End View - Royal Footstool, Meridies

This end-view of the Queen's footstool clearly shows our use of "through" mortise-and-tenon joints.  Through joints are so named because the tenon extends all the way through the mortise, showing on the outside of the work piece.  Through mortise and tenon joints can be seen in many, many medieval illustrations, including Vincenzo Foppa's Young Ciciero Reading (c. 1460) and Ambrogio Borgognone's Madonna and Child.  Reproductions of these paintings can be found in Ball and Campbell's Master Pieces (p. 10).  Additional examples can be found in Percy Macquoid's A History of English Furniture: Volume One, The Age of Oak, 1500-1660 ( pp 70 - 71).  Oak Furniture, the British Tradition: A History of Early Furniture in the British Isles and New England, by Victor Chinnery,  has examples on pp 108, 260 - 262.  Finally, three examples of benches of this type with similar stretchers can be found at the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art's Cloisters Annex in the Campin room off of the Boppard room.