Silk

35/ 2018- Top of a sudarium

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” 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

 

29/2018- The display is everything

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We would like to wish you all a very late happy weekend with some reconstruction pictures.

We have just visited Kalmar castle and Roskilde cathedral.

Both places have in their exhibitions a reconstruction of “Queen Margareta’s golden gown”. Roskilde had the original until the 30year war ( in the 17th century) when the Swedes was passing the cathedral on the way home from the war, and just stole the kirtel. Today the original can been seen in Uppsala cathedral.

The kirtel in Kalmar is a printed silk fabric. The fabric is very thin and light.

The one in Roskilde is a reconstruction made by Borås textile University in 1993. That means silk warp and gilded silver thread and silk in the weft. That fabric is very stiff and have more in common with tin foil then a smooth silk.

Here are the different displays:

Kalmar

Roskilde

We are very happy to show how different fabrics drapes. When made out of the same pattern it’s very obvious.

Medieval gold brocade does not really drapes, it’s more like wearing a traffic cone…

Happy weekend ( well…. Tuesday 😉 )

/ Amica and Maria

26/ 2018 – Eric of Pomerania’s Belt

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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

 

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23/ 2018- The weekend picture – Relic box from Vadstena

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We would like to wish you all a happy weekend with a  historical textile.

This week we focus on a relic box from Vadstena abbey church,  Östergötland, Sweden.
The abbey was founded in 1346 by Saint Bridget with the assistance of King Magnus IV of Sweden and his Queen Blanche of Namur, who made a will donating ten farms, including that of Vadstena in Dal Hundred, Östergötland, to the abbey founded by Bridget.

The relic box is dated to mid 15th century and it was made by the nuns at the abbey. The surface is covered in silk embroidery with additional details in gold. The inscription on the box says: stud capud est onnis sancti martiris qui suit de co(n) soriis sancti gereonis martiris
The box have got a pale red linen lining. The box and the foot is made out of wood.

The relic box can be found in the collections of Statens Historiska museum in Sweden.
Here is the link to the object in the database.

Happy weekend!
/ Amica and Maria

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18/ 2018- The weekend picture’s

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We would like to wish you all a happy weekend with a  historical textile.

This week we focus on a chasuble in silk from Ösmo church, Södermanland, Sweden. The church is whose oldest parts are from the 1100s, is mostly famous for it’s paintings  made by Albertus Pictor.
The fabric is a silk damask in a pomegranate pattern, from Italy. Now pale red/ pinkish.
It’s decorated with two different tablet woven bands.  The band that is attached to the back of chasuble, in the shape of a cross,  is woven in silk with gold thread in the brocading weft. Green and blue silk is still visible on that band. The band that is attached around the neck line is possibly made from linen and have a gold thread in the brocading weft. We find is quite amusing that the neck band is not at all centered in the front.

The shape of the chasuble have been changed and some material have been cut off. The item shows some interesting piecing and give us an idea that the fabric was once very valuable. There are no traces of pattern matching. The seams shows that the silk fabric was sewn together with back stitches.  One can see the characteristic V-shaped stitches through the gap in between the pieces.
The linen lining is very impressive with it’s dark blue colour. Most likely dyed with woad.

The chasuble can be found in the collections of Statens Historiska museum in Sweden.
Here is the link to the object in the database. The chasuble is dated to mid -to late 15th century.

Happy weekend!
/ Amica and Maria

All images subject to CC BY SA. Photographer: Historical Textiles, specified at sharing of images. Make sure to do the same with the pictures from Historiska

Picture from Historiska museets database
Backside. With the decoration in shape of a cross
Detail of vertical part of cross
Detail from horizontal part of the tablet woven decoration
Detail from horizontal part of the tablet woven decoration
Detail from the tablet woven band attached to the neckline.
Picture from Historiska museets database
Detail of piecing, with stitches
Detail of piecing, with stitches.
Detail of piecing, with stitches
Detail of piecing, bottom end.
Linen lining in dark blue

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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16/2018 The weekend picture

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We would like to wish you all a happy weekend with a historical textile.

This week we focus on an embroidery on a chasuble. Wool application on wool. With details in gold thread. Some of the gold has fallen off and then you can see the silk core of the gold thread.

The chasuble comes from an unknown church in Jämtland, Sweden. Now in the collections of Statens Historiska museum in Sweden.
It is dated to 1350-1500 AD. We would like to place it to 15th century.

/ Amica and Maria

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15/2018 The weekend picture

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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.

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Advent calendar 25 December 2017

/ Maria / 4 Comments

Our twenty-fifth and last calendar post is an embroidery in silk and gold. From Vadstena convent church, Sweden.

Here we can see a close up on the newly born baby Jesus and his mother Mary.

The embroidery is dated early 15th century.

Now in collections of Historiska museet, Sweden.

We would like to thank you all that have followed our advent calendar and wish you all a Merry Christmas.

/ Amica and Maria.