2003
Leather Bottle
My second A&S entry, I received a 2nd.
It went to kingdom and received a 2nd.
(This is a really bad picture)
Documentation
The historical evidence
that I found for the use of leather bottles comes from the Mary Rose. The Mary Rose was built between 1509 and1511,
and sank in 1545. When recovered, a
leather flask type bottle was found in the wreckage (click here for picture of
Mary Rose Bottle)
The
second piece of evidence of period leather bottles was quite interesting. It comes from the illumination “Hunters
pausing for refreshment” from the Gaston Phoebus, Book of the Hunt France,
Paris, 15th Century. As you can see,
the huntsmen are drinking from bottles that are very similar in shape and form
to the Mary Rose bottle.
Unfortunately,
I could not find any historical sources on how the actual bottles were made so
I had to mainly rely on contemporary sources, and educated guesswork. I used a variety of online sources for the
process of making the bottles, but the most useful was Stefan's Florilegium
found online at http://www.florilegium.org/files/MEDIEVAL-LIFE/Gram-Letter3-art.html
and a related search for other messages in the string. I also used the archives of a medieval
leather message group on yahoo to come up with pattern ideas and suggestions in
making the bottles.
Materials:
7 – 8 oz. Vegetable tanned leather
Waxed linen cord
Leather sewing needles
Awl
Mallet, rubber and wooden
Swivel knife
Tooling tools
Tandy antique leather dyes
Sand
Round stick
Paraffin wax
The
only non-period items used were the paraffin wax, the stove to melt the wax,
and the dyes. Most of the documents that
describe the waterproofing process of the bottles say to use either bee’s wax
or pine pitch. The problem that I had
with these was that I don’t feel confident in the pine pitch being used in
something being exposed to food, and bee’s wax is expensive. So, I used a food safe paraffin wax, commonly
used in canning and sealing corks.
And the reason for the modern leather dyes is
because I’m not too adept in making period dyes, plus it’s a lot easier.
The
first bottle is made from chrome tanned leather scrap (not to be drunk out of).
The second bottle is
vegetable tanned leather, with a simple Celtic cross cut into the front but not
tooled.
The third is vegetable
tanned leather with a tooled Celtic hound (Design taken from
The
first step is to find a bottle design and cut two identical pieces. The pattern of the first two is of my own
design, and the third is a pear shaped bottle pattern taken from the archives
of the medieval leather group.
After the pattern is cut, then the holes are
marked, then punched using an awl or small nail. If a pattern is going to be tooled onto the
bottle it should be done before the pieces are sewn together. After the holes are punched and the design is
cut in and tooled the sewing begins. I
used a hand stitch, a long piece of waxed linen thread with a needle at each
end then passing both needles through the holes (A basic leather stitch). The stitch is then tapped down with a mallet
to flatten out the seam.
The leather is then
wetted, Stefan's Florilegium says to soak the leather thoroughly, but I found that
this makes the leather too flexible and can cause deformation. Now that the leather is somewhat flexible,
the mouth of the bottle should be pried open and a round dowel or preferably a
funnel. From here the bottle is filled
with sand to fill out the shape and let dry, I let my bottles dry on a window
ledge in the sun. Once dry, stain is
applied, the first bottle didn’t get any stain and the second and third were
stained. Then they are left to dry once
again. When fully dry, the sand is
dumped out and the walls are scraped clean of any remaining sand.
When all the sand is out
the bottle is ready to be sealed with wax.
The wax is melted in a double boiler on the stove. Once the wax is
melted the funnel is placed in the mouth of the bottle and some wax is poured
in to seal the seams then poured out. I
let the bottle sit for a while, about 2 or 3 minutes, and then I sealed the
walls of the bottle. When the bottle has
been totally sealed, I let it sit and dry, once dry it’s tested for leaks, if
it leaks, its sealed again.
The process is fairly time consuming, with the
cutting, sewing, tooling, staining, drying, waxing, and testing. But once finished it makes a very useful and
decorative piece of historical water bearing paraphernalia.
Bibliography
Demmary, D. Kent, Antique Leather Drinking
vessels, Bosley Corp, Indianapolis IN,
1976
Mary Rose From Wikipedia, the free
encyclopedia,
http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Rose
On Board the
Mary Rose, http://www.maryrose.org/lcity/cook/men3.htm
Stefan's
Florilegium, http://www.florilegium.org/files/MEDIEVAL-LIFE/Gram-Letter3-
art.html, and http://www.florilegium.org/files/BEVERAGES/lea-bottles-msg.html
Thomas Tanner of
Ely, The Leather Bottle, bottle, botteil, flask or flackett,
http://www.adamastor.za.org/chronicler/stormtidings/archive/as/bottle.html
