Watching Paint Dry - Recreating a Medieval Painted Interior. Penny Hill, 19 October 2018 The medieval court, Llys Llywelyn, has finally opened its doors. The hall transports us back to a day in the 13th century when Llywelyn ap Iorwerth, Prince of Gwynedd is in residence and about to hold court. The recreated sumptuous decoration, furnishing and ornament reflects both his wealth and status, most of the portable items travelled with him as he progressed around his kingdom so were only present when the prince was in residence.One way to reflect your wealth and status in the medieval period was through the use of colour. There were a wide range of artist's pigments available from which paint could be make, some were natural minerals like the bright red vermilion and others where man-made such as Verdigris, a green-blue colour created by suspending copper plates over vinegar or the waste from the wine making process.Our mission, along with the painters from the Historic Buildings Unit and volunteers from our Preventive Conservation Group, was to recreate the painted interior of the 13th century court. All was to be authentic including the pigments and paint medium we used. The wooden columns and arches were still drying out so whatever we applied had to be breathable, but also robust enough to cope with the thousands of visitors we welcome each year.Paint is made up of two elements, a coloured pigment and a glue referred to as the paint medium. There were a variety of traditional mediums we could use such as gelatin, extracted by boiling up scraps of parchment made from the skin of sheep, calves or goat. Other options included egg and also casein derived from milk.As you can see the options available were very 'organic' and certainly not familiar. Our only guides were the few remaining texts on the subject and analytical evidence from surviving paintwork.Which paint mediums did we choose in the end?Egg was an option, but it would have taken an awfully large number of eggs and been a bit smelly while the egg off-gassed sulphur during the paint setting process! We therefore started to trial gelatin in combination with the white pigment calcium carbonate for the background and red ochre pigment for the chevrons. This proved very successful for the white background but less so for the red chevrons. The next option was casein, this produced a much more robust finish and therefore was chosen in combination with the red ochre pigment for the chevrons.One thing we learnt during this process was that our work had to be slow and methodical, traditional materials can't be rushed. We developed a huge respect for the medieval painter and the skill required when using these tricky materials to create decoration or works of art.Finally I wish to thank all our volunteers for their help to deliver this project. We could not have done it without them and yes we spent a lot of time watching paint dry, praying it wouldn't flake off!
Perspectives on a Professional Training Year Placement Kimberley Mills, 16 October 2018 "If you asked me what a magelonid was 18 months ago, I would have looked at you with a somewhat muddled expression. Let me tell you, a lot has changed since then. Roll onto the present day, after a year at Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales for my Professional Training Year (as part of my Zoology degree at Cardiff University), I could talk for as long as you are willing to listen about this fascinating family of marine bristle worms, commonly known as the shovel-head worms (Annelida: Magelonidae)." When my application was first approved from the Natural Sciences Department at the museum, I didn’t know what to expect. I had always loved anything marine and knew from the start this is the area I wanted to build a career around. This was a very broad declaration and beyond this, I was rather diffident in what I wanted to pursue. Therefore, my number one priority was to keep an open mind and make the most of everything the experience would offer. This view shaped a year filled with opportunities, that has not only been indispensable in developing my scientific skills in both hands on research and writing, but also in giving me a direction I am interested in for the future. The majority of the placement involved both behavioural and taxonomic studies on European magelonid species, through the practicing of methods such as time-lapse photography, live observation, scanning electron microscopy, high definition photography using a macroscope, and taxonomic drawings using a camera lucida attached to a microscope. As a result of this work, some very interesting findings were highlighted for the Magelonidae, with important implications for furthering our understanding of these enigmatic animals. Perhaps the most fascinating arose through extensive time-lapse photography and observing animals in aquaria within the marine laboratory, in which an un-described behaviour emerged in the tube dwelling species Magelona alleni. Later termed as ‘sand expulsion’, this behaviour was a highly conspicuous method of defecation where M. alleni would turn around in a burrow network, raise its posterior region into the water column and excrete sand around the tank. Just knowing I was most likely the first person to ever witness this was a very rewarding experience in itself! To understand why this novel behaviour was exhibited, the posterior morphology of M. alleni was compared to additional European species. These findings have led onto my first publication in a peer-reviewed journal, of which two more papers and an article are due to follow as a result of working closely with my supervisor throughout the year.I also got the opportunity to participate in tasks that are essential to the upkeep of the museum, such as curation, specimen fixation and preservation, along with invertebrate tank maintenance. Additionally, I participated in sampling trips, including a visit to Berwick-upon-Tweed and outreach events, such as ‘After Dark at the Museum’, which saw over 2,000 visitors, and the RHS show Cardiff. Overall, the museum is a very friendly, intellectual and dynamic environment that has more to offer than perhaps meets the eye. This is why anyone who wants to study the small, whacky and wonderful world of marine invertebrates should not pass up an opportunity to undertake a placement here. Spend any prolonged amount of time amongst the hundreds of thousands of specimens kept in the fluid store, and I guarantee you will not be able to escape a visceral appreciation of the natural history of our world. With this comes a feeling of preservation for all we have and a reinforcement of why museums are such a crucial component of our society today, something that is too easily forgotten. Read more about Kim's journey through her PTY Placement at National Museum Cardiff:https://museum.wales/blog/2017-08-04/A-new-world-of-worms---beginning-a-Professional-Training-Year-at-the-museum/https://museum.wales/blog/2017-11-15/A-tail-of-a-PTY-student/https://museum.wales/blog/2018-02-07/The-early-bird-catches-the-worm/
Norman Cardiff and minting coins Edward Besly and Peter Webster, 5 October 2018 Coin of William Rufus - front Coin of William Rufus - reverse Amgueddfa Cymru-National Museum Wales has just acquired a rare piece of Cardiff’s early history: a silver penny of the Norman king William II (1087-1100) made in the castle mint in the early 1090s. The newly acquired coin of William Rufus. William II, known as ‘Rufus’ (‘the Red’, perhaps from his hair colour), was the son of William the Conqueror (also known as ‘the Bastard’). During his reign the Normans made their first incursions into this part of Wales under Robert FitzHamon, a Norman baron who conquered the area and became the first lord of Glamorgan. The Normans brought with them the habit of using coinage and it seems that a mint was set up at the castle soon after its foundation in 1081. However, no coin certainly identified to be of William Rufus from the Cardiff mint had been recorded before this one showed up in 2017, within a private collection which was offered up for auction. Prior to the Norman invasion, coinage was in regular use in Anglo-Saxon England, with a network of mints and a centralised supply for the dies used to make it, but there was no tradition of minting in Wales. Early Norman Cardiff was a frontier town, and so its mint had to fend for itself: the obverse (‘heads’) die seems to have been borrowed from elsewhere and the king’s effigy was re-engraved, giving him a slightly comical appearance. The reverse (‘tails’) was made locally from scratch – it bears a clear, if crudely engraved mint signature ‘CAIRDI’ [CIVRDI or CIIIRDI], but we cannot fully read the moneyer’s name, ‘IÐHINI’ (Ð = ‘TH’) – he may have been called Æthelwine (interestingly, a Saxon rather than a Norman name). The designs of current coins were changed every few years – and the king took a cut every time a new coinage was issued. We now know of coins from four different issues in the name of ‘William’ (which could be either William the Conqueror, or his son William Rufus) and four more for Henry I (1100-35) from the Cardiff mint, but they are all incredibly rare. In the civil war of King Stephen’s reign (1135-54), Cardiff fell into the hands of the Angevin party of his enemy, the Empress Maud. In 1980, a hoard of over 100 coins, mostly previously-unknown Cardiff issues of Maud, was found at Coed-y-Wenallt, above Cardiff, and transformed our knowledge of that period. It included baronial issues from Cardiff and Swansea – which, for the latter, was the earliest evidence of that place-name. After that, however, the Cardiff mint disappears from history. Our new coin of Rufus provides another piece of the jigsaw that is the early history of Cardiff and its region. Many pieces are no doubt still missing, and who knows what may still await discovery? As for the man himself, he died on 2 August 1100, whilst hunting in the New Forest, when struck by an arrow: an unfortunate accident or was he murdered? Edward Besly, Numismatist (Coins and Medals Curator), Amgueddfa Cymru-National Museum Wales. The Norman castle as envisaged by RCAHM. The stone keep is probably later than the reign of William Rufus and would originally have been of wood. Motte surrounded by a ditch Assumed Ward wall Re-used Roman wall probably without projecting towers Earth bank with ditch outside A schematic section through the castle’s earthen defences before the 19th and 20th century removal of the outer portion of the medieval bank and the reconstruction of the Roman Fort wall. Remains of Roman fort wall Roman bank Norman bank Later Medieval castle wall Reconstructed Norman castle wall between the South Gate and the Clock Tower The west castle wall. The stretch between the towers is essentially the wall of the Norman castle. The massive Norman motte, with later medieval stone shell keep. The Medieval bank surviving on the inside of the East walls. The crop mark visible in the foreground is a late medieval building. The stone wall and gateway from the outer to the inner ward, seen here looking from the Keep to the South Gate. This wall probably has its origin in the defences of the Norman castle. Speed’s 1610 map of Cardiff. The coming of the Normans Cardiff today is largely a product of Victorian development, but at the very centre of the city is a historic core originating with the Roman military and later re-occupied by the Normans. There is little or no trace of a settlement at Cardiff between the end of the Roman period and the coming of the Normans into Wales in the 1080s, although there may have been some occupation at the point where the Roman road from Caerleon to Carmarthen crossed the River Taff. When the Normans arrived, this was the point where they chose to site the military and administrative centre for their new lordship of Glamorgan, re-using the remains of the late Roman fort for a castle enclosure and establishing a small town at its southern gate. Reconstructing the Norman castle Norman Cardiff had its focus in the castle, but the castle building we see today is very different to the original one. To get at the Norman castle we have to strip away the 19th and 20th century alterations made by the marquesses of Bute, which had in part involved the restoration of the walls of the late Roman fort. The Normans threw up a massive earth bank over the remains of the Roman fort walls, from a point near the north-west corner of the castle, round onto the sides now fronting Kingsway and Duke Street. The remaining Roman fort walling (from near the present south gate round onto the side now facing into Bute Park) was repaired, although, strangely, the projecting towers which will have formed part of the Roman defences appear to have been removed – perhaps to provide material for the repairs. This Norman wall can still be seen, albeit with a good deal of 19th century restoration, between the south gate and the Clock Tower and north of the western castle apartments. The material for the banks on the north, east and part of the south sides was taken from a massive ditch dug around the entire enclosure. This is now filled in on Kingsway and Castle/Duke Street and underlies the present western moat and northern dock feeder. This ditch can still be glimpsed occasionally when service trenches are opened around the castle, but a clearer idea of its scale can be gained from the evidence of John Ward, curator of the Cardiff Museum and Art Gallery from 1893 to 1912. Ward observed the underground toilets being dug in Kingsway and reported that, although completely below ground, they did not reach the bottom of the ditch. Ward’s schematic diagram of the castle’s earthen bank shows the result of this ditch digging – the sizeable bank still present on the inner side of the castle walls (to the left of the diagram) repeated on the outside. Inside these outer defences, the Normans constructed a massive motte – a mound rather like an inverted pudding basin, surrounded by a large moat. This can still be seen, although the mound received some landscaping by Capability Brown in the late 18th century and the moat (which Brown filled in) was re-excavated in the 19th century and may be more regular than it once was. We can assume that there was some sort of structure on the top of the mound, probably a wooden palisade and tower, likely to have been replaced by the present stone ‘shell-keep’ in the 1240s. The remainder of the castle interior was probably divided as seen now by some sort of wall between the keep and the south gate. A stone wall seems likely but is uncertain. We can expect buildings (probably of wood) within the two ‘wards’ thus created but, to date, no certain structures have been discovered within the limited area excavated. The Norman town. South of the castle lay the small town of Cardiff. The classic view of the medieval town is that created in 1610 by John Speed, which shows a walled enclosure extending south from just east of the south-east corner of the castle to the bottom of what is now St Mary’s Street. This, however, depicts the late medieval town. It is likely that the first Norman town was smaller, probably bordered by the present day Womanby Street, Quay Street, Church Street and St Johns Street (the semi-circle of streets at the northern end of the town as seen on the Speed map). This layout can still be seen in the streets of Cardiff and it is noticeable that the junctions of High Street and St Mary’s Street, and of St John’s Street and Working Street, lie on the suggested early boundary. This, along with much else of the documentary history of Norman and Angevin Cardiff, is discussed by David Crouch (2006). Crouch’s hope that archaeology will add to this picture has so far not been fulfilled. The only excavations within the suggested first town (in Womanby Street and Castle Street), although they confirm Norman occupation, have not yielded structures of such an early date. Indeed, the assiduous digging of cellars by the Victorian residents of Cardiff has unfortunately removed a good deal of the potential evidence. Peter Webster, Honorary Research Fellow, Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales (former lecturer, Cardiff University) Further Reading Cardiff Castle The medieval castle is treated extensively in RCAHMW, An inventory of the ancient monuments in Glamorgan, Vol. III, Part 1a, Medieval Secular Monuments, the early castles from the Norman conquest to 1217, London 1991, 162-211, which, despite the title, takes the castle story up to the 20th century. Further background to the restoration of the Marquesses of Bute is provided by J. P. Grant, architect to the 4th Marquess (Cardiff Castle, its history and architecture, Cardiff 1923). The Town The best discussion of Norman Cardiff is David Crouch. ‘Cardiff before 1300’ pp.34-41 in J.R.Kenyon, D.M.Williams (Eds.), Cardiff. Architecture and Archaeology in the Medieval Diocese of Llandaff, British Archaeological Association Conference Transactions 29, London 2006. This includes references to earlier work by W.Rees (1962) and D.Walker (1978).
Coast – an exhibition fusing art, science and museum activism Julian Carter, 5 October 2018 Over the past few months the museum has been working closely with colleagues at the beautiful Oriel y Parc gallery in St Davids to bring together an exhibition celebrating Wales ‘Year of the Sea’ called ‘Coast’.The exhibition fuses artworks and natural science specimens specially selected by the Oriel y Parc team from Amgueddfa Cymru’s collections, and displays these alongside some of the recent museum activisim work of Amgueddfa Cymru’s 'Youth Forum Group' highlighting the issues of plastic pollution.The multidisciplinary nature of the display explores how the sea has inspired artists for centuries, highlights the biodiversity of the Pembrokeshire coast, and how plastic now impacts on the environment and our everyday life.Centre piece to the art works is Jan van de Cappelle’s masterpiece ‘A Calm’, surrounded by sea and coast inspired paintings from a selection of other artists including Cedric Morris and John Kyffin Williams. Amongst these works are specimens from the natural science collections capturing the richness of Pembrokeshire's wildlife, including the skeleton of a leatherback turtle found dead on Skomer Island in 1988.The turtle had in the past been on display at the visitor centre on Skomer, but was removed a number of years back when the buildings on the Island underwent redevelopment. In need of some repairs and cleaning, the specimen became an excellent project for one of our conservation student placements at the museum, Owen Lazzari. The end result has enabled us to bring the specimen back to Pembrokeshire to form one of the centrepieces of the exhibition.Other highlights from the natural science collections include one of our historic Blaschka glass models dating from the late 1800s, and a Goose barnacle covered builder's helmet found off the Welsh Coast.Further information can be found on Oriel y Parc's website: https://www.pembrokeshirecoast.wales
Preserving Summer Colour Penny Hill, 27 September 2018 It's that time of year when everyone is busy preserving the summer harvest to enjoy over the winter months, but as well as fruit for Jam and vegetables for pickles, how about colour!It's often believed that people in the past had very little access to colour, only existing in a world dominated by shades of brown or grey. This could not be further from the truth, just armed with a little knowledge plants can yield a delightful range of colours such as red, yellow, blue and even lilac.Until the mid-19th century textile dyes were derived from natural sources, mainly plants, but some from insects . So to help furnish our historic houses with examples of colour we are embarking on a project to reproduce the traditional dye process and see what we can create.Volunteers, working alongside the preventive conservation team, have been busy rediscovering the dye garden at St.Fagans. While removing the weeds we were lucky enough to find a few dye plants surviving, there was a nice clump of Madder, a few Weld plants and Woad. These few survivors were a good start, Madder produces a red dye, Woad a blue and Weld a yellow.The red is extracted from the root of the Madder plant, this was first washed, cut up and minced, then gently simmered in water to extract the colour. The Weld leaves and seeds were cut up and simmered in water to also extract the colour. We will have to be a bit more patient with the woad, as the best blue is extracted from the fresh young leaves of the first years growth.Mordants have been used traditionally to help the dye fix to the wool and create a more intense colour. By the medieval period a naturally occurring mineral called alum was used to pre-treat the wool before dying. We therefore decided to test a few options, so we dyed wool previously mordanted with alum, wool mordanted with Rhubarb leaves and wool not mordanted at all, just to see what impact there would be on the final colourOnce the dye baths were made, 50g batches of washed wool from our Llanwenog sheep were dipped and allowed to soak up the dye. The dye bath was heated to just below boiling and then allowed to cool. The fact that sheep were bred early on in our history to produce a greater proportion of white wool to grey or brown is an indicator that colour was just as important then as it is now.Here are the results of our first batch.
