Fringe – Nalbound

NOW: Estonian Fringed Mitten with Embroidery ERM 7952/ab

Today’s Nalbound Object of the Week is from the islands off Estonia. It’s a lovely white mitten with a large extended cuff decorated with both embroidery and fringe. It was collected in 1912, but was made in 1762 CE.

Object: Fringed Mitten with Embroidery

Description: A white wool mitten with a rounded oval tip that increases smoothly to an extended cuff. At the wrist there is red, blue, and yellow alternating fringe sewn into the underside of the mitten. There is also embroidery at the wrist consisting of a wavy blue line forming rough triangles between two lines of red running stitches with blue lacing around the red. According to the online catalog, the mitten is 36 cm long,¹ which is just over 14 inches.

Dated to: 1762²

Find location: The mitten was collected in the summer of 1912 by Richard Willems and Paul Ruus from Timofei Tänav, called Tähve, (1837-1914) at the Marti farm in the village of Külasema in Muhu Parish, Estonia, but was noted as being manufactured at Jaagu farm in Sõrve parish on Saaremaa, Estonia.³

Material: 2 ply (Z-spun, S-plied) Wool⁴

Stitch(es) used: unspecified. I suspect Finnish 2+2 F2, UUOO/UUOOO F2, but would need to analyze more.

Inventory number: ERM 7952/ab

Current location: Eesti Rahva Muuseum

Link to museum catalog or other data: https://opendata.muis.ee/object/556524

Photographs: Larger versions of the photos are available from the museum’s online catalog.

Photo Credit: kindad, nõelkindad, ERM 7952/ab, Eesti Rahva Muuseum, http://www.muis.ee/en_GB/museaalview/556524 (CC0 1.0)

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.

https://opendata.muis.ee/object/556524 Accessed 16 June 2024 ↩︎
https://opendata.muis.ee/object/556524 Accessed 16 June 2024 ↩︎
https://opendata.muis.ee/object/556524 Accessed 16 June 2024 ↩︎
The museum catalog simply notes Wool https://opendata.muis.ee/object/556524 Accessed 16 June 2024. Analysis of the photographs by this author shows that it is 2 Z-spun yarns plied S. ↩︎

Case Study 8 of Archaeological Puzzles in a Museum

I’m excited to announce the “Archaeological Puzzles in a Museum” online exhibition at the National Museum of Denmark is now online!

https://en.natmus.dk/museums-and-palaces/the-national-museum-of-denmark/exhibitions/classical-and-near-eastern-antiquities/archaeological-puzzles-in-a-museum/

I contributed Case study 8, and a bit for the catalog, on the fringed nalbound sock in their collection. The sock is one of 112 textile fragments from Roman, Byzantine, and Early Medieval Arab Egypt currently in the National Museum of Denmark. The case study includes some beautiful professional photographs of the sock!

This is the same sock I was honored to examine in 2019. Initial results of that examination were included in“Fringed and patterned: decorative elements in Romano-Coptic nalbound socks” presented at the Textiles from the Nile Valley study group conference on the 27th of October 2019. More in depth information and the current status of my research on this sock was presented in “A fringe study in footwear: lessons learned from a sock in a box” at the Reconstructing Textiles and Their History: Egyptian Fabrics from the 1st Millennium AD online workshop that occurred on March 26th, 2022.

The exhibition has twelve downloadable PDFs that include the Introduction, a Catalog of 30 fabrics from the collection, and eight Case Studies that go deeper into a variety of topics.

The online exhibition is the result of the RECONTEXT research project entitled “Reconstructing the history of Egyptian textiles from the 1st Millennium AD at the National Museum of Denmark” which involved research carried out by historians, art historians, archaeologists and ancient fabric conservators. The project included analyses of textile fibers, weaving and looping techniques, as well as complete photography of the entire collection. Fingers crossed that we will be able to continue research on this collection.

Online workshop 26 March 2022: RECONSTRUCTING TEXTILES AND THEIR HISTORY: Egyptian Fabrics from the 1st Millennium AD at the National Museum of Denmark

I’m honored to be included in the Reconstructing Textiles and Their History: Egyptian Fabrics from the 1st Millennium AD online workshop coming up on Saturday March 26th, 2022. I will be presenting “A fringe study in footwear: lessons learned from a sock in a box” on the current status of my research into the fringed brown nalbound sock* in the National Museum of Denmark at 7am Eastern Daylight Time (noon Copenhagen time) .

The online workshop will include research on a good number of the fabrics in the Egyptian collection of the National Museum of Denmark as well as on objects from other collections directly related to the fabrics in Copenhagen. It looks like a very interesting program! These presentations are expected to be published in the “catalog” (PDF format) of the online exhibition on history of the Copenhagen collection available in May 2022 on the National Museum of Denmark’s website.

If you’d like to join us, the online workshop is open to the public. However, you will need to register by 24 March in order to get the Zoom link. With her permission, I’ve set up a Google form to collect email addresses to send to Dr. Mossakowska-Gaubert for registration here: https://forms.gle/jpkyxomMvVuVQSDAA

For a PDF version of the program, click the download button.

Reconstructing Textiles program Download

This workshop and the subsequent online exhibition are organized in the framework of the project RECONTEXT: Reconstructing the history of Egyptian textiles from the 1st Millennium AD at the National Museum of Denmark. You can read more about this year long project at: https://ctr.hum.ku.dk/research-programmes-and-projects/recontext-reconstructing-the-history-of-egyptian-textiles-from-the-1st-millennium-ad–at-the-national-museum-of-denmark/ The stated aim of the project “is to establish a history of the Egyptian textiles collection at the National Museum of Denmark: reconstructing the way the objects are acquired, their provenance, as well as their original look and shape.” As per the CTR’s website: “RECONTEXT is funded by two Danish foundations: Aage og Johanne Louis-Hansens Fond and Beckett-Fonden, and hosted by the Centre for Textile Research (CTR) – Saxo Institute: University of Copenhagen. It is conducted in close collaboration with the National Museum of Denmark.”

Links to more events at the Centre for Textile Research can be found here: https://ctr.hum.ku.dk/courses_activities_and_facilities/activities-and-events/

This is the sock I first learned about when I was in Copenhagen to present Charting the Nalbinding of the Nile and was honored to have the opportunity to examine when I returned to Copenhagen in August of 2019 (https://nalbound.com/2019/08/28/two-days-in-copenhagen/).

Tag: Fringe

NOW: Estonian Fringed Mitten with Embroidery ERM 7952/ab

Like this:

Case Study 8 of Archaeological Puzzles in a Museum

Like this:

Online workshop 26 March 2022: RECONSTRUCTING TEXTILES AND THEIR HISTORY: Egyptian Fabrics from the 1st Millennium AD at the National Museum of Denmark

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this: