ‘arm rests’ if they were at the correct height, but they are often too high for this (see photograph 3). Perhaps the side panels above seat height are for protection against sword or knife or, more likely against draughts. Medieval buildings were very draughty.

The X framed seat was originally a folding stool capable of being portable, perhaps carried by a servant for the high status master to use as required (see diagram 2). The X frame has outlived this portable and folding form and morphed into a solid, presumably half lapped, pair of X frames that created the legs and armrests. Often the foot ends of the X-frames were either carved into an animal paw or hoof, or into the form of a duck’s heads which had an amusing effect for the modern viewer (photograph 4) shows a modern X-frame chair in the chancel of Christ Church, Glasson Docks, Lancashire. A drawing of a medieval X-frame chair can be seen in diagram 3.

The most basic form of seating from the medieval period is the long stool or bench which, when given back supports and ends we recognise as a pew (photographs 5 and 6). Stalls are in construction rows of jointed ‘thrones’ (photographs 7 and 8).

There were in the medieval period basically two types of construction; plank built or framed. In Part 3 we will deal with frame construction and record the growth of joinery as opposed to carpentry in the historic sense. It will be easier if we leave case furniture (3) till then.

The Gothic period has been called the period of the carpenter because of its rich use of plank construction. The earliest case furniture (if we discount dug-out log chests) is a six-plank chest, where flat sawn boards are butt jointed together and nailed or pegged then, for security, encased in metal strapping (photograph 9). Relief carving is applied after the assembly but perhaps before application of the metal strapping. Although in many cases the original chest was finished without chip carving and this was added many years later, most probably in the Jacobean period.

Seasoning and Working of Timber

It is doubtful that any recognisable degree of seasoning was done before assembly as the working of oak, despite what we have driven into us as apprentices, is easier to carry out when still a little green. I have studied several pieces of church furniture that has evidence of post assembly seasoning. Sometimes the wicked short grain of carved pew ends leaves me wondering how many times the carver would have needed to grind and hone his basic wrought iron cutting tool. These cutting tools would have to have been cleverly worked so as to change the wrought iron into steel by heating and annealing the cutting edge to incorporate enough carbon to make it hard and able to hold an edge (4).

Because of the research done on medieval swords we now know that the sword-smith was viewed as an alchemist because he knew how to change iron into steel. But I know of no research into medieval saw or chisel making.

Plank Construction

To return to seating, the most basic type of pew has similarities with the six-plank chest in their construction, they are several planks simply joined up. The pew ends can be very basic or be ornamented with either relief carving or full sculpture (photographs 5 and 6).

Gothic Carving

There are four types of wood carving used in the Gothic period and the following two hundred years or so. They comprise: 1. Carving in the round, where the finished sculpture that can be viewed from many sides; 2. Incised carving, this consists of very little relief and no background; 3. Pierced carving where the carving cuts right through the timber in parts; 4. Chip carving, this is common in the Tudor, Elizabethan and Jacobean periods and consists of rather shallow pattern carvings worked onto panels and planking.

All these four types can be found in medieval churches in different parts of the church with the chip carving often the last to be carried out and usually on earlier work that has been considered too plain.

 

In his account of ‘Gothic Carving,’ Herbert Turner, a practising carver, makes some very useful observations:

At the present time [1911] most of the ecclesiastical woodwork that is executed is either purely Gothic in style, or is very largely influenced by Gothic. Such work requires special treatment—a peculiar manipulation of the tools being rendered necessary by the distinctive and exceptional characteristics of the Gothic style, which place it in a class apart.

 

He explains that the wood carver follows the style and character of the mason who constructed the building, but, he says, the woodcarver tends to be a little more conservative than the mason. This means that:

The wood carving of a later period commonly retains many of the characteristics of the architectural period immediately preceding it. (5)

Conclusion

All the above pieces of furniture excluding the klismos and the early folding X-frame stool are heavy in construction, massy and the ornament, if any, is on the components that are essential for their structure. Remember Ruskin’s and Pugin’s definitions. The type of decoration is either based on plant; animal, including human, or abstract in the form of chip carving; even these have a foliate or floral basis for their inspiration.

There is one special type of ecclesiastical furniture called the misericord, which is a type of stall with lift-up seating. This lifted up seat had a decorative little shelf on its underside that can be used by elderly or otherwise frail religious to rest their buttocks on when standing for long times in the frequent officers said by the professional religious in pre-Reformation times. These are still in use today and can be seen in some churches and all ancient cathedrals in what is now the rear row of choir stalls. See photograph 8 with the various parts labelled. These carvings on the misericord are often seemingly secular and poke fun at various real or stereotype characters. These carvings along with the stone carvings on rain spouts, better known as gargoyles, are examples of the grotesque aspect of Gothic design.

Features taken from the motifs of Gothic architecture like the pointed arch or the stepped counterforts (6) and pinnacles can be seen on Gothic style furniture that have no structural impact on the furniture; these are usually dated from the Gothic revival period and will be studied when we cover that period.

The late Dr Brian K Hodgson, Ph.D, LCGI, FIOC, FFB, MIMWoodT, AIMMM (MIWSc) North West Region

1 Cecil A Hewett, English Cathedral and Monastic Carpentry, Chichester, Phillimore & Co Ltd, 1985, pp114-22.
2 Cecil A Hewett, English Historic Carpentry, Phillimore & Co Ltd, 1980, p188. Cf also www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/building/palace/westminsterhall
3 Case furniture is the term for cabinets, cupboards, chests, etc
4 The story of the quest of man for a consistent quality of steel is one of the great stories of technology. The secret partly lay in not loosing carbon but on adding it in a controlled manner. Cf. R A Higgins, Materials for the Engineering Technician, London, Edward Arnold, 1991, pp. 147-64.
5 Herbert Turner, ‘Gothic Carving’ in Manual of Traditional Woodcarving, ed. Paul N Hasluck, New York, Dover Publications Inc., 1977. Facsimile of 1911 original, p. 88.
6 The counterfort/buttress shape at the end of the chest in Photograph 9 is a means of preventing the chest being carried away, not a ornamentation or structural element.

This article first appeared in the October 2014 issue of Cutting Edge. As part of the IOC membership, IOC members receive quarterly editions of Cutting Edge magazine and access to all back issues online.

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