Tools. Without them there wouldn’t be textiles. To weave bands one can us a rigid heddle. And we would like to show you this lovely rigid heddle from Västkinde, Gotland, Sweden. It’s made out of moose antlers. It’s dated 1350-1500.
It’s in the collection of Swedish History museum and here is the link to the database.
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/Amica and Maria
In museum collections there are always objects which for different reasons are linked to historical persons. It can be difficult to confirm if it is really true. And one can wonder if it really matters..
The objects are often from the time that the historical person lived, but of course there are also objects that are obviously from the wrong time. Modern technology can also reveal information whether the objects and the history the carry match.
This belt belongs in the collections of the National Museum in Copenhagen and is attributed to Eric of Pomerania. We don’t know if it’s true or not.
It is woven with tablets, in silk. And it is indeed a very exclusive object, fit for a king.
The belt dates to the early 15th century.
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/ Amica and Maria
Strikingly often, textiles are found where you might not have initially thought they would be.
So in case with these three jousting shields. The core is made of hard wood and in order to create reinforcement, stability and a base to paint on, all three shields have been covered with a woven fabric. The fabric has been glued to the wood with an animal glue, over this a pigskin parchment and then coated with gesso and painted.
The fabric that can be seen where the gesso has cracked and fallen off is a relatively coarse linen/ hemp woven in plain weave.
The shields are called burial shields in the database but show all the identical features of jousting shields. The question of whether they were ever used for jousting may not be proven.
The shields date from the middle of the 15th century to the beginning of the 16th century.
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/ Amica and Maria
Today we were looking for a saint. Saint Lucia, since we celebrate her in Sweden today. But…. she is rarely seen on textiles items. So we just went with an awesome double weave instead.
This double weave is from Hälsinglands museum and has no proper dating but…. it has a lot of in common with other textiles from the 16th century…. So we believe it might be. It’s labelled coverlet.
The warp is in 2-plied wool yarn, very uneven, yellow and natural brown. And the weft is a single wool yarn, also very varied, red, blue and yellow.
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/Amica and Maria
Today we will talk about a kind of medieval textile that often have been falsified and many fakes are found in museums all over the world. Printed linen fabric. These pieces are believed to be originals. They come from the medieval church Södra Råda. 2001 the wooden church was burned down. And 2003 a reconstruction started to rebuild the church. Happily all medieval textiles was already at museums when that happened.
The printed in is printed in black and appears to have been painted red and yellow in some places. We don’t know what kind of pigment that were used. The fabrics have been sewn together before the motif was printed. It’s believed to be a work produced in the west of Germany.
Agnes Geijer dated the print to mid 15th century.
Today in the collection of Swedish History Museum. Read more here
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/ Amica and Maria
Not all bands are woven with tablets.
Some seems to be woven with rigid heddles too. Like this on from 15th century. Woven in silk. As you can see, the blue fades faster than the madder dyed red. The long floats gives the band a nice pattern too. Around 12-14 mm wide.
In the collections of Swedish History museum.
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/Amica and Maria
Since you guys clearly liked the tablet woven band from Falun, we toss you another one.
This one a lot older… This one dates to the 10th century. From Valsgärde boat grave no. 15.
Valsgärde is situated not far from Uppsala, Sweden, and is a place with many Viking burials and therefor a lot of excavations have been preformed there.
The band is woven in silk or wool with a silk weft and a brocading weft in a metal thread wrapped around a textile core.
The patterns are the same kind of geometrical patterns as we see on the tablet woven bands from Birka. The edges have fallen off and was originally attached to the side of the band.
Today in the collections of Gustavianum museum.
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/ Amica and Maria
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
Another day another dutch embroidery, this time a shield for a cope. From Grödinge church, Sweden. With checkred floor and surprised animals. Silk in satin stitch and couched gold thread. Background in plain weave linen, that can be seen where the embroidery have been damaged. .
We cannot understand how in the world they managed to dye such a wonderful orange and teal.
Dated 1450-1500.
Now in the collections of The Swedish History museum.
More pictures here
/ Amica and Maria
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The third day of December we would like to a possibly Dutch work. It’s a chasuble from Jälluntofta, Sweden, in relief velvet with gold thread and slik embroidery in couched and split stitch. The saints standing on checkered floors. That is quite common in embroideries from the 15th century.
We love the woven band with the fringe. It could be either woven with a rigid heddle or tablets. The warp is a 2-plied silk thread.
Now in the collections of The Swedish History museum.
More pictures here
/ Amica and Maria
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