Our second advent calendar post is not a textile but a textile tool. A spindel whorl.
It’s made out of clay. This one was found at the excavation of Kalmar Slottsfjärden, the bay outside Kalmar castle, Sweden. Kalmar was one of the biggest medieval cities in Sweden during 14th century.
The whorl is dated to 14th century. Approx. size is 3 cm high.
Now in collections of Historiska museet, Sweden.
/ Amica and Maria
Photo: Historical textiles
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Denna textil är hittad vid utgrävningarna i kvarteret Rådhuset i Uppsala. Textilien är daterad till 1200-1500. Idag är den en del av samlingarna från Historiska Museet.
Fragmentet är ett ylletyg, vävt i 2/2 kypert och är av en relativt fin kvalité, även om den i dag är mycket tunnsliten. Varptråden är tunn och jämn, den är Z-spunnen med många snoddvarv per cm. Inslaget är lite tjockare än varpen. Inslaget är S- spunnet och har inte heller lika många snoddvarv per cm, detta medför att inslaget är lösare och fyller ut mer än vad varpen gör, i tyget. Därför är det också färre inslag per cm än det är med antalet varptrådar per cm. Att förhållandet mellan inslag och varp är så här pass olika är mycket vanligt under medeltiden.
Tittar man noga längs kanterna finns det på sina håll tydliga lämningar av tidigare stygn. Dessa stygn syns idag som ett antal runda små hål, och de är placerade på rad efter varandra. Jämnt fördelade.
Fragmentet räknar vi till grupp 3 – fragment av utslitna klädesplagg. Det skulle mycket väl ha kunnat varit ett klädesplagg ursprungligen. Vilket plagg tror du att det kan ha varit en del av?
Trevlig helg,
Amica och Maria
Photo: Ola Myrin, SHM
This textile fragment was found at the excavations at Rådhuset (City Hall) in Uppsala. The textile is dated to 1200-1500. Today it is part of the collections at The Swedish History Museum.
The fragment is a woolen fabric, woven in 2/2 twill and of a relatively fine quality, although today it is very worn and thin. The warp threads are thin and even, they are Z-spun with a high twist per cm. The weft is a bit thicker than the warp. The warp is S-spun and does not have as many twists per cm, which means that the warp is looser and fills out the fabric more than the warp does. Therefore, there are also fewer weft threads per cm than warp threads per cm. This kind of sett is very common during the Middle Ages.
Looking closely along the edges, remains of previous stitches are plainly visible. These stitches can be seen today as a number of small round holes, evenly spaced in a row. We classify the fragment as group 3 – fragments from worn-out garments. It could very well have been a garment originally.
What do you think it may have been a part of?
Happy weekend!
Amica and Maria
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På Historiska museet i Stockholm pågår just nu ett arbete med att förbättra och dela information om de ca 1000 medeltida arkeologiska textilfragment som museet förvaltar. Det innebär att nya bilder fotograferas och fragmenten kommer att analyseras och kategoriseras i visuella grupper, som gör att de blir lättare att prata om olika textilkvalitéer. Bild och analys kommer sedan att föras in i museets databas och bli sökbart. Det kommer dock dröja ytterligare innan det är publicerat eftersom museet byter föremålsförvaltningssystem. Men vi kan inte hålla oss utan kommer börja lägga upp fina nyfotograferade fynd här på vår blogg.
Fyndmaterialet som nu gås igenom kommer från arkeologiska utgrävningar som gjorts framförallt på 1970-talet i olika svenska städernas stadskärnor. En del av samlingen som finns på museet kommer från Enköping, från kvarteret Traktören, och den första textilien som vi visar idag kommer därifrån.
Det arkeologiska medeltida textilfragmenten från våra städer kan delas in i fem grupper
1- borttappade föremål, ex en vante
2 -spill från tillverkning
3 -fragment av utslitna klädesplagg
4 -rester av grövre emballage textil
5 -trådar, filtad ull eller lös ull
Av de ca 1000 fragmenten som finns på museet tillhör en mycket liten del grupp ett.
Fragmentet på bilden är en 2/1 kypert, ull. Fragmentet är mycket slitet så det kommer troligen från ett utslitet klädesplagg eller en inrednings textil som exempelvis en dyna. Idag är textilen ljusbrun och ingen synlig färg framträder. Men om man tittar uppe till höger i bilden syns släppta trådar. Detta indikerar att det här har varit en vävd rand som bundit i tuskaft/ inslagsrips. Dateringen är “medeltid”. Vi placerar denna väv till 1300-talet då den har det karakteristiska ränderna som är vanliga för tiden.
/ Amica och Maria
Foto Ola Myrin, SHM
At the Historical Museum in Stockholm, work is right now being done to improve and share information about the approximately 1000 medieval archaeological textiles that the museum manages. This means that new photos are being taken and the fragments will be analyzed and categorized into visual groups, that will make it easier to talk about different textile qualities. Photo and analyzed result will then be uploaded into the museum’s database and become searchable. However, it will take some time before it is published because the museum is changing the system for the database. But we can’t wait and will start posting nice photos of the finds here on our blog.
The material currently under review comes from archeological excavations made mainly in the 1970s in the city centers of different cities in Sweden. A part of the collection that is found at the museum comes from Enköping, from the quarter of Traktören, and the first textile presented today comes from there.
The archaeological medieval textile fragments from our cities can be divided into five groups
1 – lost items, for an exempel, a mitten
2 – left overs from manufacture
3 -fragments from worn out garments
4 – residue of coarser packaging textile
5 – threads, felted wool or loose wool
Of the approximately 1,000 fragments found in the museum a very small part belongs to group 1.
The fragment is a 2/1 twill, wool. The fragment is very worn, so it probably comes from a worn out garment or an interior textile, like as a cushion. Today the textile is light brown and no visible color is shown. But if you look at the top right in the picture you see some loose threads. This indicates that this textile have had a woven stripe, woven in plain weave/ extended tabby. The dating is “medieval”. We place this fabric in the 14th century as it has the characteristic stripes that are commonplace at the time.
The fabric is what we would describe as an medium quality suitable for an example kirtles and hoods.
/ Amica and Maria
As some of you may already know, Amica Sundström from Historical Textiles, works at the Swedish History Museum as textile curator. Today, together with Thomas Neijman, she held a guided tour for a group of people with a special interest for medieval metal works. The armourerAlbert Collins, Via Armoari, celebrates 20 years as a professional armourer this weekend and he has a big party to celebrate this. Plenty of people have travel to Stockholm just for this occasion. The group that came to the museum took the chance to visit the special tour today when in the neighborhood.
Albert also, as many of you may already know, just had a kickstarter campaign get help with the funding, in order to reintroduce armourer as a official craft in Sweden. The last master armourer we had in Sweden was during the late 18th century. After the last master died the craft was official gone.
Albert’s kickstarter campaign has been fully funded and it is incredibly pleasing that it will once again be possible to reintroduce this craft to the Swedish craft council.
We are incredibly happy about this and therefore deviate from our usual theme of displaying textiles. We will this weekend display a mix of photo on various types of medieval (and some older) metal items that are parts of the collections of the Swedish History Museum.
Hope you can forgive this textile free Friday. <3
ps. There are of course some pictures of things that are related to textiles such as scissors, pins etc.
Happy weekend!
Amica and Maria
” The sudarium or, a cloth of fine quality to wipe away perspiration, or an ornamental handkerchief which was seldom put into actual use, but was generally carried in the hand as an ornament as was commonly done by people of rank in ordinary life, now formalized as a vestment, in liturgical use from the 12th century reserved for the bishop; the subcinctorium is a related ornamental vestment reserved for the pope.”
– Wikipedia
We would like to wish you all a happy weekend with a historical textile!
This week we show the top of a sudarium. A sudarium is the cloth a bishop holds in his hand to protect the staff from sweat and dirt.
This sudarium top is in the collections of Historiska museet, Stockholm, Sweden. Originally it was placed on the staff of Thomas Beckert, the sculpture in the museum, originally from Skepptuna church – not the saint! It’s made out of fine linen with a leather backside ( now gone) and have a lovely woven silk band attached to it. Most likely woven in a rigid heddle.
The fragment dates to 1350-1500
Happy weekend!
/ Amica and Maria
We would like to wish you all a happy weekend with a historical textile related artifact!
This week we show you a lace end, a point.
We would also like to celebrate that we have now over 10400 followers on Facebook <3
The lace end, the point, is excavated from the nunnery of Gudhem, Västergötland, Sweden. Dating 1100-1500 AD. The nunnery was closed 1529 AD. We guess that the item might comes from the 14-15th century.
It’s a simple piece of twisted brass or copper wire, leaving an opening for the lace thread. The cut end have been hammered so that the metal wires are smooth and form a point. There is no traces left of textile on this particular piece. But there are other twist point’s that still have a textile cord attached to it, so we are certain that this kind of twist points were used as lace points. Approx. size 4cm.
This piece can be found in the collections of Historiska museet in Stockholm, Sweden. Here is a link to the find in the database ( no picture).
Happy weekend!
/ Amica and Maria
ps. sorry for the crappy picture- we are gong to give you more pictures of twist points in the future.
We would like to wish you all a happy weekend with a historical textile!
This week we focus on another celebrity from Denmark, from the exhibition at National museum in Copenhagen. The belt of Eric of Pomerania.
We would also like to celebrate that we have now over 10300 followers on Facebook 😀
The belt is tablet woven in silk and gilded silver. Originally the silk was very colourful in red, blue and green. The gold have fallen off but on some places one can see traces of it. The belt is dated to: girdle and belt mounts- early 13th – early 14th century.
Buckle and strap end- mid-15th century (Fingerlin 1971; Nørlund 1937)
A full analysis have been done by Viktoria Holmqvist and her article is published in: North European Symposium for Archaeological Textiles X Series: Ancient Textiles Series Volume: 5, Copyright Date: 2010, Published by: Oxbow Books
Thank you Viktoria for an amazing job <3
Happy weekend!
/ Amica and Maria
We would like to wish you all a happy weekend with a historical textile!
It’s late and we have been working hard in the dye pots all day long. But to keep our promise, to give you nice pictures once a week, we just post pictures of a celebrity everyone already know.
From the exhibition at National museum in Copenhagen, Denmark. A children’s kirtle made in wool from Herjolfsnes on Greenland.
Check out the lovely 2/2 twill and the nice front gore. The kirtle is dated to late 14th century ( please tell us if we are wrong- can’t find the book at this hour…) !
Happy weekend!
/ Amica and Maria
We would like to wish you all a happy weekend with some historical textiles.
We would also like to celebrate that we have over 10.000 followers in Facebook.
We could never have thought that there were so many textiles nerd’s out there. <3
This week we focus on fringes on various historical textiles. All, except one, are woven in silk. The last one is woven in linen.
The fringes are attached to various items all related to church textiles.
The fringes can all be found in the collections of Statens Historiska museum in Sweden.
The items are dated to 14-17th century.
/ Amica and Maria
We would like to wish you all a happy weekend with a historical textile.
This week we focus on a lovely silk embroidery from England. It’s a high class work aka Opus Anglicanum. The embroidery comes from Skå church and is dated to
1250- 1350 AD. Now in the collections of Statens Historiska museum in Sweden.
Silk on linen. Here we can see a close up on a table cloth. Table cloths of the time were often depicted as woven in goose eye/ twill variation.
