Casting a medieval aquamanile
Bastian Asmus
The casting of an aquamanile in original medieval technique has been a long term intention of mine. A year ago I made an aquamanile in the form of a lion that dated to the medieval period, however I did not have time to cast that particular aquamanile in a technique that can be considered medieval.- The model however was made with the techniques known to medieval artificers. It was made according to Theophilus Presbyter’s description in his schedula diversarum artium , a 12th century manuscript on artisan’s techniques. Theophilus’ chapter 61 on the making of the cast incense burners provides all the necessary information, with which an informed reader can go ahead an produce a formidable bronze (or any other copper alloy) casting. This information was used to prepare the mould for the casting of this aquamanile. There will be an article shortly on how to make the mould.
Loam mould of the lion aquamanile. The loam mould consists of the same ingredients as medieval moulds.
Casting a medieval aquamanile
The mould was prepared from loam and made three days before the casting. The wax model was molten from the loam mould over embers. The mould was subsequently fired with charcoal. The charcoal was allowed to burn down to the top of the mould and before it was charged again with fresh charcoal. This was repeated three time s, just as Theophilus tells us . The casting was accomplished through the feet; so the mould is placed upside down for the casting. It was cast with a quaternary alloy of copper, zinc, tin and lead. The alloy is CuZn13Sn8Pb2 and was prepared for the casting.
References
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Hawthorne, J. G., & Smith, C. S. (1979). Theophilus: On divers arts : the foremost medieval treatise on painting, glassmaking and metalwork / Theophilus / translated from the Latin with introduction and notes by John G. Hawthorne and Cyril Stanley Smith. Dover.
August 21st, 2014 at 22:17
[…] this new article on the casting of the aquamanile in a reconstructed medieval loam […]