14th Century Funerary Achievement
Photo © 2008 Mark Bolton
Sir Thomas Burton, 1381 engraving c. 1410, Little Casterton, Rutland
The original image can be seen here.
We thought it would be fun to take a picture to look like a funerary achievement. Because we're lying down, my skirts aren't flowing quite right, but I think it came out splendidly! We're foreshortened a bit because we're lying down at an angle, so I've lengthened the black and white picture to compensate. If you click our black and white image, you can see a bigger version of the unstretched picture in color.
Magnus' kit is circa 1350. The cloth parts of the kit consist of a linen gambeson, wool gamboised cuisses lined in linen, a linen coat of plates, and a linen heraldic surcoat.
My cotehardie is a white cotton jacquard—a modern substitution for a silk damask. It would be much more appropriate if the cotehardie were constructed of wool or silk, and though damasks were woven in period, a jacquard is a modern weave. (As an aside, for folks interested in the history of computing, the idea behind the jacquard loom is fascinating. A quick Google on jacquard will return many informative results.) Mistress Eleanor le Brun has a very nice article on modern fabrics suitable for the SCA on her site.
Over the cotehardie, I'm wearing a sideless surcoat made of linen. A brass depicting a lady with a similar outfit can be seen in the brass image L017: Basset lady c. 1380 available through the Gothic Eye Ltd. On my head I'm wearing fabulous—albeit uncomfortable—crespinettes. More about those later.
Now, let's take a closer look at the components.