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måndag 31 augusti 2009

New skillet

Some time ago Anders, one of the company members, and I had a chat about skillets. I wanted to buy one from a caster, but he (the maker) told me that it would cost about 5000 euros just to make the mold, as I wanted a special skillet from Sweden. I wanted a cast one, and had finally decided that a Mary Rose model was looking similar enough to a 14th century one. It wouldn't be very expensive, as the maker already had a mold for it. At this time I spoke to Anders. Earlier I had found pictures of forged skillets, but I had the notion they were rare in comparison to forged ones. Anders talked me into abandoning the idea of a cast skillet, and I started looking for forged ones.

It was slow work. There are not many skillets in pictures from the time, and not many findings either. However, at one point I hade found enough pictures to order a reproduction. One of these pictures was a picture of a skillet from Vreta Kloster in Östergötland, a province in Sweden. The skillet is dated too 1100-1500 - a broad time frame really, but it shares aspects with late 14th- and early 15th century ones, like these below. They are all from French manuscripts from the end of the 14th century and the beginning of the 15th. The original skillet is quite small, but as we are becoming quite a few members in the company, I asked Anders to make it bigger. And he did. We have been using it during the season, and I am very happy with it.

Anders have been posting a description, including pictures, of his work at his blog, which can be found here. Check it out!