[Regia-NA] Cloth width (was Re: featherstitching)

[Carolyn Priest-Dorman]

Hrolf wrote:

>Found it! The YAT fasicule AY17/13, which deals with wood and woodworking,
>describes a find of a horizontal loom-beam, in ash, from the Bedern
>excavation. Although in fragments, from the drawings it appears to be all
>there, and the width is given as 485mm.ISBN: 1902771109,page 2334-5, by the
>way.
>Now, the Bedern, it is true, is dated as 14th Century, but the York books
>are wonderful in that they go looking for comparable finds from elsewhere.
>In this particular case, another beam has been found in the pre-Norman
>levels of Dublin Castle. This even has what appear to be grooves for the
>supposed attachment of warp threads; both are considered similar enough to
>the timbers of the Oseberg loom for direct comparison.
>The Dublin beam is given as 680 - 700mm wide....ie, 30 inches, give or take.
>Good enough for a working specification, methinks.....

For a *tapestry* loom, yes.  Nowhere do I see an indication that Morris is 
claiming either of these pieces as a warp-weighted loom beam or a treadle 
loom beam.  Instead, she compares it to the Oseberg tapestry loom.  Here's 
the relevant text from page 2334 of that YAT 17/13 fascicule:

         "Fragments of one of the horizontal beams from an ash frame (9237) 
were found in late 14th-early 15th century levels at Bedern....  Comparison 
with a pre-Norman beam fragment found in the excavations at Dublin Castle 
(R.A. Hall, pers. comm.), almost certainly part of a two-beam tapestry loom 
like that from Oseberg, suggests that the Bedern fragment may also be part 
of a similar frame."

What's more, Morris suggests further on down the page that "it is not 
inconceivable that it [9237] is part of a different type of frame, for 
example, one used for stretching an embroidery canvas.  The Dublin beam was 
680-700mm wide, whereas 9237 is only 485mm wide and may have been a 
hand-held frame."


Carolyn Priest-Dorman              Þóra Sharptooth
  http://www.cs.vassar.edu/~capriest/thora.html