National treasures – the textiles

Continuing the National treasures-series. Here are some of the textile treasures I found this summer:

An antique, paisley-patterned table-cloth made of silk and wool found it´s way to Stalheim, Norway´s largest private museum. A collector who happened to be a hotel-manager travelled around his area collecting all sorts of treasures, big and small. And even this one bought on his honey-moon.

Traditional embroidery on a collar of a bunad-shirt. Called black-seam. The stitches are so small and fine, and even though the pattern is simple, it´s very decorative.

More bunad-textiles. These woven bands are used for everything from suspenders to hide seams/decorate the fabric to hair-bands. Handwoven, one would use a small handheld loom.

And then some: These are chest-pieces or stomachers. All different designs. Nowadays it is much more uniform. Back in the day, people would make what they liked, related to the regional taste, and with the material they had at hand. The variety is rich both in color, design and  pattern.

A knitted sweater in red and black. The black yarn was naturally black from the sheep. The red was probably dyed naturally with plant-dye.

What is this spiky punk thing you ask?! It´s a belt. Up code it looks more ethnic than punk. but spikes they are, nonetheless 🙂

A rare treat. A silk night-sweater from the 17th century. They were imported from the Netherlands, and there are only 17 surviving examples left in Norway. And as far as I know, only this one is blue. the others are red. All with gold embroidery on them. Sigh… the beauty!

Textiles were actually more expensive than painting. So in many places walls are decorated with paint alluding draped textiles. Food for thought today, when painting is considered fine art, and textiles as merely crafts. The status has certainly changed.