Furniture - Part 1

After spending the first five years of Living-History events in a tiny tent, and the next five years in a tent that was a bit larger, but still very small, last year I finally had enough of tripping over all my stuff, when going to bed at night. So I decided to order a larger tent, which I am going to show off at some point in the future, when the weather is nice enough to pitch it in the garden. Now I have enough room in the tent for furniture.

Taking furniture on Living-History events can only be a compromise. We know from ancient sources that furniture existed within tents in military camps, e.g. on Alexander's campaign. However, I think it is safe to assume that this luxury could only be afforded by the higher officers. When we are talking about travelling civilians, I think we can safely say that bringing furniture or even a tent along can be considered unusual.

Unfortunately I don't know any museums with reconstructed Hellenistic housing in Europe, so bringing a tent to the museum is already a requirement to take your hobby on the road. I decided to treat the tent and the furniture as a compromise, which enables me to demonstrate aspects of the daily life, which would normally have taken part in a Hellenistic House. By doing so, I conveniently dodge the question if furniture in tents is historically accurate.

In the past, one of the most important pieces of furniture was the bed, just as it is today. that's why in this first post, I'd like to show you my new Kline. In historical texts, a Kline is often also called a couch or simply a bed, and it was used for sleeping, as well as reclining during the Symposion. The latter use is most often depicted on vases. There are many variations of a Kline, some look nothing more like simple tables, some have very complicated decorations and backrests or armrests. Some of them seem to be very light and look quite fragile, while some alook really massive with multiple people sitting on them. There are countless pictures of Klinai, which you can easily find on the Internet, two of which I have selected to show here.

Depiction of a Kline on a vaseDepiction of a Kline on a relief

I decided to go with a sturdier variation for my new bed, simply because I don't trust the light frames depicted on the vases, and I don't want to end up with a broken bed. Contrary to an ancient original, my Kline has the additional requirement to be easily dismountable for transport. So I got in touch with Peter Werner of Memento Moris Werkstätten, and he managed to find a system where you can't tell from the assembled bed that it can be easily taken apart. Peter is always happy to take orders, and I can happily recommend him, if you need woodworking. His work is really high quality, and it took him only two months to build the Kline for me.

Reconstructed KlineReconstructed Kline

As final touches, I already have a thick woollen blanket to serve as a mattress, and I hope to get a pillow ready until the first event this year.