A Minnesota woman named Karen Davis sent me a photo a while back, wondering whether I could tell her anything about a tapestry pillow-top inherited from her mother-in-law 25 years ago.
At first Karen thought it was perhaps Zuni or Aztec or Mexican. She wrote,
Then I realized that I had stitched some similar flowers in a Norwegian counted cross-stitch sampler when I was younger. So I checked out Scandinavian and the Swedish weaving popped up. I’m still so excited, I tried to quiz my husband as to what he thought it was. His first reply was “What, there’s a special pillow in our bedroom?” So I showed him the pillow and he guessed – Swedish! I was rather upset as he was correct, so annoying! He said he decided Swedish because his mother was Swedish. I guess you can’t always count your husband’s opinions out.
I was quite sure it was Swedish. There were similar pieces in a show of Swedish tapestries at the Weavers Guild of Minnesota. See: “Carol Johnson’s Tapestry Collection: Florals.” https://robbielafleur.com/2019/02/22/tapestry-floral/ There were the same stylized lilies of the valley, tulips, and crown-like designs.
My friend Jan Mostrom has more books on Swedish weaving than I do, and she offered to look through her collection for more clues. Success! Jan found a similar piece in Textile Bildverk, published by the Nordiska Museum in Stockholm in 1925 — a bench cover in Flamsk weave (tapestry technique) from area of Blekinge. Knowing that name easily led to more examples.
(See the very interesting information at the end of the post!)
Armed with the Blekinge clue, I searched the Swedish digital library and found this image, https://digitaltmuseum.se/021016786486/del-av-banklangd-i-flamsk.
This is a a larger blanket or coverlet included in the digital library: https://digitaltmuseum.se/021016786396/tacke-i-flamsk. Both pieces were part of an inventory of Swedish folk art done by Lilli Zickerman, a researcher who traveled the county and took photos of textiles from 1910-1932. She took black and white photos, and later hand-colored many of the images. A similar one: https://digitaltmuseum.se/021016786444/banklangd-i-flamsk. And another: https://digitaltmuseum.se/021016786470/banklangd-i-flamsk.
Karen Davis was putting together an inventory of keepsakes in her home, with the stories behind them. She was happy to learn more about her pillow.
The correction: Joel Greifinger, Administrator of the Scandinavian Folk Textiles Facebook Group (you should all sign up at https://www.facebook.com/groups/6534985116561646), wrote a clarification.
These weavings from Östra härad in Blekinge were referred to as ‘flämst’ or ’flämster’ in the old estate records, because they are technically a cross between flämskvav and rölakan. Like rölakan, they were woven on horizontal, multi-shaft looms. In his monograph on flamsk weaving, Swedish textile historian Ernst Fischer wrote: “Blekinge flamsk Flemish weave in the true sense does not seem to have occurred in Blekinge, if by flämsk is meant a product which has been produced on a standing loom. Since fabrics, which in Blekinge have been given the name ‘flämst’ or ‘flämster’, are woven on an ordinary loom with the warp in a horizontal position and short, loosely hanging threads picked up as on ‘rölakan’ and generally double-wound. The patterns also differ from the Flemish patterns in the rest of Sweden. In Skåne, there are a few individual specimens in this technology. The real Flemish tissues, which could be found in Blekinge, are generally of Scanian origin.”
See also this post: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=2024180137927328&set=p.2024180137927328&type=3
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