I have just visited a marvellous exhibition at the British Library, Royal Manuscripts: The Genius of Illumination of illuminated manuscripts collected by kings and queens of England between the ninth and the sixteenth centuries.
The British Library have certainly organised a complete coverage of this exhibition and its subject area, with supporting source material and analysis on their website, books; CD of medieval music; Apps for ipads and phones; and a Medieval and Earlier Manuscripts Blog, all referred to on their website above.
Also linked to this, there is showing currently on BBC4 TV and iPlayer, a documentary series called Illuminations: The Private Lives of Medieval Kings.
These medieval illuminated manuscripts were made of vellum, the treated skin, usually of a calf. It is manufactured by taking a hide and cleaning, bleaching, stretching on a frame, and scraping of the skin with a hemispherical knife. To create tension, scraping is alternated with wetting and drying. A final finish can be achieved by rubbing the surface with pumice, and treating with a preparation of lime or chalk to make it accept writing or printing ink.
Parchment and vellum were manufactured in Plough Yard, Brentford, which is shown here in a fascinating video clip on the British Pathé website, Making Parchment (1939).
According to British History Online “Tanning was recorded in Brentford in 1591. A tanyard on the Brent, west of Market Place and north of St. Lawrence's church, was continuously occupied between 1720 and 1853. James Band, from a family of Bermondsey tanners, established his own firm of parchment makers at a tannery in Boston Road near Park chapel in 1845. The firm moved c. 1910 to Plough Yard (now Brent Way), the premises being extended during the Second World War. There were 70 employees in 1960 and 80 in 1975, but only 15 in 1978, by which date they also produced chamois leather and all kinds of vellum.”
Gillian Clegg has written about the Band family of Brentford who manufactured vellum, in the Brentford & Chiswick Local History Society Journal 11 (2002), - The Skin Works – Bands of Brentford, by Gillian Clegg.
Janet McNamara has researched details of the Band family on the excellent Brentford High Street Project website, in a section on the Band family.
Brentford Library created its very own illuminated manuscript May 4th, 1904, which expressed gratitude to Andrew Carnegie for providing funds for the construction of our Brentford Library and acquisition of books.
See The Carnegie Carnegie Mellon University: Andrew Carnegie Online Archives.
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I too thoroughly enjoyed this wonderful Exhibition. Two bits of advice, firstly don't go at lunchtime and secondly take a magnifying glass. If you have a tablet the app is fantastic. Dont be put off by one of the reviews. I have had hours extra education by using it. Thanks for the Brentford connection. Much appreciated.
We contacted Gunnersbury Museum after we found a reference to some information about the Band family vellum making company in Brentford. It was in a Friends of Gunnersbury newsletter, No 19 August 1986.
"Thursday 2nd October in the Museumat 7.30: Phil Philo, the Curator, will give a talk on a very important Brentford company, which closed last year: Bands, a firm that made vellum and parchment. This firm started in the 19th century and made vellum and parchment by old- established methods. When they were closing, Phil visited them, made notes, took photos, conducted interviews and 'rescued' some of the equiment, which is now on display in the museum.I have heard Phil give this talk before and I can assure you that it really is extremely interesting. He will be showing slides and getting out the equipment (knives, stretcher frames etc) during the talk."
We asked what information and objects they had from the Band company and the Curator, Vanda Foster said that, “they had no online pictures, but in our current ‘A Hive of Industry’ exhibition, about locally made products, there is a little bit about Bands – a photograph of their yard with the tenter frames, a catalogue and some sample pieces of vellum.”
