Tag: 11th century

NOW: Oslo mitten C28155

Last week I had the distinct pleasure to go visit a well known mitten that rather recently has been placed on display again in the NOREGR – Medieval Stories exhibition at the Historical Museum in Oslo. And thus, the Oslo mitten joins the Nalbound Object of the Week series.

Anne Marie Decker pointing to the Oslo mitten on display in the Historical Museum in Oslo. Photo Anne Marie Decker 18 April 2024

Object: Oslo Mitten

Description: An adult sized mitten made of wool with damage at the base of the thumb and palm areas.

Dated to: 11th century,1 medieval. Ca. 1025-1125 CE2

The exhibition label for the Oslo mitten in the NOREGR – Medieval Stories exhibition at the Historical Museum in Oslo. Photo: Anne Marie Decker 18 April 2024.

Find location: The mitten was found during the 1926 excavation of the old town of Oslo on a layer of wood chips under the wooden flooring of a narrow passage between houses. This part of town was built in the 11th century.3

Material: wool4

Stitch(es) used: Nordland published the stitch used as 412 in his classification system5 which most likely translates to the stitch commonly known as Oslo and classified in Hansen’s notation as UO/UOO F1. However, further examination is warranted as the surface texture does not match. The surface texture more closely resembles the Mammen stitch, F2 UOO/UUOO.

Inventory number: C28155

Current location: Historical Museum

Link to museum catalog or other data: https://www.unimus.no/portal/#/things/fbbd3006-2407-498e-a527-a18f62fadb2a

Some sources in which more information can be found:

Claßen-Büttner, Ulrike. Nadelbinden – Was ist denn das? Geschichte und Technik einer fast vergessenen Handarbeit. Norderstedt: Books on Demand GmbH, 2012. ISBN 978-3-8482-0124-2.

Claßen-Büttner, Ulrike. Nalbinding – What in the World Is That? History and Technique of an Almost Forgotten Handicraft. Norderstedt: Books on Demand, 2015. ISBN 978-3-7347-7905-3.

Nordland, Odd. Primitive Scandinavian Textiles in Knotless Netting. Studia Norvegica no. 10. Oslo: Oslo University Press, 1961. No ISBN listed in Book.

Photographs:

The museum catalog has 3 very nice zoomable photos. The two color photos are of one side and the black and white of the other.

Oslo Mitten. Photo: Anne Marie Decker 18 April 2024
Detail of the thumb of the Oslo Mitten. Photo: Anne Marie Decker 18 April 2024
The display case in which the Oslo mitten is currently located in the NOREGR – Medieval Stories exhibition. Photo: Anne Marie Decker 18 April 2024
Detail of the cuff of the Oslo Mitten. Photo: Anne Marie Decker 18 April 2024

Photo taken during previous exhibition: https://images.app.goo.gl/jji31ErrTx8A1o739

Please note that sharing to other venues will likely be intermittent. If you wish to receive these each week, please remember to follow the blog.
Patrons on Patreon receive early access previews, occasional extra details, and priority requests.

  1. Nordland 1961, pg 43. ↩︎
  2. Dating listed on the item description for the mitten as on display in the NOREGR exhibition in the Historical Museum. ↩︎
  3. Nordland 1961, pg 43 and https://www.unimus.no/portal/#/things/fbbd3006-2407-498e-a527-a18f62fadb2a Accessed 29 April 2024. ↩︎
  4. Nordland 1961, pg. 43. ↩︎
  5. Nordland 1961, pgs 42 & 43. ↩︎

NOW: Cap with Puppies 1964.52.1

The collection of Peruvian nalbinding is full of beautiful figural work. This week’s Nalbound Object of the Week is one of my favorites: a small cap with a dog nursing her puppies.1

A small dark brown cap/fascinator with a light brown edge and a striped mother dog nursing her three striped puppies.
Photo: The Textile Museum – Public Domain

Object: Peruvian cap with puppies

Description: The cap is a slightly ovaloid shape just under 6 inches in diameter (5.5 x 5.75 inches) and 1.5 inches high (3.81 H x 14.60 W x 13.97 D cm).2 On top of the cap is a striped “dog” nursing three striped “puppies” worked in 3 dimensional figural nalbinding.

We know of several other caps from Peru in this time frame with figural work on them. One in purple and white stripes with a chicken head. Another in red and yellows with two birds on top.

Dated to: 1000-15003

Find location: Peru, probably coastal4

Material: camelid5 (meaning unspecified fiber off the alpaca or llama or other variety of camelid animals6)

Stitch(es) used: S-crossed Simple Looping, B1 U, (museum record says Cross-knit Looping,7 but image shows a surface texture of Simple Looping or possibly Pierced Looping)

Inventory number: Accession Number: 1964.52.1

Current location: The Textile Museum

Link to museum catalog or other data: https://collections-gwu.zetcom.net/en/collection/item/165/

Some sources in which more information can be found:

Rogers, George (Author). “Calendar” in The Textile Museum Bulletin, The Textile Museum Bulletin, Washington, D.C., 1990, vol. Spring, p. 8.

The Textile Museum. An Introduction to Textile Terms, Washington DC: The Textile Museum, 1997.

Please note that sharing to other venues will likely be intermittent. If you wish to receive these each week, please remember to follow the blog.
Patrons on Patreon receive early access previews, occasional extra details, and priority requests.

  1. Looping in An Introduction to Textile Terms, Washington DC: The Textile Museum, 1997. ↩︎
  2. Dimensions: https://collections-gwu.zetcom.net/en/collection/item/165/ ↩︎
  3. Date: https://collections-gwu.zetcom.net/en/collection/item/165/ ↩︎
  4. Geography: https://collections-gwu.zetcom.net/en/collection/item/165/ ↩︎
  5. Materials: https://collections-gwu.zetcom.net/en/collection/item/165/ ↩︎
  6. An interesting article regarding the difficulties in identifying between the 4 types of camelids in South America in the archeological record can be found in Paloma Diaz-Maroto, Alba Rey-Iglesia, Isabel Cartajena, Lautaro Núñez, Michael V Westbury, Valeria Varas, Mauricio Moraga, Paula F Campos, Pablo OrozcoterWengel, Juan Carlos Marin, Anders J Hansen (2021) Ancient DNA reveals the lost domestication history of South American camelids in Northern Chile and across the Andes eLife 10:e63390 at https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.63390/ ↩︎
  7. Structure: https://collections-gwu.zetcom.net/en/collection/item/165/, but the diagram in An Introduction to Textile Terms, Washington DC: The Textile Museum, 1997 for Looping, which is illustrated with this cap, shows alternating rows of S- and Z-crossed Simple Looping, not Cross-knit Looping. ↩︎