This window frame is carved with fashionable Gothic tracery. It is very elaborate, but there was never any intention to glaze it. The weather was kept out simply by shutters, possibly both inside and out. This window frame shows that ceilinged rooms at the time must have been very low, even in timber houses of the more elaborate kind. The total height of the room from which this window came must have been less than 2.1 metres.
Physical description
Window-frame, consisting of a framework of heavy beams enclosing five lights divided by mullions moulded on front and back; the top of each light is occupied by an ogee arch with openwork tracery. On the inside face there are still traces of decorated plaster-work.
For detailed drawings and measurements see Diehl.
Place of Origin
England, Great Britain (made)
Date
1475-1500 (made)
Artist/maker
Unknown (production)
Materials and Techniques
Oak
Dimensions
Height: 180 cm, Width: 198 cm, Depth: 16 cm, Weight: 108 kg
Object history note
From a house in Hadleigh, Suffolk. Given by Mr A H Fass.
This window must have always been intended to be unglazed. The tracery on both sides is carved and the mullions moulded.On the inside face there are still traces of decorated plaster-work. The rebates on the interior faces must have been for shutters. It has been pointed out (Cescinsky and Gribble 1922, 52-53) that these window-frames again demonstrate that ceilinged rooms at this time must have been very low, even in timber houses of the more elaborate kind. The height of this exceptionally fine window is less than 1.8m. Even allowing for the cutting of the lower parts of the up-rights, where they rested in the wall-plate, the total height of the room cannot have been more than 2.1m. Fifteenth century doors made for secular timber-framed houses are rarely over 1.8m in height.
Historical context note
See Salzman, Building in England down to 1540 (Oxford 1952), chapter 17 Doors, Shutters, panelling, screens
Descriptive line
Window-frame, consisting of a framework of heavy oak beams enclosing five lights, England, 1475-1500
Bibliographic References (Citation, Note/Abstract, NAL no)
Charles Tracy, English Medieval Furniture and Woodwork (Victoria and Albert Museum, 1988) cat. no. 245
H. Clifford Smith, Catalogue of English Furniture & Woodwork. Vol.II. - Late Tudor and Early Stuart (London 1930), no. 213, plate 27
Herbert Cescinsky & Ernest Gribble: Early English Furniture & Woodwork. Vols. I. (London, 1922) figs. 40, 41
Daniel Diehl, Constructing Medieval Furniture - plans and instructions with historical notes (Mechanicsburg, PA, 1997), pp.111-118
Exhibition History
Gothic: Art for England 1400-1547 (Victoria and Albert Museum 09/10/2003-18/01/2004)
Labels and date
Window frame
1400-1500
The window is carved with fashionable Gothic tracery. Although exceptionally elaborate, it would probably never have been glazed . The weather was kept out simply by shutters, possibly both inside and out.
Oak
From Hadleigh, Suffolk
V&A: W.59-1913
Ex. Cat. [2003]
Production Note
From a house in Hadleigh, Suffolk
Materials
Oak
Techniques
Carved
Categories
Architectural fittings
Collection code
FWK
