Medieval and Renaissance Furniture

by Daniel Diehl

  Framing Members

  With the exception of the arms, all the framing members of the chair pieces can be planed down from mill-dimension 2-by-4-inch oak. The arms require an 8-inch-wide board; by interlocking the narrow ends of the arms when laying them out before sawing, you can cut both arms from a single 3½-footlong board. The legs and side rails on the seat and back are all 1 inch thick, but the legs are 2¾ inches wide and the side rails are 3 inches wide.

  Seat and Back Panels

  On the original chairs, the seat and back panels were made from a single ¾-inch-thick oak board, but even in the centuries-old copy shown here, they are made of two boards glued together along the joining edge. We recommend gluing together seat and back panels that are three boards wide, rather than two, for reasons of economy. Do not use oak veneer plywood. When the panels are cut down to fit into the rabbeted grooves in the frame members, the plywood would lose strength and the layers of the ply would show on the back side of each panel.

  Use standard mill-dimension 1-by-6-inch and 1-by-8-inch oak boards. The seat, because it is wider than the back, is made of two 1-by-8-inch and one 1-by-6-inch boards. The back is made from two 1-by-6-inch and one 1-by-8-inch boards. Allow an extra ¾ inch in both the height and width of these panels to provide the tongue that seats into the rabbeted groove in the frame that goes around both the seat and back. The chamfers were originally shaped with a drawknife or plane, but they can more easily be cut on a table saw or router. Using a drawknife or plane will give the chamfers the slightly irregular surface found on the original pieces.

  The seat and back panels join together along the cross rail located underneath the back panel. The seat panel intersects this rail at an angle of about 110 degrees to the back. To allow the seat board to fit properly into the chamfer in the cross rail, cut the chamfer slot on a 20-degree angle. Notch the rear edge of the seat panel to fit around the side rails of the back. To ensure a tight fit, assemble the back structure, place the seat board between its side rails, and slide this unit into position over the back structure. Once positioned, it should be easy to mark where the seat needs to be notched.

  Framing Construction

  The original chairs were made without the use of glue. The large dowels that extend through the side rails and into the cross rails of the seat and back were held in place by small dowels, as illustrated in details A and B. This combination of large and small dowels held the back and seat frames together, which in turn held the back and seat panels in place. For this procedure to work properly, you must have a good, snug fit at all the major joints. A snug fit means that the pieces should go together with a firm tap with the palm of your hand. The small dowels, of which there are eight (one connecting each large dowel on the seat and back into the cross members, and one in each of the two dowels in the leg stretcher), should need to be driven lightly into place with a mallet. Cut the small dowels 1 or 2 inches longer than necessary, and after you have driven them into place, trim them off carefully with a knife. If you wish, you can replace the small dowels with screws. Countersink the heads of the screws ¼ inch beneath the surface, and plug the hole with a short length of dowel. The finished work will be virtually indistinguishable from the original, despite the different means of construction.

  Arms

  Positioning the arms to fit correctly is the most difficult phase of construction. Because the seat is 2 inches wider than the back, the arms must rest on a slight angle. As a result, the holes through which the large dowels pass are also on an angle. To provide a properly angled surface against which to position the arms, use the side rails of the seat and back as a jig.

  Pre-drill a pair of seat and back side rails to receive the large dowels, and join them at the point where they would naturally join at the base of the seat by inserting a short length of 11⁄8-inch dowel through the corresponding holes. Be sure that the seat rail is resting on top of the back rail. Align the free ends of the seat and back rails with the top and bottom ends of an arm. The three pieces should now be positioned in a triangle, in the same way as when attached to the chair. Clamp the seat and back rails to the workbench so they cannot shift out of position. They can now be used as a jig against which to fit the ends of the arm.

  In order for the arm ends to rest flat against the side rails, the inside surfaces of both the top and bottom ends of the arm must be worked down at an angle of about 5 degrees. Achieve the proper fit by slowly removing the excess wood a little at a time with a rasp or hand sander. Do not drill the holes for the large dowels in the arm until the arm rests flat against the side rails. Because the arms lie on an angle, the dowel holes must be drilled at a corresponding angle to slide over the dowels properly.

  Legs

  Although all four legs are the same dimensions, the outside legs need to be notched out to a depth of ¼ inch at the point where the legs cross so that they will interlock slightly. By interlocking in this manner, the legs rather than the dowels will support the weight of anyone sitting in the chair.

  Dowels and Wedges

  The entire chair is held together by eight 11⁄8-inch-diameter dowels. The ends of six of these dowels must be in- serted into 1¼-inch-thick cross rails; reduce the 2½-inch section of each dowel that will be inserted into the cross rail to a diameter of ¾ inch. Be very careful when drilling the dowel holes in the ends of the cross rails. The holes must be straight and drilling into end grain can be tricky. If possible, use a drill press or boring machine. Those in the top and bottom rails of the back should be inserted vertically, and those in the front rail of the seat horizontally.

  The wedges in the ends of the large dowels are actually what hold the chair together. For the greatest strength, cut them from ¼-inch-thick maple or ash. The slots into which these wedges are seated are difficult to cut. Start these slots by drilling two ¼-inch-diameter holes in the large dowel. One of them should be a vertical hole at the rear of the wedge slot, and the other on a 15-or 20-degree angle at the front. Remove the wood between these holes with a sharp knife. The rear edge of this slot (the edge closest to the chair) should extend slightly beneath the surface of the arm or leg against which the inserted wedge will rest. This way, the wedge is actually pulling against the body of the chair and not just against the end of the slot.

  Carving and Finishing

  Executing the carving on this chair is tedious and time-consuming. The complex arrangement of letters and the difficulty of working with oak make this a job only for the experienced woodcarver. Although the ornate carvings are an integral part of this chair, the piece is still both attractive and serviceable if left uncarved. Undoubtedly it was originally designed to have a pillow or cushion on the seat. Select the fabric for the cushion cover based on the amount of carving on the chair and the darkness of the finish. A rich tapestry, damask trimmed in fringe and tassels, or leather in natural or dyed colors would all be historically appro- priate seat covers.

  PROJECT 5

  Barrel Chair

  Barrel Chair, Italian, fifteenth century. Pine, walnut, and lime, 27 x 25 x 19½ inches. The Cloisters Collection. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Photo by Jay Grayson.

  Throughout the Middle Ages, and well into the Renaissance, chairs symbolized social status. The larger and more ornate the seat, the wealthier and more powerful its owner. Although peasants and villagers seldom owned anything more elaborate than a stool, merchants usually had at least one or two chairs with both backs and arms. Petit nobles and abbots sat on arm-chairs with carvings suitable to their stations, while kings and popes sat on magnificent thrones surmounted by upholstered canopies. Now located in the Campin Room of the Metropolitan Museum’s Cloisters, this ornately carved chair was long the property of the Church of San Orsto, located in the Val d’Aosta of the Italian Piedmont. Constructed during the latter half of the fifteenth century, this chair was probably commissioned for an abbot of a local monastery or one of the Church of San Orsto’s canons.

  More than one craftsman may have worke
d on this piece, which combines pine, walnut, and limewood (the European term for linden, a wood similar to basswood). It is possible that both a furniture builder and a carver worked on the chair. Curiously, the chair’s decorative work lacks the sophistication of the Renaissance art that was flowering across Italy at the time. The shop that produced this chair may have been so provincial that it remained unaffected by the sweeping changes affecting Italian urban artists and craftsmen. Notwithstanding its artistic limitations, this chair wonderfully exemplifies provincial craftsmanship from the late Middle Ages.

  Construction Notes

  Despite this barrel chair’s intimidating appearance, its basic construction is amazingly simple. The carving details and bentwood slats provide an opportunity to sharpen your carving skills and learn the art of bending wood with steam. The completed chair will instantly become the focal point of any room it occupies.

  Materials

  The seat, horseshoe-shaped arm unit, and kick panel on the chair’s front are pine; the two curved splats encircling the back are bent from limewood; and the rest of the chair is walnut. European walnut is normally much lighter in color, and rather softer, than the notably hard black walnut familiar to Americans. If carving black walnut seems too daunting, you can substitute mahogany with little change to the chair’s finished appearance. The nails, with their impressively large heads, have to be specially forged.

  Frame

  Begin constructing the chair frame by roughing out the legs. Cut the three legs to size according to the materials list. Notch the inside faces of the legs to receive the back splats There is one long notch along the inside of the left and right legs, but two separate notches in the rear leg. The notches on the left and right legs begin 143/8 inches from the bottom, whereas those on the rear leg begin only 133/8 inches from the bottom. Within the notches on the left and right legs are secondary notches into which the back splats are rabbeted. Cut these notches, shown in the drawing of the inside face of the right leg, to a depth of 3/8 inch. Incise mirror-image notches into the left leg.

  Now cut the general outline of the legs as shown in the drawings. The outside faces of all three legs are slightly concave. This curve is more pronounced on the left and right legs than on the rear leg. The shape of the feet also differs between the front and rear legs. The heels on the left and right legs are notched out, while the bottom of the rear leg is curved. This curve begins approximately 8 inches from the bottom. To cut the general shape of the legs, enlarge the drawings to full size on a photocopier and trace them directly onto the wood. If you lay out and cut the rough shape of the leg without the aid of a pattern, allow for the small head at each leg’s center.

  Next, cut the seat support and its accompanying angle brace as shown in the side view of the seat and support. The seat support has a tenon on only one end. Mark and cut the tenon as shown in this drawing and the end view of the seat support tenon. Then cut the corresponding mortise on the inside face of the rear leg. Cut the tenons on the ends of the angle brace as shown in the small detail drawing beneath the side view of the seat and support. Aligning the front face of the angle brace with the front edge of the seat support, locate and cut the mortise for the angle brace into the bottom of the seat support.

  Cut out the large pine kick panel that connects the front legs and supports the front of the seat. This panel is shown in the front view drawing and in profile in the side view of the seat and support. Allow for the 1¼-inch tenons on each end. The tenons, shown in the front view, are ½ inch thick. Simply remove ¼ inch from the face of the kick panel to create a tenon of the proper thickness and at the proper location.

  Lay the seat support on a workbench with the top of the support facedown on the work surface. Insert the angle brace into the mortise. Standing the kick panel in front of the seat support, with the seat support at the center of the kick panel, locate the position for the mortise and cut. Then fit the three pieces together, checking for snugness and alignment.

  Mark and cut mortises on the inside of the left and right legs to receive the tenons on the kick panel. These ½-inchwide mortises should be 1 inch behind the leg’s front surface, as shown in the drawing of the inside face of the right leg. Locate the kick panel so that its top edge is 1 inch below the long notch on the inside of each leg. The location of the kick panel is clearly shown in the front view drawing. The mortise and tenon joints should fit snugly. Now temporarily fit together the frame of the chair, consisting of the legs, seat support, angle bracket, and kick panel.

  Seat

  With the assembled chair before you, make a template for the seat. The front-to-back depth of the seat should be 163/8 inches, the width between the front legs 17 inches, and the width behind the legs 19¼ inches. The dimensions can be found in the side and front views of the seat and support and in the top view with arm removed. Make sure the seat is deep enough to extend from the rear of the notch in the back leg to the front edge of the front legs.

  The seat is made from two 1-inchthick boards pegged together with three ¼-inch-diameter dowels. (See the instructions for doweling on page 1.) After the seat has been doweled together and cut to shape, it should lie easily on the chair frame. The side view of the seat and support shows the seat resting on the seat support, the notch in the rear leg, and the top edge of the kick panel. The seat should now extend 3/4 inch beyond the front of the kick panel.

  Carvings

  Disassemble the chair and execute the carvings on the legs as shown in the drawings (both faces on each leg have identical carvings, so only one is shown). The depth of the carving is indicated on the drawings by hatched lines. Areas with crosshatch lines running in two directions, forming a checked pattern, are carved to a greater depth than surfaces with lines running in only one direction. The different depths of carved work are particularly noticeable in the interlocking vine and trefoil pattern on the front face of the left and right legs. Getting multidepth patterns right can be a little tricky; practice on a scrap before beginning work on the legs. Techniques for executing the flat, incised carvings are detailed in the chapter on woodcarving; details for sculpting the more fully rounded figures are covered at the end of the chapter on the settle under the heading “Carved Figures.”

  On the right leg of the original, the small head near the center has been carved from a separate piece of wood and attached to the leg, presumably with a dowel. Did the woodcarver change his mind about the design halfway through the project or simply replace a ruined head? We will never know. This head, like most of those on the chair, unfortunately has been nearly worn away over the centuries. Although we often attempt to rectify the degradation of time in our projects, we have no idea what the heads originally looked like.

  Finally, cut out and carve the skirt board shown in the front view and skirt board drawings. A profile of this carving is shown in the section A drawing. The skirt board does not have tenons to hold it in place; it is simply nailed to the front of the kick panel. The skirt board drawing can be enlarged to full size on a photocopier.

  Arm

  Reassemble the frame after the carvings have all been executed. Using the tops of the legs as a guide, make a template for the arm sections as shown in the top view with arm and the side view. The arm is made of two pieces of 5/8-inch-thick pine that form a horseshoe. The pieces meet on the top of the rear leg. Cut the arm to size and shape, and round the edges with a file or a ½-inch round-over router bit. Then cut the two back supports as shown in the back support drawing.

  Frame Assembly

  Since the structure of this chair is not too well engineered, you should glue all the joints. Note in the side view of the seat and support that the angle bracket is held in place with two largeheaded 1½-inch nails. A similar nail holds the seat support tenon into the mortise in the rear leg; four more hold the kick panel to the front legs. The nails in the front legs are driven through the rear face of the legs and the tenon in the kick panel; two nails are used on each end of the kick panel.


  The front of the seat support is fastened to the kick panel and skirt board with another nail. A total of seven nails attach the skirt board to the kick panel, six of them simply extending through the panel and clinched over on the back. The nail at the top center, however, continues straight into the seat support. Judging from the amount of clinch on the other nails, this nail must extend into the support 1 inch or more.

  Set the seat in place after the frame has been assembled. It is not attached to the frame; the curved splat just above it holds it in place. Immediately attach the horseshoe-shaped arm sections. The arm will keep the legs in their proper position and help hold the frame square while the glue dries. The arm sections are fastened to the legs by the large-headed nails shown in the top view with arm. In addition to the fourteen nails holding the arm in place, an iron clinch, like a giant staple, keeps the arm sections from pulling apart. This clinch, described in the metalwork section above, can be added after the glue on the frame is dry. Be sure to drill pilot holes for the clinch. Since the clinch is made from ¼-by-1/8-inch stock, drill two pilot holes, 3/32 inch in diameter, next to each other. This gives 3/32-by-3/16-inch pilot holes that will accommodate the clinch’s rectangular shape. This seemingly confusing procedure will become clear when you hold the clinch in position in the arm.

  Back Supports

  Install the two back supports after the arm has been secured to the legs. Their location is indicated in the top view with arm removed and the side view. The supports are nailed through the top of the arm as shown in the top view with arm. The bottom edge of the supports, shown in the back support drawing, only rests on the edge of the seat. Although they are not evident, there must be small nails driven through the seat bottom and into the supports. Since these nails go into the end grain of the back support, it is essential that you drill pilot holes to prevent the wood from splitting.