Today’s random calendar post is about some garments from the 17th century.
It is King Gustav II Adolf’s doublet, his shirt and a pair of trousers belonging to a page. Here comes a mixed cavalcade of pictures of these objects. Today all can be found in the collections of Livrustkammaren.
Here is a link to the doublet
Here is a link to the shirt
Here is a link to the trousers
Our calendar is indeed random… but now it’s like this and hopefully there will be more blog posts even outside of December. Fingers crossed!
This day we focus on a needle-bound wool glove found in Kalmar castle bay in the 1930’s. The glove is a rather unusual find as it is a textile technique that is often used for mittens and less often for gloves.
We don’t know what kind of stitch it is made with. But it is dense in quality and the stitches are quite small and tight.
Dating is 1100-1500.
Here is a link to the database.
Photos: Historical Textiles
/ Amica and Maria
All history nerds in Sweden are very happy right now. Swedish national television is currently showing a series about history in Sweden, from the Stone Age to the 1950s.
The episode that was shown on Sunday, was about the time from 1361 until the death of the Swedish king Gustav Vasa in 1560.
We were asked if we could lend a gilt leather coverlet to one of the episodes to create a more cosy environment. Of course we did. and it was especially fun to see the coverlet in the background of the scene of Gustav Vasa’s haircut.
The Dalhem II coverlet comes from Dalhem’s church in Småland and is believed to be the work of the Birgittine nuns in Vadstena around the early 16th century. Today, the embroidery is in the History Museum’s textile collection.
There are about 12 medieval gilt leather embroideries preserved to this day, thanks to wills and inventory lists we know that there were many more, which are no longer extant. Among other things, there are gilt leather embroideries recorded in inventory lists from several of the Vasa family’s castles. They appear both in the form of coverlets and cushions. The colors mentioned are black and yellow which were the colors of the Vasa family.
The recreated coverlet has been sewn by several people, no one mentioned no one forgotten. Read about our first attempt to recreated two full size coverlets here.
/ Amica Sundström and Maria Neijman
Photos: CC by 4.0
2023 has sometimes been a really shitty year. Cancer and everything that comes with a treatment has made our business year … different and sometimes a little less energetic than usual years. Initially, we didn’t think we’d be able to make an Advent calendar. But… we got feeling and therefore we will make some posts when we feel like it. So it will be a Random Advent calendar.
Hope you think it’s ok?!
We start with a decorative textile.
Some textiles are a bit cooler than others. This is a brocaded tabby Swedish “krabbasnår” preserved in the medieval church of Roslagsbro. It has been incredibly nice when it was new. But what makes it really special is that it has a set that tells you that it is woven in a different type of loom than a treadle loom. A warp weigh loom or a tapestry loom. Warp in 2-plied linen/hemp thread, pattern in 2-plied wool yarn, in various colors.
The dating needs to be done on stylistic grounds and it is difficult to determine how old the fabric is because this type of pattern forms have been used for quite a long time. But the mix of colors and the asymmetric pattern sings medieval to us. The choice of loom type in combination with the pattern makes us think that the weave belongs in the Middle Ages.
Read about it in the database.
Photos: Historical Textiles CC BY 4.0
/ Maria Neijman and Amica Sundström
