By Laurann Gilbertson, Curator
Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum

There is a coverlet at Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum in Decorah, Iowa, that has always bothered me. It shouldn’t. It’s beautiful and interesting and came with some family information. This coverlet was from Troms or Vestre Toten, a gift of Valborg Ravn. To try to understand the Valborg Ravn Coverlet better, I compared it to other overshot coverlets in the collection and dug into its history. [Note: the coverlets are identified by the donors’ names.]

The Valborg Ravn Coverlet  has a ground of unbleached cotton, woven in unbalanced plain weave. The warp yarn is single and the weft is used double. The pattern weft is two-ply wool. Two shades of red, two shades of green, and white were used, with the darker shades of red and green appearing dominant. The coverlet was woven in two sections and joined with a handsewn center seam. The ends have tiny, rolled seams that are carefully handsewn.

As Kay Larson explains in The Woven Coverlets of Norway (University of Washington Press, 2001), there are two types of designs of skillbragd or overshot coverlets, depending on whether the patterns were controlled by the threading of the loom or whether the weaver used a weaving sword to bring forward patterns stored at the back of the loom.

Thread-controlled patterns are characterized by smaller repeats with multiple, long vertical stripes where the ground is not covered by wool pattern wefts. One example of this type is the Helga Lund Parsons Coverlet (1974.018.001), brought from Oppdal in Sør-Trøndelag, Norway. 

Because the Valborg Ravn Coverlet does not have vertical stripes characteristic of a threaded pattern, it may have been woven with a weaving sword. Diamonds, large Xs, and eight-petal flowers are common motifs on coverlets woven with a sword. And this one has diamond and Xs patterns.

In an email, Kay described another difference between threaded patterns and patterns on coverlets woven with a weaving sword. “I guess I think of the distinction between threaded and stored-pattern skillbragd as indicated by the size of the repeats: limited by the number of shafts for a threaded pattern, but usually just by practicality for one that’s stored. Your subject piece, the Valborg Ravn Coverlet, looks like it has a pattern repeat of about 12 rows, whereas threaded patterns when regularly repeated are usually 4.”

Part of what has bothered me about this coverlet is the smaller-scale pattern along the center seam. Shouldn’t that be on the sides? Lauryn Johnson, Collection Assistant at Vesterheim, took a photo of the coverlet. Using the digital photo, she cleverly divided the image along the seam, rotated each half, and put the halves back together with the small-scale pattern as side borders. Ah! Much better. 

The center seam of the Valborg Ravn Coverlet appears to have been sewn at the same time as the end hems and both early in the life of the coverlet. Was this an accident or did the weaver prefer the effect of the fine patterning in the center? Was the weaver a rebel, asking “Why should the side borders be on the sides?”

Am I viewing this coverlet with my own aesthetic? Perhaps, but let’s look at the Floyd Fairweather #1 Coverlet (1986.093.035). It was woven in one width so there could not have been an accident in the placement of the finer patterning on the outer sides. 

Side borders of small patterns appear on many of the sword-woven skillbragd coverlets in Vesterheim’s collection. The Erling A Dalaker Coverlet (1997.079.015) is a stunning and old coverlet from Rogaland County in western Norway. The side borders are made up of small, equal-armed crosses. What catches your eye first, though, is the color. The weaver has intentionally changed the color of the yarn while weaving so that there is a center green block (and several smaller red or green blocks). An overshot coverlet with a center color block is sometimes called sparlaken and was used over a coffin during a funeral. The solid-color square marks the spot where a Bible or candle was placed. 

There are also intentional color changes on the Floyd Fairweather #2 Coverlet (1986.093.032), though just for some of the eight-petal-flower motifs. This is only half of a coverlet. What is probably the side border is made of concentric Vs. 

Vesterheim has far fewer sword-woven skillbragd coverlets than loom-controlled. And only three of Vesterheim’s ten sword-woven coverlets have information about where they came from or who might have woven or owned them. There wasn’t much on the Valborg Ravn Coverlet, so I dug a little deeper into its background.

The coverlet had belonged to Theoline Knatterud and Karl Høegh. Theoline was born in Vestre Toten in eastern Norway and came to Minnesota as a young woman with her family. Karl was born in Troms County, Norway, and worked for a merchant before moving to Spring Grove, Minnesota, in the 1860s and opening a hardware store. He went by Charles Hoegh in Minnesota. Unfortunately, when Theoline and Karl’s granddaughter, Valborg Ravn, donated the coverlet, she didn’t know or didn’t say which parent had brought it from Norway. 

My next step will be to explore sword-woven skillbragd coverlets on the Norwegian museums’ online catalog at digitaltmuseum.no. When I search “skillbragd” and then select “things,” I’m presented with 3,712 beautiful textiles to review. There isn’t a Norwegian term that differentiates the sword-woven and loom-controlled skillbragds, so this might be a task saved for a rainy or snowy day. Perhaps you’d like to explore, too.

Laurann Gilbertson holds a BA in Anthropology and an MS in Textiles & Clothing, both from Iowa State University. She was Textile Curator at Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum in Decorah, Iowa, for 19 years and is now the Chief Curator there. Among her duties are overseeing the collection of more than 30,000 artifacts, creating exhibitions, and leading Textile Study Tours to Norway.

October 2024

Help support wonderful articles on Scandinavian textiles with a donation to the Norwegian Textile Letter. Thank you! Tusen takk!