Hair nets / cauls worn under helmets -- myArmoury.com

Sean Flynt · Posted: Mon 06 Jun, 2011 1:10 pm Post subject:

It's worth noting that Schilling shows many armoured figures with long, unbound hair who've just lost their helmets. Many figures of men in combat wearing infantry harness and only a plumed cap over unbound hair. The caul might be distinctively German/Austrian.

Sean Flynt · Posted: Fri 10 Jun, 2011 9:22 am Post subject:

Another detailed view of the construction:

Jens Boerner · Posted: Thu 16 Jun, 2011 4:57 am Post subject:

very nice thread, and several images I haven't known up to now.

I'm wearing a reconstructed hearnet quite frequently underneath my salet:
http://www.diu-minnezit.de/1475_haarnetz_mann.html
http://www.diu-minnezit.de/galerie_fullsize.p...&tid=4
Works very well for me, since I've got long hair similar to the fashion of ca. 1475.
I don't know any other historical solution for wearing a helmet with this kind of hair length without if leaking underneath it- which is not shown in the images. So, the usage of such hairnets (for which there are plenty of original ones) may be speculation, but a reasonable one.

Sean Flynt · Posted: Thu 19 Apr, 2012 12:45 pm Post subject:

more fuel for the fire, ca. 1515.

Mark T · Posted: Thu 19 Apr, 2012 3:10 pm Post subject:

Hi Sean,

Fantastic image! So now we have three clear images of people in full armour, with their helmet beside them, and wearing a caul - the Execution of St Florian, Albrecht Dürer's 'Der heilige Georg zu Fuß', and this one. As well as all of the logic and circumstantial evidence, I think these three images are about as good as it gets.

Sorry I dropped off the board for a while last year during the most recent posts here - I received an email back then from Gerry Embleton, saying he has no doubt that cauls were worn under helmets. I'll post the text/gist of that here soon.

I also received an email from the Companie of St George, asking me to write up our collective findings from this thread ... seems like not a lot of historical research had happened on this topic, and they're keen to publish it! (Given it has been quite a collective reserach endeavour, I'm hoping Sean will be happy to share co-writing credit - and we'll be sure to thank the rest of the myA community. Go team! Big Grin

Mark T · Posted: Fri 18 May, 2012 10:28 pm Post subject:

Here's another possible 'smoking gun': Jerg (or Jorg, or Joerg, or Jörg) Ratgeb, The Resurrection, Herrenberg Altar, right outside wing, 1518-1519 (I've also seen 1517-1518 given).

The image shows four soldiers, three of whom have helmets on, and one who is without a helmet, but appears to be wearing a caul. While, unfortunately, he doesn't have a helm showing in the image, it's possible to infer that he has been thrown to the ground with some force - he is not standing or sitting like the soldiers on the left, and appears to not be able to shield his eyes, as do the two topmost soldiers. It seems odd he would not have had a helmet, given his breastplate and other armour ... perhaps it came off as he was thrown to the ground? Yes, a lot of supposition here, and nothing definitive, but more for the growing circumstantial pile.

At the very least, it's another caul in a 'soldierly' (if not military/war) setting, and this fellow hasn't 'put a caul on to look good for the audience' - he had it on before being overcome.

I'll give three images here: full piece, detail showing soldiers, and detail of fallen soldier with caul.

(Images are from this Wikipedia page, sourced from The Yorck Project: 10.000 Meisterwerke der Malerei. DVD-ROM, 2002, compilation copyright is held by Zenodot Verlagsgesellschaft mbH.)

Mark T · Posted: Thu 20 Mar, 2014 4:07 pm Post subject:

Mark T · Posted: Sat 22 Mar, 2014 6:26 pm Post subject:

Two more images ... these aren't part of the case for hairnets under helmets, but are more general images of hairnets/cauls in a broader 'arms and armour' setting.

Mark T · Posted: Sat 28 Jun, 2014 8:06 pm Post subject:

Just a quick note that I've commissioned a simple 'arming hairnet' in the style of some of the images here, and similar to the link Jens posted. This is being made by a woman I found in the UK who specialises in handmade hairnets and snoods (the joys of Etsy!) - and was interested in seeing the research here.

It's being hand-knotted, and will include a hand-crocheted or luceted cord for tightening.

I'll try to remember to post photos and reflections when it's here.

Mark T · Posted: Sun 29 Jun, 2014 3:31 pm Post subject:

I just noticed that Medieval Market are stocking a Nålebinding / Nalbinding cap: http://www.medieval-market.com/details.php?id_towar=223&s=5

Not sure if this would also achieve hair-retention under a helmet, but good to see it's available.

Mark T · Posted: Wed 16 Jul, 2014 1:55 am Post subject:

As promised, here are the photos of my custom caul, made by Nadine at Etsy shop Virtue to Victory: https://www.etsy.com/au/shop/virtuetovictory

The process? Nadine was interested in this as a project, even dropping by here to read this thread for background. She completed the caul very quickly, and posted it in a fairly quick timeframe to make it here for a re-enactment event.

The result? I couldn't be happier. The caul is very sturdily made in wool, with a drawstring that helps it sit very snugly. Nadine actually also added a thin strand of invisible elastic cord in the band - this is almost impossible to see even when looking directly at the caul. While it's probably not necessary, it does help in holding the caul - and the hair it restrains - in place while tying the cord.

I died mine with black dye, initially thinking I wanted it to not be too noticeable if my hat or helmet was off. The dye was a little old, and the end result is a kind of grey-blue. I'm actually happy about this - many folks over the course of the weekend were interested in the caul, including some very well-researched folks who were interested to see one in use.

A couple of us decided it was the 'LCF' (Latest Cool Factor) ... so if you want to join the rush, contact Nadine and ask for the medieval hairnet now! Laughing Out Loud

Sean Flynt · Posted: Wed 16 Jul, 2014 7:33 am Post subject:

we MUST see a photo of you modeling this! What a great project! Almost makes it worth growing shoulder-length hair. Laughing Out Loud

Mark T · Posted: Thu 17 Jul, 2014 1:20 am Post subject:

Hi Sean,

I thought you'd appreciate this development! Laughing Out Loud

I tend to not splash my image on the internet, but we'll see what happens.

I also think I 'converted' a couple of other people to the cause over the weekend, so I think there are now about six of us in the world that know the sheer sex-appeal of the men's hair net!

BTW, there's no need to have long hair for this to work: they look great in their own right (and believe me, I was very sceptical before donning one in public!), do a good job of giving a soft medieval hat some body, and add to padding under a helmet liner. You should definitely get one, Sean! Happy

I also have one other possible 'smoking gun' image to add to our collection ... just waiting on a better version to arrive.

That will give us three strongly circumstantial images, all in different contexts: one execution, one 'martial', and one that I guess we could classify as courtly. This will probably be the best corpus we have for finally writing up the piece that the Companie of St George requested some years back ... and possibly even a journal article (of all things!).

In the meantime, here's another 'civilian' image, with a caul design a little different from what we've seen before.

Source is here: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/17.50.40

The full text is worth quoting here:

Henrik Zoltan Toth · Posted: Thu 17 Jul, 2014 2:29 am Post subject:

http://www.google.hu/url?sa=t&rct=j&q...8958,d.bGQ

Mart Shearer · Posted: Thu 17 Jul, 2014 7:28 am Post subject:

Henrik! Wow!

Henrik Zoltan Toth · Posted: Thu 17 Jul, 2014 9:25 am Post subject:

I think that ppt could be quite helpful, couldn't it? Big Grin

Mark T · Posted: Thu 17 Jul, 2014 4:47 pm Post subject:

Wow indeed! Nearly 100 pages including many images I'd never seen before ...

For some of the publicly-available images of cauls (or 'haarnetz' as I now really want to call them! Big Grin

), I'll try to find the time to add them to this thread.

If there are any pages with commentary, I might contact Dagmar at the Bayerishces Nationalmuseum and get get permission to add them here.

Thank so much Henrik!

Mart Shearer · Posted: Thu 17 Jul, 2014 5:12 pm Post subject:

Mark T · Posted: Fri 18 Jul, 2014 1:17 am Post subject:

Hi Mart,

Thanks for that link. Nadine who made mine calls them 'snoods', but most folks I say this to think I mean a tubular scarf.

Given that 'hairnet' seems to get odd looks, and not many people know the word 'caul', I think I'll switch to 'haarnetz' ... this might be slightly perverse, but given that most of the images I've seen are from 'German' contexts, to me, this would be like saying 'Bauernwehr' or 'messer' - other cultures had similar things, but this is the dominant cultural context we have for them today. It's also relevant to the time and place I'm interested in. And it will hopefully get the comedy factor of 'hairnet' with the 'huh?' factor of 'caul'. Or not. We'll see! Big Grin

I'll try to have a look through the links on the Wiki 'snood' page and add any here that are relevant.

Mark T · Posted: Sun 20 Jul, 2014 5:41 pm Post subject:

Here's the other of the 'strongly circumstantial' images of hairnets and harness I mentioned. This one is from Die Arbenteuer des Ritters Theuerdank (Taschen, 2003), an embellished account of events in the life of Emperor Maximillian.

This image was supplied by a military historian friend in Canada; I'm yet to read the accompanying text to see if there are other clues to the context for the image. However, at the very least, we have Maximillian shown in full harness, with his helm next to him, and a hairnet on.

So this gives us four images of people in armour with helms next to them, and hairnets, all in different contexts: the execution of St Florian (execution), the sleeping soldier posted above by Sean, St George on Foot (an assumed 'military' context, as he has just slain the dragon), and the Theuerdank image. My guess is that this is as good as we can get for images showing hairnets as possibly used under helms: while we have many images of hairnets 'poking out below' hats, or even hats jauntily perched at a severe angle which exposes the hairnet, we're very unlikely to see this with helms, given both their construction and use.