 This type of collapsible table was called a 'chamber board'. It could be used for writing letters. |
Chamber board and table carpetLocation: King's Bedchamber
Description:
This collapsible table is known as a 'chamber board'. They often appear in 15th and 16th century images of people writing letters. It is covered with table carpet which was made in Turkey or Egypt in about 1550. Carpets like this were very often put on top of tables.
Mary Queen of Scots wrote many letters during her life. She often exchanged letters with Queen Elizabeth I of England. She had been taught as a girl to write in the new fashionable Italian way using an italic script. She also enjoyed anagrams, mottos and wordplay. She chose the motto 'Sa Virtu m'Atire' (Its virtue draws me). It is a near perfect anagram of her name, Marie Stuart as spelled with roman letters where 'u' is replaced with 'v'. Some of her essays written in Latin when she was eleven still survive. They are kept in the National Library in Paris. |
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Related links: We know Mary wrote many letters as some of them survive. On top of her chamber board she might have used a 'table desk' or 'writing box' to store her letters, along with paper, ink and quills. Click here to see a 16th century writing desk. The threads used in the warp of this carpet were dyed green so that they would form a coloured fringe as it hung over a cube-shaped table. The warp was prepared so that the greatest width of the carpet could be accommodated on the loom and the weavers tied knots within the required outline. When the carpet was finished, the excess warp threads were trimmed and secured.
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