Rosalie Gilbert

Whilst there were many wonderful highlights of this year's Abbey Medieval Festival 2025, I'll leave you with the best part of my Bathing & Hygiene Show and Tell... a comparison of reproduction items with the originals.

By looking at the craftsmanship and quality of the originals and comparing them with what we can achieve today, we can learn a lot abour medieval artisans and their abilities.

For instance, in the case of the hinged mirror case, the original is finer and the decorative rockerwork is smaller. The medieval craftsman would have had more years making this item, and more practice at getting the decoration more refined.

The tweezers astonish most modern people because the curled over tips are something we see in today's tweezers, and look very modern. The little lock which still moves on the original demonstrates what it was used for, rather than, say, as a repair to keep the tweezers from breaking. The fact that the original tweezers still open and close shows that the wire wasn't some kind of fix.

The nail cleaner and ear scoop proved more challenging to make for the modern maker, as getting the right teardrop shape on the spoon and the twist of the body proved to be tricky. In the end, the reproduction is a better quality than any other I've seen. Many others settle for a round scoop.

The silver copy of my 14th century French brooch is identical to the original, right down to the number of dots on the frame and thickness of the brooch itself. Previous versions I've seen made are really lovely, but have always been chunkier, which is what modern people expect of a lot of medieval jewellery. It's a high end piece and high quality