17th century

Advent calendar 2022 – 22 December

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Today we share pictures of a very unique object. It’s a falconer bag with associated hanger. Even the training toy remains. The bag once belonged to Carl Gustav Wrangel.
The bag has a direct medieval look and the function is also the same.

The text in the database says:
Bag consisting of two pockets. Embroidered on stramalj with silk thread – two shades of green and gold thread, point d Hongrie technique in scale-like pattern. A report: 25 mm. The smaller pocket: 300 x 300 mm (tapering at the top) sewn to a gilt silver buckle, collar edge 75 mm high, lined with suede. Drawstring of gold and silk cord, a round button covered with gold thread sewn to the edge of the collar. The pocket is lined inside with green parkum. The larger pocket 335 x 310 mm (tapering at the top) sewn to the gilt silver clasp. Lid made of the same material as the rest of the bag – folds down.

The bag is dated to 1640-1660.

It belongs to Skokloster Castle’s collections and the link to the database can be found here.

Photos by Historical Textiles. Please cred.

Advent calendar 2022 – 20 December

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Today it will be a slightly younger item. But on the other hand, we can tell who the object belonged to, which makes it extra interesting. It is none other than a king, Gustav II Adolf, Gustavus Adolphus.

King of Sweden between 1611-1632, known as the king who is credited for the rise of Sweden as a great European power (Swedish: Stormaktstiden). During his reign, Sweden became one of the primary military forces in Europe during the Thirty Years’ War, helping to determine the political and religious balance of power in Europe. He was formally and posthumously given the name Gustavus Adolphus the Great.

He was shot and died on the battlefield in Lutzen on November 6, 1632. Many of his clothes are still in the collections of Livrustkammaren in Stockholm, Sweden. And also some clothes he wore when he was shoot. Still with stains of blood. Very dramatic.

We have taken a look at his collar with an absolutely astonishing bobin lace. The fabric is super thin linen and woven in plain weave. The collar is divided in 6 pieces with a lace in-between the fabrics. It’s sewn with superfine back stitches. The lace is made of linen, the threads are two plied. His portrait show how to use such item. According to tradition, it was worn by Gustav II Adolf at a ball in Augsburg on May 30, 1632, and was torn by the king’s dancing partner, maiden Anna Maria Breesler (Breissler) and given to her as a gift.

More pictures of the collar can be found here:

Photos from Historical Textiles, please cred.

/Amica and Maria

Advent calendar 2022- 9 December

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The Middle Ages have been very represented here during this calendar. But today we will show a lovely tablet woven band from the Swedish city of Falun and from the 17th century. Falun was a copper miner town during this time and of great importance. And the band comes from an archeological excavation dug in 2019.

The band is in silk and tablet woven. We add photos of the original and the reconstruction (yellow), made in sewing silk and button hole silk. But we also like to share the description so you can weave a Falun band yourself! 10 tablets, treaded z-s, 1 in each hole of the tablets considering the thin thread but only 2 of the thick once, treaded diagonal in the tablet. Turn 1/4, change directions when needed.

“

“Silk
Among the woolen textiles was also a small fragment of 6 x 0.6 cm. This turned out to be a small tablet woven silk ribbon. The band is woven in a stitch effect and has 10 tablets. Six tablets are threaded with thin filament silk and four tablets are threaded with coarser filament silk. The thin threads are threaded with four threads in each tablet and the thick threads are threaded with only two threads in each tablet, they are threaded in each corner placed diagonally from each other. The tablets are placed, in pair, thin, thick, thin, thick and thin. Which gives a striping and structure to the band. All tablets are turned a quarter of a turn together. As the thick threads are not twisted a quarter of a turn with each twist, as they are threaded into every other hole in the tablet, a pattern is given along the length where the thick threads get one weft on the same surface as the thin threads get two. As the ribbon is short, the weaver has not reversed the twist added by the technique, which otherwise needs to be done after a certain length so that the shine of the silk is not adversely affected.
The band probably originates from the personal costume. It is not possible to tell whether the ribbon is woven locally or imported in finished condition. Similar bands are also found from Stockholm.”


Happy weaving!

Please cred us if sharing pictures.
/Amica and Maria

Advent calendar 2022 – 5 December

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Recycling. Perhaps the most obvious within the life cycle of a historical textile. Made, worn, mended, remade and used til all was gone…. And here we have a great example. A chasuble.

The embroidery of Jesus was probably made during the 17th century on a gold and silk relief velvet fabric from the 15th century. To consider during the 17th century that a then 200-year-old fabric was perfectly acceptable as a basis for the embroidery, is an attitude that is quite far from today’s ideas. We are both shocked by it, but also know that’s the use of such habits probably is the reason why they are still around… Ney but yay, in a way…

The velvet was probably already quite worn in the 17th century but didn’t stop the creator. We love the fact that Christ’s two legs are a recycled linen table cloth or a towel, a very rare kind from this time. Enlarge the picture for full visibility!

Dated 1350-1699

Now in the collections of The Swedish History museum. 
More pictures here

/ Amica and Maria

Advent calendar 2021 – 15 December

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Our fifteenth Advent calendar post 2021 is:

A selected mix of medieval embroidery with applications made in different fabrics. The medieval gilt leather embroideries often have several different fabrics, often in different colors and in different qualities.
Here we can see applications from the coverlet Dalhem 1.
The Ilsbo coverlet, unlike Dalhem 1, does not have gilt leather strips on the edge but twisted linen strips.
Skepptuna have lovely hearts in gilt leather. Masku coverlet have cute flowers in purple.

There is also a chasuble with nice little applications on. It has silk, wool fabric, gold thread and wool yarn in a wonderful mix. The wool yarn is used a bit as a contour or here as a stem.

Bonus is the Bexheda coverlet, also this embroidery has gilt leather strips on the edge and appliqués in fun colors. This one is not 15th century as the others but from the 17th century. So the tradition lives on.

Applique embroidery is not a Swedish phenomenon, but since we have access to museum collections here, we often write about it, but there is a fine embroidery from today’s Germany. The Tristan wall hanging that is available at V&A is a wonderful example of just application. This embroidery is dated to the latter part of the 14th century and it is easy to see that the people in the embroidery have fashion clothes from the era. This one also have silk embroidery and additional spangles. And of course gilt leather.

Dalhem 1 and Skepptuna and the chasuble can be found in the collections of the Swedish history museum. Ilsbo can be found in the collections of the museum of Hälsingland. Masku can be found in National museum in Helsinki. Bexheda can be found in the collections of Kulturparken Småland.

Small pieces of wool fabric are invaluable when embroidering appliqué. If you also want to embark on embroidery with gold leather, gilt leather strips are very necessary. Even small pieces of gilt leather are good to have! Pieces of wool are also very good to have if you are going to repair clothes that have broken. Maybe you need to repair a hose? Then put on a patch! It can feel fancy to have a plant dyed patch under your foot.

/ Amica and Maria

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Advent calendar December 23 2020

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Today we go Royal with a linen collar with some amazing bobin laces.
The owner was King Gustav II Adolf/ Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden, He reigned over Sweden between 1611-1632. He was shot and died the 6th of November 1632 in Lützen during the 30 year war.

The collar is made out of a very thin and evenly woven plain linen weave. The stitching is to die for!!!
The bobin lace is also made out of linen thread, two plied.

Today the collar is in the collection of The Royal Armoury, Stockholm.
/ Amica & Maria
Please cred if sharing photos.

Advent calendar December 17th 2018

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Our seventeenth advent calendar post is an alb with embroideries.  The alb comes from Brännkyrka kyrka, Södermanland, Sweden. It is made of of the thinnest linen and is in great condition considering it’s age. 

The embroideries are made with silk thread and metal spangles. 

They alb is dated to 17th century.  

Now in collections of Historiska museet, Sweden.
/ Amica and Maria
Photo: Historical Textiles

Advent calendar December 1th 2018

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Our advent calendar starts with a famous mitten from Åsle, Sweden.
The mitten is made in naalbinding technique.
It’s made out of wool yarn. The fringe was originally red, green and undyed wool.
When the mitten was found it was dated to 3rd- 5th century. 2002 a C-14 dated changed that and placed the dating of the mitten to 1510-1640.
Now in collections of Historiska museet, Sweden.
/ Amica and Maria
Photo: Historical textiles

17/ 2018 The weekend picture- Fringe frenzy

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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

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Advent calendar 21 December 2017

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Our twenty-first calendar post is a row of buttonholes in silk. From the Wasa ship, Sweden.

Here we can see a close up on the buttonholes. The buttonholes are sewn in silk thread. The fabric where they were sewn on is gone, and only the buttonholes are remaining of this item.

This piece is dated to 10 August 1628, the same day as the warship Wasa sank.

Now in collections of Vasamuseet, Sweden

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