Advent calendar 2022 – 18 December

/ Maria / 2 Comments

Today, on the fourth Advent, we think there needs to be a post that is a little “extra everything”. That’s why we bring out this wonderful tablecloth from Hammarby church, Sweden. Dated first part of 16th century. It’s a white weave in a goose’s eye, linen or possibly hemp. The tablecloth is incomplete but still measures an impressive 94 x 553 cm.

In terms of pattern, it consists of scenes with people who, among other things, appear to be attending a banquet. There are also outdoor scenes with animals. Between the scenes there are floral motifs, acanthus vines and the tablecloth is framed by an approx. 18 cm wide border with, among other things, lions on it.
It has also got a fringe in red and white, on one of the sides.

It is embroidered with stem stitch, chain stitch in silk and wool. It is assumed to be a work from northern Germany.

Today in the collections of Swedish History museum. You can see more pictures here

Advent calendar 2022 – 17 December

/ Maria / 1 Comment

Historical art is a great source for understanding how the tools of the time looked and were used. Strikingly often, one can understand that the artist had little understanding of, for example, the function of looms. However, this particular one seems to work fine.

The woman in the picture is weaving a plain weave and she is holding a weave shuttle. The woman on the floor is winding a bobbin for the shuttle. Both the loom and the bobin machine are imaginative for the understanding of what they looked like at the time.

The story itself can also give clues of what is depicted. Since the weaver is weaving a shroud we are quite sure it’s supposed to be linen.

The painting is at the National Gallery in London and is dated to 1509 circa.

Photos by Historical Textiles.

/ Amica and Maria

Advent calendar 2022 – 16 December

/ Maria / 4 Comments

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.

Please cred us if sharing photos.

/Amica and Maria

Advent calendar 2022 – 15 December

/ Maria / Leave a comment

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.
Please cred us if sharing photos.

/ Amica and Maria

Advent calendar 2022 – 14 December

/ Maria / Leave a comment

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.

Link to the shields

Please cred us if sharing photos.

/ Amica and Maria

Advent calendar 2022-13 December

/ Maria / 2 Comments

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.
Please cred us if sharing photos


/Amica and Maria

Advent calendar 2022- 12 December

/ Maria / Leave a comment

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

Please cred us if sharing photos.

/ Amica and Maria

Advent calendar 2022 – 11 December

/ Maria / 2 Comments

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.

Please cred us if sharing photos.

/Amica and Maria

Advent calendar 2022 – 10 December

/ Maria / Leave a comment

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.

Please cred us if sharing photos!

/ Amica and Maria

Advent calendar 2022- 9 December

/ Maria / Leave a comment

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