[EKStationers] Periodicity, advancement

[Heather Gray]

There's a lot of difficulty with creating a truly period stationers guild.
Here are a few of them, with some comments of mine -- hope it is of some
help in the discussion.

1. People have noted that there seems to not be a lot of levels proposed so
far, just apprentice, journeyman, and master.  This is all there was in
period, and if that seems odd, it's because the apprenticeship lasted for
_not less than 7 years_  and sometimes journeymen never advanced to master
(see next paragraph).  From _The Stationer's Company, A History, 1403-1959_
by Cyprian Blagden "the formal contract was by a pair of indentures which
were drawn up by the Clerk and which the apprentice, his parent or sponsor,
and his master brought to Stationers' Hall for formal enrolment within three
months of the date of signature; the length of service was not less than
seven years and, according to an Act of Common Council in 1556, at least as
much longer as would make the apprentice free only at the age of
twenty-four"

The guild in period is a business structure and a political structure.  You
need money to get what you want, not just skill, and they tried to limit the
number of masters, which is why sometimes there were riots in London because
the journeymen would get upset about lack of advancement (reflective of all
the livery companies, not just stationers).

Seeing as many of us here are probably already at least 24, and as we aren't
doing this for a full-time living (not yet, anyway), 7 years hardly seems
reasonable.  Within the confines of the SCA, it seems reasonable that with
instruction, practice, dedication and attention to detail, one could advance
in a single area from novice/apprentice to journeyman within 1-3 years (time
dependent on skill and activity level of the novice).  I can't really guess
at time from journeyman to master, because each field is different in what
is required for mastery, and each person will be different in skill and
activity level -- this last is a feature of the SCA that I don't think we
can get away from, given that we're all hobbyists.

2. Master takes on apprentices/journeyman and trains them.  In period it
would be much as the master/apprentice relationship is in the SCA currently.
I think when we were discussing this early on, the idea of teachers came up
because there might be more people wanting to learn all the various arts
than there were masters available to take them on.

3. In period there were the following offices and/or paid positions within
the gild/company:

Paid positions: Cook, Butler, Lord Mayor's Officer, Clerk, Beadle (enforces
the ordinances), and Porter (carries messages).

The Clerk was a man with legal training who worked part-time, and was
involved in the binding of apprentices, the taking up of freedoms, the calls
to the Livery and the entering of copies.  We might want to add a Clerk to
the proposal, as the person who records in a register when people enter the
guild, when they advance, etc.

I don't see much need for most of those positions, but folks can discuss
whether any of them make sense to have.

Other officers are Master, Upper Warden, Under Warden, and 2 Renter Wardens
(who weren't really wardens because they didn't have the same power, but
worked closely with the others).  There was also the Court of Assistants,
which was composed of wardens and ex-wardens.   These officers were
concerned with legal duties such as examining licenses for copying,
enforcing correct and legal behaviour of all the members of the gild and
disciplining if necessary, granting permission to the Clerk to enter copies
in the register, approving original manuscripts before it could go to press,
making sure that the only people practicing printing were members of the
company, etc.

The officers would still be an administrative positions, but as people's
concerns will be more with individual copyright than with guild/company
copyright, trying to have an exact replica of the period positions doesn't
make as much sense.  We aren't here to force people to join the company in
order to do book arts, or to ensure that copyrights are only held by members
or the crown, and because of that it is nearly impossible to recreate the
stationers company as it was in period, we can only recreate the flavor of
it.

4. At the time of the earlier gild, there were only the scriveners, limners,
bookbinders, and booksellers, and influence within the guild was fairly even
(the scriveners and limners had tried being separate, but it weakened both
groups).  Then the printers joined and eventually the charter was passed in
1557.  Printing changed things -- printers were in ascendence and scriveners
and limners on the decline. Booksellers were also in ascendence though,
taking good advantage of the printing process (more products more quickly,
more trade), and the printers tried to support the bookbinders with some
ordinances in order to keep the booksellers from gaining too much advantage
(not successful...long story).  It would be my preference at least, and
hopefully other folks, to not emulate this aspect of the guild, but to
provide equal representation for all areas of the company.  That was perhaps
part of the reasoning behind suggesting having a warden for each of the 5
areas in the EK stationers co.  But perhaps because we are so innately
different from the original company, maybe it isn't necessary to have a
warden for each area...

5. On Kayleigh's comment that a master would decide when an
apprentice/novice was ready for advancement, it would certainly seem
reasonable that if the two people involved have a close working
relationship, the master would probably be the best judge of the student's
readiness to advance.  It has been noted on occasion however in Manche and
Laurel circles, that sometimes the master is too close to the situation to
see what the skill level of the student truly is, and so perhaps there
should be a sense of freedom within the company that another master might
speak up regarding his/her opinion on the readines of a student to advance,
whether one-on-one with the master involved, or in a meeting of
masters/teachers.  Other people's thoughts on this?

In service,
Elwynne