Setting a Gothic Table Baroness Laurencia of Carlisle [email protected] Copyright Bonnie E Martin

Tables    

Materials: wood. Construction: Wooden plank(s) set on trestles. Size: Long or short rectangle top, narrower than a modern dining table. Not permanently set up in a room.

Tablecloths     

Materials: linen. Size: Short or long and anywhere in between. Decoration: Plain or with a woven design. Plain edges or fringed with blue border decoration. Color: white.

Plates & Chargers  Materials: wood or metal.  Shape: Large or small, round with a shallow depth and wide rim.

Bowls  Material: Ceramic, wood, or metal.  Shape: Flat bottoms; deep and with a tall base or stand; round and shallow.  Decoration: Some examples have carved grooves along outside of bowl.

Drinking Vessels Mugs

 Materials: Red or yellow ceramic.  Shape: Rounded body with a narrow neck. Handle can look like a pitcher handle or a small loop.  Decoration: Green glaze.

Beakers    

Materials: Glass, pewter or silver. Shape: Circular base, flared rim. Decoration: Plain smooth shape or decorated with pinched edges and prunts. Colors: Colorless, green, blue-green, yellow.

Goblets .    

Materials: Glass. Shape: Bowl can be flat or triangular. Decoration: Pinches edges around bowl or base. Colors: colorless, green, blue-green, yellow.

Utensils Spoons

 Materials: Pewter or silver.  Shape: Bowl is shallow and rounded or oval.  Decoration: Knop can be a ball, acorn, or human figure.

Knives  Materials: Steel blade.  Handle of wood, bone or horn  Shape: narrow handle with a blade that is shaped like a half oval.

Ewers/Jugs    

Materials: Ceramic, bronze, pewter. Shape: Round body, narrow neck, round base or tripod legs. Can have a lid or not. Decoration: Colored glaze on ceramic, inscriptions on metal.

Saltcellars  Materials: Gold, pewter, wood.  Shape: varies from tall vessels on pedestals to round bowls on short bases.  Decoration: Some salts were decorated with jewels, others with animal shapes on the lids.

Table Manners “Wash your fingers frequently during a meal, we are instructed; keep your fingernails pared, and especially keep them cleaned of any muck that might accumulate under them; wipe the grease from your lips before you drink from the cup you are sharing with your neighbor; don’t scratch yourself, don’t pick your nose, don’t belch, don’t try spitting across the table; wipe your spoon clean; don’t dip your meat directly into the salt, but furthermore when you take a pinch of salt make sure that your fingers are clean; don’t eat from your knife, don’t pick you teeth with the point of your knife or rub your teeth with the napkin; don’t slop a mess onto the tablecloth – or down your front; deposit all your scraps into a dish; if you wish to rinse your mouth at the end of a meal, don’t spit into the basin . . . during a meal avoid swearing or telling risqué or ribald tales; . . . take care not to doze off in your host’s presence.” -Terence Scully, The Art of Cookery in the Middle Ages.

Bibliography Adamson, Melitta Weiss. Food in Medieval Times. Greenwood Press, Westport, Connecticut. 2004. Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (Baluster mugs) http://www.ashmol.ox.ac.uk/PotWeb/PotChron4-02.html Chroniques de France ou de St. Denis. British Library Images Online. http://ibs001.colo.firstnet.net.uk/britishlibrary/index.jsp. Cloisters Collection, The 1983.434 (Salt cellar) http://www.metmuseum.org/Works_Of_Art/viewOnezoom.asp?dep=7&zoomFlag=0&vi ewmode=0&item=1983%2E434 Egan, Geoff. Medieval Finds from Excavations in London: 6 The Medieval Household Daily Living c.1150-c.1450. The Stationary Office, London. 1998. Grandes Chroniques de France. Bibliothèque nationale de France 2813 http://www.bnf.fr/enluminures/manuscrits/aman5/i2_0074.htm Hunting Book of Gaston Phébus, The. Hackberry Press, 2002. Lancelot du Lac et la quête du Graal. Bibliothèque nationale de France. Anthèse, Arcuiel. 2002. Museum of London Picture Library (14th century glass goblet) http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/MOLsite/piclib/pages/bigpicture.asp?id=120 Museum of Fine Arts Boston: Helen & Alice Colburn Fund 1988.291 (Acorn spoon) http://www.mfa.org/artemis/fullrecord.asp?oid=59393 Réunion des Musées Nationaux, Musée du Louvre (Beaker) http://www.rmnphoto.com Scully, Terence. The Art of Cookery in the Middle Ages. The Boydell Press, Woodbridge. 1995. Swabey, ffiona. Medieval Gentlewoman: Life in a Gentry Household in the Later Middle Ages. Routledge, New York. 1999. Victoria & Albert Museum. Museum # 4474-1858 (Salt cellar) http://www.images.vam.ac.uk Vie et miracles de monseigneur Saint Louis. Bibliothèque nationale de France 5716 fol. 187. http://expositions.bnf.fr/gastro/grands/105.htm