Excerpt from Swedish Textiles

Textile art has been practised in Sweden as a home industry from the most primitive times. It seems to have become instinctive to the Swedish woman and inseparable from the appointments of the Swedish home. During the course of centuries, in which the art has been carried on, certain methods and many characteristic and beautiful designs became traditional. It is not surprising therefore that, although for several years past in Sweden this delightful home industry declined, it has lately experienced a revival as a domestic occupation.

It has often been noted that identical geometric patterns are found in the designs of all times and countries. This is so because both raw materials and all methods of workmanship lend them selves naturally to certain geometric forms and combinations. Swedish peasant textiles have not been an exception to this rule, but with the traditional forms in general use other motives have been incorporated from time to time, some borrowed from oriental textiles and some from those of Europe prior to the 16th century. Later European art has but very slightly if at all influenced peasant textile designs except in the case of tapestries and certain embroideries. As a rule the old designs have beeni' preserved and made use of; they have been developed and remodelled with admirable faithfulness, skill, love and imagination. Being of good material and well made an article after serving for more than a generation may have been replaced by another exac'tly like it. Most of the textiles reproduced in this volume, when their age is not stated, date from the middle of the 18th century to the middle of the lgth; after that period a decline set in, in nearly every part of the country, and the factory goods made their entry into the homes.

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