14th Century Plaque Belt
by Cai Dubhghlas
Pomp and pageantry during
the 14th century was growing ever so rapidly. Showing one's wealth
became the popular trend, especially amongst the nobles trying to gain
political and social favor in any way possible. During this time a trend broke out in the England and France
regions of Europe of wearing a jewel encrusted metal plated belt on the hip or
just off of the hip. These "plaque
belts," as they are commonly referred to, are seen decorating many of the effigies
created during this time. The plaque
belt was typically worn with a coathardie, sometimes with a sideless surcoat
over both later in the 14th century. The illustration of Queen Phillipa from c1350 will show this, Fig
1.
Time has not been too kind to the preservation of such opulence, as heirs changed or dismantled them into other forms of jewelry as the vogue of plaque belts came to its end. Still many forms of art surviving today contain the ever-lasting sign of wealth and its display. It is these forms of art on which I have based my design for my recreation of a plaque belt of this time.
Many scholars and historians
have proven that plaque belts were typically cast of gold or other precious
metals and set with high quality gems, Fig 3.
Surviving pieces in galleries across Europe have proven this design, as
the picture of a lady in waiting in France of this time, Fig 2. Some of these belts were made of a leather
backing in which the plaques were attached around the whole of the belt. This practice is no stranger to Europe as
the Romans did such on the belts that Centurions in 1st Century AD
wore. Dating from that ancient time also was demonstration of pierced metal
work over many forms of art and weaponry.
It is in the combination of these facts that I demonstrate the
construction of the belt I have produced.
Knowing that the technology existed to create a belt within the scope of my skills and tooling, I set forth to design a piece that held the elements of my lady within them. The construction is as follows by the diagrams on the next page. First I measured her waist and then decided what size of plaque I should create. I settled on 1-3/4" squares that were to be linked by chain. Next I toiled as to what materials I would make this belt from. Since I had not the experience or wealth to cast gold or any other metal, I decided that I would give the belt the same look as its period counterpart with sheet metal. Here is where I chose to give it depth and texture in overlaying metals on one another. For materials I chose brass to represent gold, and stainless steel to represent silver. Some people would think me insane to chose to work with stainless steel. First because it did not exist in medieval Europe and second because it is a very tough and hard to work metal. However, being that it is much cheaper and more accessible than nickel or silver, this was the alternative I chose.
Once I had the materials
laid out and the size decided, I set out to come up with what designs or
decorations I would place on this belt.
Since this belt is a gift to my wife as a demonstration of my devotion
to her and my understanding, I sought her counsel as to how it was to be
decorated. Knowing her love for the
lily and tiger, I knew that I had to combine these elements into her belt. Also finding that wearing the flour-de-lys
in France at this time was vogue, we decided to encrust every other plaque with
a red lace agate stone and pierced flour-de-lys. The red lace agate has very striking markings resembling tiger
stripes. I then decided to add a
personal touch to the project by creatively cutting the mount for the
stones. Each stone is held in place by
a bezel of four flour-de-lys tops. I
cut each bezel and flour-de-lys by hand using a jeweler's saw. Once the bezels were cut, I bent the tabs
and fit them to each stone so that the brass and stone would lay flat.
One of the hardest tasks of
the project was to wrap the stainless steel around the back of the brass. Once the steel was folded over the brass, I
cleaned up sharp corners caused by the forming as well as drill holes in the
corners of each piece. Next I formed
rings out of brass wire to link the plaques together. When I passed a link through two plaques, I closed it off. Once I had two plaques joined I then crimped
the rings over with a pair of pliers to form it to an oval shape, to make it
more comfortable to wear. I also
soldered each of the links on the backside where I joined them to keep them from
pulling apart and either grabbing clothing or getting damaged.
In Conclusion, I enjoy the fact that overall the weight and the durability of the belt will far exceed that of its medieval counter parts. Also the cost in materials for this belt was below sixty dollars. The time I spent cutting each detail and working ever so hard to fold the stainless around the brass, lets me know that I did no less work than the artisans of old. Personally I feel that the belt looks very much like the belts on effigies and in paintings and pictures of the 14th century. And most important of all, my wife likes it.
Bibliography
Houston, Mary G. Medieval Costume in England and France – The 13th, 14th, and 15th Centuries, Dover 1996.
Norris, Herbert. Medieval Costume and Fashion, Dover 1999.
Braun & Schneider. Historic Costume in Pictures, Dover 1975.