This group contains the leather sheaths and scabbards from the Museum of London?s reserve collections, dating from c. 900 to c. 1650. The Museum holds some of the best medieval leather collections in the world, largely due to the good preservation conditions in London. Leather is an organic material and only survives in water-logged deposits. In London reclamation along the north bank of the Thames, as well as other damp deposits such as the City ditch, means that large quantities of medieval leather have survived.
The term 'sheath' is used to describe containers for knives and daggers, whilst the term 'scabbard' is used for swords.
The collection is dominated by sheaths, which were a common dress accessory in the medieval period. Forks for eating did not become common until the 17th century and knives were not just for cutting, but for eating too. The majority of adults would have carried a knife in a sheath attached to their belt.
Most of the sheaths in the Museum's collections were owned by ordinary Londoners and, therefore, reflect their tastes and fashions: it is interesting to see how these changed over time, particularly their decoration. Kinship or loyalty to a particular family may also be identified in some of the heraldic devices used in the decoration. Virtually all of the sheaths are decorated, interestingly at a time when most leather shoes were fairly plain. The methods of decoration included: impressing the damp leather with a blunt tool (the term 'engraving' is often imprecisely used); stamping, using small metal stamps; incising, making small shallow cuts in the grain (outer) surface of the leather; and embossing, which involved pushing up the surface of the leather, often by placing small cubes of leather behind the design, to make it more three dimensional.
Overall, the styles and methods of decoration are similar to those found in the medieval period elsewhere in Britain, as well as further afield (for example, Dublin and Bergen) although there are differences too.
The numbers of sheaths declines after c. 1350, and certainly by the 1400s the numbers are far fewer. This may in part be due to the decline in large-scale reclamation along the north bank of the Thames, meaning that less leather is found after this date. It may, however, also reflect a change in the way knives were stored and that leather sheaths, whilst remaining in use, were no longer as common as before.
Further reading:
Esther A. Cameron, 2007, Scabbards and sheaths from Viking and Medieval Dublin, Medieval Dublin Excavations 1962-81, Ser. B, vol. 8, National Museum of Ireland
J. Cowgill, M. de Neergaard and N. Griffiths, 1987, Knives and scabbards: medieval finds from excavations in London: 1, HMSO London
Alexzandra Hildred (ed), 2011, Weapons of Warre: the armaments of the Mary Rose, The Mary Rose Trust Ltd.
Quita Mould, Ian Carlisle and Esther Cameron, 2003, Leather and leatherworking in Anglo-Scandinavian and Medieval York, The Archaeology of York, The Small Finds 17/16, Craft, Industry and Everyday Life, Council for British Archaeology
Dr. Ole-Magne N�ttveit, 2010, Sheaths and Scabbards from medieval Bergen - In a Comparative Perspective, The Bryggen Papers, Main series vol. 8