[Regia-NA] Windsock banners?

[rmhowe]

Douglas Sunlin wrote:
> I am interesting in building a "windsock" dragon banner such as those 
> illustrated in the BT.

BT? Bayeaux Tapestry?

 > I wonder if anyone who has done this can offer
> some tip for construction? Thanks!

The book by Seppa, Heikki
called Form Emphasis for Metalsmiths; Kent State University Press, 
Softcover, ISBN: 0873382129, $10.80. that can be had quite cheaply.
See http://www.bookfinder.com/ and search for it. It is outstanding
on metal shaping techniques. If I wanted [to learn] to shape sheet
metal into something like this it is the first place I would
look. I've had it for years and I have around 500 books on
metalworking, blacksmithing, art metal work, jewelry and knifemaking.

I would use roofing copper available from the roofing suppliers in
your area. A sheet is about $40 or so I was told when I paid for
a few sheets of it to have my chimney flashed and capped. I think
it is about 3 x 4 feet but it's been a while. .040 thick, or a
bit more than a 1/32". Easily annealed with a regular propane torch.
Easily cut and shaped too. A chromer or silver-plater could
change the appearance for you if what you want is white metal.
Brass (copper with zinc) is a bit more brittle. Bronze [copper with
tin] is harder. Larger sheets of those are a bit more difficult
to come by.

> Douglas/Osweald

The standards (windsocks) are descended from the Roman Cavalry
Cohort standards of which one survives (partially) in England
and another in Germany in the actual metal.

[Something similar is being used in the current movie King Arthur.
Which has a curious mixture of armors including tibetan/chinese
neck armor from the article on the history of lamellar
armors in the Armour from the Battle of Wisby by Bengt Thordemann.
It wasn't as glaring as the gladiator helm in one of the scenes
from Thirteenth Warrior however. But every hero or knight has
to look different in each of the movies.]

I have a picture of the thing in one of my antiquarian articles.
Actually found my citations in my bibliography although I was
looking under dragon and head and not under Boar. When I found
the Deskford reference in Feuge're below I searched that and
found it.

Mostly shaped thin sheet metal with an open back,
open mouth and some rather large dark circles for eyes.
In:

Piggot, Stuart: The Carnyx in Early Iron Age Britain;
in Antiquaries Journal 39, 1959, pp.19-32 and plates VI-XI,
with two in text supplementary figures. The plates depict a
1768 drawing of Carnyx parts found at Tattershall, Lincs;
A Roman sculpture including various carnyxes as war booty,
Carnyx blowers on the Gundestrup Cauldron,
***The bronze boar’s head from Deskford, side and top views,
detail of eye, rear view, and bronze plate associated with the
Deskford Boar’s head;
fragnent of the Dünau Carnyx and bronze armlet from Auchenbadie
showing the terminals, bronze masks from Stanwick, bronze
figure on a terret from Aldborough, and a bronze disc from
Ireland.
Figure 1 depicts the Tattershall carnyx restored (drawing)
and the Deskford head as a Carnyx mouth.[This has been reinterpreted
as a Cavalry standard.] [The back of the celtic style head
had a flange suitable for attaching a windsock over. There
in no hole through the head, or attachment point I can see
which is possibly why it has also been interpreted as a carnyx
head.]
Figure 2 depicts sections of the Dünau Carnyx and a redrawn 	decoration 
from the Tattershall Carnyx.
The article itself is buried somewhere around here.
.................
A drawing and photograph of it in a currently available book:
Weapons of the Romans by Michael Feugère, Tempus 1993/2002
www.tempuspublishing.com

Page 49, illustration 36 - bronze head found at Deskford in
Scotland [drawing after MacGregor 1976. Photo from the
National Museum of Antiquities, Scotland.

Figure 37 is a Bronze sheetmetal Draco with a coxcomb (almost)
crest from Niederbieber, third century AD. (photo Rom.-Germ.
Zentralmuseum, Mainz, Germany) Front half, back is not showing
in this picture. It is cut off behind the head in the photo.

Try bookfinder.com - you can find it cheaper than the original
price by Tempus, like at least a third.
............
I also have numerous articles on period niello and enamels
which were used in period to decorate such metal items.
.............
Years ago I bought at a flea market the head for a dragon
I was told came off a chinese fountain (he'd heard, provenance
unknown). I converted the thing to a specially made oak staff
with a saddle joint of angled wood to fit up into the head.
The idea was to get some flash powder and rig it for a magic
staff to commence outdoor ceremonies. The only problem was I
took my time getting the tube and initiator that fits normally
on a magician's finger and the local magic shop quit selling
them. Otherwise that staff is finished long ago. I had even
predrilled a hole for the string trigger to initiate the flash.

It would not do for a standard like you are wanting however.
It was right for a large staff head though.
For one thing it is a Chinese dragon head, and the back of the
mouth is sealed with a curved plate that used to have a copper
tube through it. For another it is curved itself and too small
by comparison. It has been hanging on a bookcase end for years.
Perhaps I can make it burn incense instead. :)

I have one Victorian gothic censer and the top half of a French
medieval [reproduction] censor after the original I have a picture
of in Dinanderie 1910. You don't always get all of an item when
you find one. Dinant was the town, later obliterated,
where many of the neat aquamaniles, censors, candlestands, etc
of the French Romanesque and Gothic era were made. Aquamanilli
is the name of a book (usually had from Hacker Art Books) from
Italy depicting about 39 of the surviving aquamaniles.

Ricci, Franco Maria: Acqamanili:Oggetti Medievali Per Uso Sacro
e Profano ISBN 8821603318:. 1982  Franco Maria Ricci, Editor,
via Cino Del Duca 8, Milano, Italy.  This is about the bronze
ones; all color and all in Italian; has most of the intact
surviving ones in it. About 43 as I recall, price is about
$35, generally 	available from: Hacker Art Books in NYC.,
45 West 57th St., New York,  NY 10019; phone (212) 688-7600
Fax (212) 754-2554; webpages: http://www.hackerartbooks.com; 
hackerartbooks at infohouse.com

In later period you also get silver nefs for high table (ships).

Oman, Charles: Medieval Silver Nefs; HMSO 1963, 31pp with
9 b/w plates and figs plus 24 full-page
b/w pls at the rear, Lam card cover, £9.00

Oman, Charles - The Gloucester Candlestick, Victoria & Albert
1958.  Pbk, $6. If you have never seen the thing it is wondrous.
It is quite similar to dinanderie which is full of intertwined
romanesque animals and folliage generally.

Magnus