Tag: 19th century

NOW: Setesdal Mittens NF.1913-0863AB

The Nalbound Object of the Week features a pair of mittens from Valle, Setesdal, Norway, dated pre-1913, and currently located in the Norsk Folkemuseum. The mittens are decorated in the typical Valle style and are made of wool. They are recognizable from their use as the cover illustration on Nordland’s Primitive Scandinavian Textiles in Knotless Netting. For more information, visit the museum’s catalog.

Today’s Nalbound Object of the Week comes from Valle in Setesdal, Norway. This pair of mittens was apparently accessioned into the Norsk Folkemuseum’s inventory in 1913. They are more broadly recognized in the nalbinding community because one of them appears on the cover of Odd Nordland’s book “Primitive Scandinavian Textiles in Knotless Netting”1 which is the source of the second specific attempt at a classification system for nalbound structures.

NF.1913-0863AB mittens from Valle in Setesdal in Norway.
Photo: Norsk Folkemuseum CC BY-SA

Object: Pair of mittens decorated with a nalbound strip and embroidery in the style typical of Valle in Setesdal, Norway.

Description: White mittens with red, and possibly light green based on related mittens, embroidery on the cuffs and thumb.2 The decoration also includes a separate chain of nalbinding that is attached with embroidery in a wavy pattern. The mittens are 27.5 cm long and 16 cm wide3 (10 21/64 inches by 6 19/64 inches.

Dated to: pre-19134

Find location: Valle5 in the Setesdal valley in Norway

Material: Wool6

Stitch(es) used: 632 in Nordland’s classification system.7 More recognizably F1 UOOO/UUUOO in modified Hansen’s classification.8

Inventory number: NF.1913-0863AB9

Current location: Norsk Folkemuseum

Link to museum catalog or other data: https://digitaltmuseum.no/011023139001/vott

Some sources in which more information can be found:

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

Photographs:

NF.1913-0863A mitten from Valle in Setesdal in Norway. This is most likely the specific mitten used for the image on the from of Nordland’s “Primitive Scandinavian Textiles in Knotless Netting.”
Photo: Norsk Folkemuseum CC BY-SA

Related mittens from Valle in Setesdal:
NF.1911-0928AB https://digitaltmuseum.no/011023136087/vott
NF.1950-0696AB https://digitaltmuseum.no/011023181433/vott
NF.1992-1720AB https://digitaltmuseum.no/011023223523/vott
NBF2012-1018 https://digitaltmuseum.no/011024089933/vott

NF.1911-0928AB https://digitaltmuseum.no/011023136087/vott
Photo: Norsk Folkemuseum CC BY-SA
NF.1911-0928AB https://digitaltmuseum.no/011023136087/vott
Photo: Norsk Folkemuseum CC BY-SA
NF.1950-0696AB https://digitaltmuseum.no/011023181433/vott
Photo: Norsk Folkemuseum CC BY-SA

NF.1992-1720AB https://digitaltmuseum.no/011023223523/vott
Photo: Norsk Folkemuseum CC BY-SA
NF.1992-1720AB https://digitaltmuseum.no/011023223523/vott
Photo: Norsk Folkemuseum CC BY-SA
Several other nalbound mittens from Valle in Setesdal Norway.
NF.1911-0665AB
Photo: Norsk Folkemuseum CC-BY-SA https://digitaltmuseum.no/011023135826/vott
Annlaug K. Haugen sitting with her nalbinding in 1939. Identifier: NF.13609-020
Photo: Grostøl, Anna / Norsk Folkemuseum Public Domain https://digitaltmuseum.no/011013438128/valle-setesdal-aust-agder-1939-portrett-av-annlaug-k-haugen-som-sitter
Nalbinding by Annlaug K. Haugen taken in 1939. Identifier: NF.13609-036
Photo: Grostøl, Anna / Norsk Folkemuseum Public Domain https://digitaltmuseum.no/011013438154/valle-setesdal-aust-agder-1939-nalebinding-annlaug-k-haugen
Many thanks to Ingela Andersson Lindberg for finding these additional Valle mitten images. It looks like there’s an interesting unpublished study in Anna Grostøl’s notes to be investigated and another reference to track down: Fossnes, Heidi: Håndplagg til bunader og folkedrakter. Oslo 2003. ISBN 82-496-0187-4. s. 17.

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. Knotless Netting is an older term used to describe nalbound structures prior to the borrowing of the term Nalbinding into English. It was used to differentiate nalbound structures from netted structures. However, it did not apparently recognize that nalbound structures are also types of knots; just loose knots compared to the hard knots used in netting. ↩︎
  2. Color based on data and color pictures of related objects as neither Nordland nor the museum’s online record specify the colors of this particular pair of mittens. ↩︎
  3. Dimensions Value: https://digitaltmuseum.no/011023139001/vott Accessed 17 Mar 2024 ↩︎
  4. No dating was provided, but the inventory number implies accession in 1913. ↩︎
  5. Bruk: https://digitaltmuseum.no/011023139001/vott Accessed 17 Mar 2024 and Nordland 1961, Pgs. 70 & 71. ↩︎
  6. Material: https://digitaltmuseum.no/011023139001/vott Accessed 17 Mar 2024 ↩︎
  7. Nordland 1961, Pgs. 70 & 71. ↩︎
  8. Larry Schmitt initially used a modified Hansen’s classification moving the connection stitch to the front to recognize that the connection to the previous row occurs prior to the intralacing of most stitches. I have continued this practice in my translations between classification systems. Technically Nordland’s 632 could be either F1 UOOO/UUUOO or F1 OUUU/OOOUU as it only describes the number of loops before a change in intralacement, not the order of intralacement, but the first is more likely given the predominant intralacing patterns. ↩︎
  9. Identifier: https://digitaltmuseum.no/011023139001/vott Accessed 17 Mar 2024 ↩︎

NOW: Kinzembe, Nkutu, or Zamba kya mfumu – Kongalese Prestige Cape 1962.1.14

This week’s Nalbound Object of the Week comes from Central Africa. There are quite a few of these beautifully fine Prestige Capes from the former Kingdom of Kongo now in museums around the world. I was honored to be able to examine this particular one closely. Until you are in the presence of one, it is hard to comprehend just how delicate and fine this complex compound nalbinding is; and then you add in the openwork patterning. Definitely breathtaking.

Photo Credit: Textile Museum Acquisition – Public Domain

Object: Kinzembe,1 Nkutu,2 or Zamba kya mfumu3 – Kongalese Prestige Cape

Description: A stunningly fine raffia cape worked in a trebly intralaced compound nalbinding stitch with an openwork zigzag pattern. The neck opening has a layer of Simple Looping around the edge. The outer edges have raffia fringe knotted onto them. The front and back rows have strings knotted on every few stitches from which the handle-like tassels are suspended. This cape has one both front and back. Some also have them off the sides.

There is an illustration of an etching, based on a photograph, that was made ca. 1880 of a Chief in Full Dress Attire wearing a nkutu on page 73 of Kongo: Power and Majesty.

Dated to: 19th century CE4

Find location: Democratic Republic of Congo, what was southern Zaire.5

Material: raffia6

Stitch(es) used: B1 UU/OO/UU/OOU as determined by Anne Marie Decker during her examination of the object on 14 June 2023. The row heights are very fine for this compound of a nalbinding stitch; around 5/8ths of an inch. There is a single row of Z-crossed Simple Looping, F1 O, around the neck opening.

The Textile Museum specifies that the structure is “looping,” but not the specific stitch used.7 This type of cape has also been misidentified as sprang8 in other examples, but they are not.

So far, the only other place where we see other stitches in the same trebly intralaced family of stitches is in the Omani stitch sock as described by Peter Collingwood (the only example of that particular stitch out of Oman that has been found so far).

Inventory number: Accession Number: 1962.1.14

Current location: The Textile Museum

Link to museum catalog or other data: https://collections-gwu.zetcom.net/en/collection/item/11243/

Some sources in which more information can be found:

LaGamma, Alisa, ed. Kongo: Power and Majesty. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2016. ISBN 978-1-58839-575-7

Photographs:

Photos of this and several other examples of Kinzembe, Nkutu, or Zamba kya mfumu can be seen at Some of the fashion accessories used in the Kongo Kingdom – Raffia textiles

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. https://collections-gwu.zetcom.net/en/collection/item/11243/ ↩︎
  2. The Brooklyn Museum uses the term nkutu for the Prestige Cape in their collection: https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/13009 as does the British Museum with the one in their collection: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/E_Af1853-0713-1 ↩︎
  3. https://collections-gwu.zetcom.net/en/collection/item/11243/ ↩︎
  4. https://collections-gwu.zetcom.net/en/collection/item/11243/ ↩︎
  5. https://collections-gwu.zetcom.net/en/collection/item/11243/ ↩︎
  6. https://collections-gwu.zetcom.net/en/collection/item/11243/. This is not the only type of fiber in which we find this type of cape worked. ↩︎
  7. https://collections-gwu.zetcom.net/en/collection/item/11243/ ↩︎
  8. For example, the British Museum’s Af1853,0713.1 lists its technique as sprang: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/E_Af1853-0713-1, but also provides clear and close photographs that show it is worked in exactly the same interlinking nalbinding stitch as this one in The Textile Museum. ↩︎
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