Another day, another kind thought, and a "Cutepoynter"
While Eleanor lay ill at Marnham on 19 November 1290 she did not lie idle, as her wardrobe book attests - a gift of twelve silver spoons were bought as a gift for Eleanor's favourite amongst her younger ladies, Joanna Wake, when Joanna left the royal household.
And there was still more business. A messanger was sent for "pomis granatis" which may mean pomegranates or apples (though the use of the correct "Malum granatum" for the pomegranate sent the previous day suggests the reference is to apples). Either way, Eleanor's taste for fruit was still in evidence.
And there were still bills to pay for the weddings of MArgaret and Joan, earlier in the year. Egisio le Cutepoynter was paid for various necessaries involved in the making of cutepointes and other items for the weddings. If you are wondering what Cutepoynte is - it is an early form of quilting - most often at this time performed with white materials on a white base:
Eleanor can therefore be seen to have set up her girls with the kind of elegant homewares for which she herself has such a taste!
(Illustration below copyright Victorian and Albert Museum)
