Adventures in Historical Tabletweaving

Peter Collingwood's The Techniques of Tablet Weaving is probably the most comprehensive book out there on tablet weaving in general. It also contains a lot of information on (SCA) period bands. However since the book is organised by technique and not by time or place, it can be hard to track these details down. Below for my own reference and that of other people is a list of items from the SCA period that I have found from skimming the 2002 book. If you notice something I've missed (and I'm bound to have missed something!) please let me know. p108, 208, plate 167 Maniple of St Ulrich, diagonals and brocading p109 Egyptian diagonals including medieval Finnish bands p114, 217 12th century Sicilian Orphrey, diagonals and brocading p117 12th century belt of Philip of Swabia, checkerboard effect with warp twining p119 9th-10th century Germanic (Augsburg and Speyer) bands, lettering with warp twining p122 "Anglo-Saxon" belt with card idling - more recent research su...

Here are the details on the further tablet woven bands I found when going through Sakrale Gewänder des Mittelalters. In addition there were a few that mentioned tablet woven bands without giving any details on their composition, and many more that mentioned "gold bands" which I assume were probably tablet woven. 5. Two fragments of a cingulum (Augsburg, Diocesan Museum, late 9th century) a) Red tablet-woven silk band with narrow, yellow-green edges. Inscription, created through different directions of the warp strands: IN NOMINE DOMINI AILBECUND VE ... VXPI (Christ) IHEV (Jesus) NOSTRI IN NOMINE DOME (Domini). The end of the band is bound with gold bands. In the middle of the band are sewn on little silver frames (5x4cm), in which under glass one finds a piece of silk (probably little bits of the sewn-on stripes from b). On the back side of the silver frame, seal impressions. Length 123.5cm, width 3.8cm. Materially and technically belonging together with Queen Hemma's gir...

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, here's a list of the contents of Sakrale Gewänder des Mittelalters , in case it's of use to anyone. If anyone happens to be interested in one of the items here let me know and I'll provide the text and/or picture(s) of the item in question. It's a bit long so it's after the jump. Sorry for any oddities in the translation. Items in italics come with pictures. While writing this up I found a few more mentions of tablet weaving, which I'll write up separately.

Every now and then I get a little excited about some book just because it has some passing reference to something I'm currently researching. Sakrale Gewänder des Mittelalters (Hirmer Verlag Muenchen, 1955) piqued my curiosity a few months ago due to being cited by a few people in relation to the Girdle of Witgarius. It happened to be on offer cheap second hand on Amazon at the time and I couldn't help myself. So, what does this book say about the Girdle (my translation from the German)? Red, tablet woven silk band with narrow, yellow-green edges, in the middle cut into two pieces and sewn together. At both ends trapezoidal end pieces sewn on. Brocade in gold thread forms the field for the inscription in red relief: "WITGARIO TRIBVTI SACRO SPIRAMINE PLENVM x HANC ZONAM REGINA NITENS SANCTISSIMA HEMMA x. On the end pieces, in red and white, the warp creates the pattern: Eagle white on red, correspondingly on the back side red on white, in which on both sides the white...