A 17th century (ish) leather mug
A coworker of mine who is involved with Living History at Agecroft Hall found out that I do leatherworking as a hobby and asked me to make her a leather mug. She requested that it look right, but didn’t mind if I used some modern means to accomplish that end.
In order to make a leather mug that looked like one from the 17th century (Agecroft’s Living History portrays the family in 1631), I had to figure out what a 17th century jack looked like! Making things a little more difficult was the fact that my coworker portrays a servant, so she needed a lower class mug to fit her impression. Until fairly recently, museums were mostly interested in upper class objects (looking at you, Victorians!), so lower class items can be hard to find references for in museum collections. I was able to find two auction house listings for 17th century leather mugs, though - one dated to 1680 - 1720 from David Charles Dodge Antiques and one dated to the 17th century from Hiscock and Shepard Antiques. It was the latter that I referenced heavily in my own mug -
Because I don’t necessarily trust antique sellers as much as I trust museums when it comes to dating objects (which is probably unfair on my part), I compared the general construction of the jacks I found to that of 16th/17th century leather bombards in museum collections. The Museum of London has one dating to the 16th or 17th century (item number 4566), and Warwick Castle has two massive leather bombards. Some common features between the smaller mugs sold by the auction houses and the larger bombards from the museums include the double rows of stitching and the odd triangular handles. It seems like round handles are more common on 18th century jackware.
I also found a bit of discussion about 17th century leather mugs in Oliver Baker’s “Black Jacks and Leather Bottells”:
“OF LEATHERN MUGS
In addition to the huge tankards known as bombards and the big jugs called black jacks, ancient leather pots are sometimes me with, which as so small as scarcely to be dignified by either of those names; neither have they their vaired contour nor their characteristic build. They are simply “mugs” of leather. Though always included in the term “black jacks,” these mugs during the 16th century were more frequenty called “gispens”… The term “Gispen,” usual in the 16th and 17th centuries for a leathern mug, is so spelt in Halliwell’s “Dictionary of Archaic Words,” and also in Nare’s Glossary. Palsgrave in his “Lesclaircissement de la Lange Francoyse,” printed in 1523, calls it “gyspen potte,” and translates it “pot de cuir.” There were “xiii lethern Gyspens” at Westminster Abbey at the Dissolution. They are mentioned in “An Inventory of the Buttereye remaynynge in the Custodye of Gabrell Palley to thuse of the late Abbotte.” (Printed in Transactions of Lon. and Middx. Archaeo. Soc., Vol. IV., p.356.)” - Baker, Oliver (1921). “Black Jacks and Leather Bottells”, p. 125
“In an inventory of 1540, now at Belvoir Castle, were among the goods of Lord Sande’s “In the Buttery. Item vii gallon potts of lether, and vii gyspins, one wt another iiiid.”
According to Bishop Kennet the gispen was a leather jack and was in use at Winchester (Lands. MSS., 1033.). In the Computus of the Bursar of Winchester College, jacks holding as much as a gallon are called gispens. The following entry occurs in 1569. “Sol pro iij lagenis de corio vocat ly gyspyns ad usum scholarium et serventium, iijs iijd.” (Annals of Winchester College, 1982, p. 227.)
In the Legend of Captain Jones, written by the Rev. D. Lloyd in 1648, is the passage:
“In this great disaster
Raymond the soldier’s mariner and master
Lost heart and head to rule; then upstart Jones
Calls for six gispins, drinks them off at once.” Etc.
In the Roxburghe collection of ballads is one of about 1665 called “The King of Good Fellows or the Merry Toper’s Advice,” in which the same vessel is alluded to:
“Twas I that lately drunk a Pint pot
Filled with Sack unto the brim,
And to my Friend, and he drank his Pot
So merrily went about the Whim;
Two gaspins at a draught I poured down my throatl
But hang such trifling things as these!
I laid me all along, put my nose unto the Bung
And drank out a Hogshead-full with ease.”(Roxburghe Ballads, Part XVIII, Vol VI, p. 502)
The “gespins atte the Picher-house” are mentioned in the Ordinances of Charles II, while the purchase by the same King of three gispens, and of a “Gespin” and some black jacks by Charles I is mentioned in Chapter VIII of the present work.
It is certain that in old times, cups a mugs of leather were few in number compared to jacks of larger sizes, if it were only because of the immense number of wooden cups which were in use, till comparatively modern days.” - Baker, Oliver (1921). “Black Jacks and Leather Bottells”, p. 126
“It will be seen therefore that with wooden cups in such numbers the necessity for leather pots of small size would not seem to be great, and that in fact records of them are scarce, partly because in old documents the sizes are rarely given. The reference to a pint cup of leather already mentioned is quite exceptional, for though “pottillers of lether” and “gallons of lether” are often specified and leather tankards are distinguised from leather cans, any smaller than “stopes” are rarely met with.
LATE LEATHER MUGS
There is in Salisbury Museum a very small jack which is of especial interest as having a date upon it. It is of very unusual shape, especially for a small one, being tubby and globose instead of straight and mug-like. On a panel reaching right across the front are the letters R.S.M., 1658.” - Baker, Oliver (1921). “Black Jacks and Leather Bottells”, p. 128
So, thanks to Mr. Baker, I know that I should be calling the leather mug a gispen, and while small ones like the one requested by my coworker were somewhat unusual, it should be “straight and mug-like”, much like the Hiscock and Shepard example.
With all that in mind, I started work on the mug. I made it from three pieces of heavy leather (3/16th of an inch thich, or 12 oz) - a molded leather bottom, a single piece forming the sides and handles, and a handle-shaped piece to add additional strength and width to the handle. This first thing I did was mold the bottom -
I don’t know if the original bottoms were molded before stitching, but giving the bottom some structure makes the stitching easier. If the originals were molded, I imagine that wooden molds were used. I am no woodworker, unfortunately, so I used a lid and a thermos to shape the leather. I have since learned that folks making these mugs often use a piece of PVC and a hose clamp to shape this piece, which is brilliant, and definitely what I will use in the future!
After I let the leather dry, I trimmed it to shape and cut out the other pieces -
Next I punched stitching holes for the handle and along the bottom of the sides. After stitching the handle together, I shoved the bottom into the body of the mug and punched stitching holes with an awl into the bottom through the ones I had already made along the bottom of the sides.
Here it is all stitched together -
Since my coworker requested period looking, but not necessarily period correct, I used a modern thread to hold the thing together and modern Eco-Flo leather dye to turn the mug black. I sealed it with beeswax using a method similar to the described here, applying a thin coat to the outside and a thicker coat on the inside. Pitch would be more authentic, and while I have used brewer’s pitch before (for my costrel), my coworker was a little leery of it. If she changes her mind down the road, it will be easy enough to reline the mug, though!
Overall, I’m pretty pleased with how it turned out! While it’s not terribly authentic, it looks right, which was the goal. If you’d like to see a black jack done extremely authentically, check out this write-up on Skill Cult - I was blown away when I found it!
