I just received an order to make some bowls for Ridley Scott’s next film which is set in the 12th century and called Nottingham. It has been billed as “The Galdiator version of Robin Hood”. I have been approached by folk looking for film props several times before but normally they want it tomorrow, have little money in the budget and are not interested in authenticity so long as it looks something like at 10 feet. So it was a delight to deal with people that whilst making it clear that they were not making a documentary took a serious interest in the bowls and I think chose a good range for the film. So as well as a good number of eating bowls I am making some stacking bowls, a copy of this one found at St Mary Spittal London.
And here are a stack of replicas I did a few years ago.
Then I will be making six large bowls like this
And 4 silver rimmed mazers like this so it is set to be a busy summer.
Nice one Rob . . .You should have got a part in the film too. Having a bowl turners shop in a scene would add real flavour.
Treewright is right; besides, you already know Robin Hood . . . What’s the time on those stacking bowls? It’s a genius idea but reminds me unpleasantly of plastic storage containers.Those enormous bowls from the Mary Rose are gorgeous. How much do you sell them for? They look like they’d be difficult to lift while using them, but then I suppose they were mostly placed on a table or shelf.What an enormous variety of projects you’ve worked on, even in the last few weeks!
Hello Robin.. I was pleased to come across your blog here and see your lovely work 🙂 Wishing you all the best from Scotland… Rima
Thanks for the nice comments, I do love the variety of my work, plenty to keep mind, body and soul all occupied.The stacking bowls are one of those things that were on the unidentified turned object list for several years and it was not until I made a replica that I realised what they were, we have since found contemporary images of them in use. Very like the things used in some hospitals today where they stack plates with stainless hoops separating them.The big Mary Rose bowls I sell for ÂŁ180, they take more than a day to make and three months to dry…there is a higher failure rate than my small bowls and I could make 20 star bowls out of the piece of wood used for one of these. So I really subsidise the price a bit because I like making them.medieval accounts show large kitchen bowls at up to 20 times the price of eating bowls but I don’t think I would sell any if I did that.
The idea of an unidentified object list is tantalising. I can’t say I’m really surprised at the giant bowls being difficult to make or that medieval bowls were on a wide price-range. That puts me in mind to ask about amateur turners, since I was recently reading Chaucer and found a footnote that suggests the Miller turned his own dishes. I was looking through the British Library Digital Collection of Illustrated MSS and found a picture you might be able to use, of a monk eating pies out of a large bowl: he’s holding one side and a devil holds the other! It’s in the detail of f. 190 of the link below.http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/record.asp?MSID=7537&CollID=20&NStart=91
Thanks for the image link Rika, I like that, the devil leading him astray by eating on a fast day or just being glutanous? Whatever its a nice bowl and a nice picture of medieval pasties.Very interested in the Chaucer, is the footnote contemporary or modern? I would be very surprised at the idea of amateur turners. It became common for rich gentleman to play with lathes from the 17th C onwards but it is really only viable to set up a lathe if you are turning a good number of vessels. In Scandinavia you find both turned (professional) and carved (amateur) vessels side by side but not here.
Regarding the Chaucer reference, it is modern. I can’t recall the edition I first saw it in, but I looked it up in my trusty Riverside Chaucer and find that whatever research went into the references to turning is now being challenged by a theory about possible drinking games, which frankly makes more sense in the context of the tale. Sorry about that. If you think there might be any merit in it, I’ll scan the pages and post them. The lines themselves can be found through the link below, if you skip to “The Reeve’s Tale”, line 8.http://www.cts.dmu.ac.uk/AnaServer?CaxtonsOL+0+start.anv And I think you’re right about the monk, the devil and the pie. In fact, I just spent a lazy morning looking at hagiographies to find out what is going on there ( http://anstruther.blogspot.com/2008/05/eustace-oven-and-pies.html ).