FW: Re: sources & misconceptions

[ches at io.com]

My apoligies to anyone who already recieved this missive but I would like to 
know from you all if any one else has found any documentation supporting the 
tankard hanging off the belt.....


On Wed, 2 Oct 1996 19:03:10 -0300  Margaret Rae Carignan wrote:

>> Here's one that come from the Ren Faire circuit: : everyone in 16th century
>> England wore a tankard or goblet  hanging on their belt.  Is there any
>> actual documentation for this?  Not that I want to discourage actors from
>> fending off heat exhaustion, but I've actually been told that my middle
>> class costume was incorrect because I keep my tankard, scissors, money
>> pouch, eating knife, and spoon in a basket instead of hanging from my 
person
>> (and probably bashing my toddler in the head.)
>
>You're right - they're wrong. In all my years of research, I have NEVER
>seen a tankard hanging off a person. A pouch, perhaps (especially on a
>man, but ocassionally on a woman) - I've seen spoons worn as hat pins, and
>(I hate to admit it) have fed the fallacy by wearing all my sewing tools
>hanging off my belt at once. I stopped doing that, not because it was
>hideously inauthentic, but because telling people that it is didn't stop
>them from copying me! (I'll take responsibility for my own inauthenticity,
>but NOT any one elses!)
>
>Apart from the total lack of documentary evidence (so far) think how
>impractical and dangerous - a cutpurse is a bad thing, but a cuttankard? A
>cutentirepersonalpossession?
>
>Meg/Francesca
>