CCI2014050712

- I 6

Degreasing set up

LEATHER JERKIN

H. van Soest, P. Hallebeek, Central Research Laboratory

Introduction

This leather jerkin was found in the Oudezijds Achter-burgwal Canal, behind house number 20, in Amsterdam. It was found by workmen cleaning the canal.

You can see the same type of jerkin in detail from the painting 'Christ Bearing the Cross' by Pieter Bruegel.

Again in the painting 'The Factory of the Dead', which is also by Bruegel, you can see the same jerkin.

The Archaeological Service of the City of Amsterdam has dated the jerkin to around 1530. It is madę of vegetable-tanned goatskin.

Drawing the garment and making a leather reconstruction

The parts of the jerkin were laid on the paper and care-fully outlined. The damaged edges were indicated by a fine dotted linę. After the outlinę was madę, the stich-holes and omamentation were drawn in. The stich-holes were drawn according to the drawing codę used by the leather group of the Technological Laboratory. Because the decoration consisted largely of slashes, the kind and direction could be indicated exactly by using a fine pricker to mark the paper through these cuts.

The drawing was finished by tracing these markings. A oopy of the drawing was cut out and a paper model constructed to get an idea of the three-dimensonal shape and missing parts were added.

The missing front section and the one sleave missing were madę from the reverse pattem of the extant parts. The paper model was madę so that the missing parts could be reconstructed. A study of the relevant seams and of the way the front pieces were shaped, madę it possible to achieve an acceptable design and placement of the skirt.

The finished drawings were used for a reconstruction in new leather, before the restoration.