Oslo Coverlets

At 10 we met with Heidi Uleberg, who could not have been nicer. She had 3 coverlets to show me,

The first was red and black, with the date1828 and No. 279 woven in along with some initials. I have learned that it was unlikely that home weavers were weaving these coverlets. Besides that they probably lacked the skills, a good day of weaving was considered 6", so it would have taken nearly 3 weeks of solid weaving to complete, not counting setting up the loom and seeing the 2 panels together. Even assuming the home weaver could escape her (she was almost certainly a woman), to have the household loom unavailable for that amount of time was not possible. Too much other goods needed to be produced.

So who wove these? There was one quite well-known weaver who was widowed early in life and she travelled from farm to farm, weaving. She was the first to number her coverlets, but other women she taught probably did, too.

The second coverlet unwrapped for us (this time Thommas stayed with me, so I have a second set of photos, better resolution than with my iPhone) was also numbered, but I got the feeling it was by a different weaver. Although with the date 1835 and number 428, she could be the same.

This one has a black and white warp with light brown, white and red in the filling. What we speculated on was why the two panels did not have the same red stripes. Did she run out of red? Was the dye improperly set so it looked correct when she wove it and later changed?? Lots of questions, few answers. Though this is the first I've seen with the N in No not backwards.

The last was my favorite so far. It has red and black in the warp and red and black or blue in the weft. What's unusual is that it was woven full width, about 60", instead of the 2 panels one usually finds. What's more unusual is the overall pattern of alternating lions and roosters. The offset progression of the animals creates a wonderful movement in the pattern, which is heightened by the alternating bands of black and blue in the weft. We had been photographing and studying (a few of the roosters only have one foot - most likely weaver's brain cramp) when I flipped the top end up on the table. There were the cutest ducks lined up in the border! The examination table was 59" long, and while the first two coverlets only overhung the table a few inches, this one was 8" or so too long at both ends.

Like the first coverlet, it had been rolled up with the face out, so it ended up on the table wrong side up. I was able to use my gloved hands to turn back the last 10" of each coverlet to see the reverse, but flipping one entirely was out of the question. And not really necessary, either.

The museum owns a fourth doublecloth coverlet but it was on display. When we said thanks and goodbye to Heidi, she led us to the display floors of the museum and we tracked it down as well. We obviously couldn't examine that one, but Thommas did manage some good pictures anyway.