Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - VII. Manufacturing Industries. Introd. by [G. Sundbärg] K. Åmark - 12. Handicrafts and Domestic Industries. [By A. Raphael] - Domestic Industries. By S. Odén
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domestic industries.
493
that the so-called peasant-art is to be met with. In the case of domestic
industries for domestic supply the workman, of course, feels the greatest imaginable
interest for the article he makes, an interest which lasts for a far longer time
than that needed for the production of the article in question, and which does
not cease before the object thus produced is altogether worn out. A successful
piece of work the producer honours with its daily use while, for an unsuccessful
article, he would every day be put to shame in the presence of relatives,
companions, and friends. The workman, therefore, not only exercises all his
technical ability, but he also embodies in the work of his hands his artistic
skill and his sense of beauty and harmony.
Productions of this interest, of this artistic sense, are seen, amongst other
things, in the rich Dalecarlian domestic industry, with its original lace-designs,
many-coloured textiles, quaintly painted wall-hangings and cupboards, its
well-designed chairs with other articles of domestic use, and implements. We trace
the same interest, the same artistic spirit, in the large chests of the rich Skåne
peasant, filled, as they are, with gaily-coloured woven treasures with their
quaint untranslatable names — "rödlakan, krabbasnår, dukagång, munkabälte,
opphämta, rosengång", with the rest of all these many kinds of artistic textile
productions, which, as a matter of fact, were once in general use almost
everywhere in the country but, above all — besides Skåne — in Västergötland,
Bohuslän, Blekinge, Småland, Dalarne, Hälsingland, and Ångermanland.
Bobbin-lace-work, too, in the districts around the towns of Motala, Vadstena, and Skänninge,
and in many places in Dalarne and Skåne, show us traces of this peasant-art;
so does the art-knitting of Halland and the various forms of Laplanders’ sloyd
in leather, bone, wood, and horn. It has been asserted that this artistic peasant
industry hardly exists in our own times, but the incorrectness of this assertion
is plainly shown by the investigation now being carried out by the Domestic
Industries Committee, appointed by the Government during 1912. It is true
that this art-sloyd has fallen off tremendously, but the fact is that, even at the
present day, it is carried on especially in Skåne, Dalarne, and Norrland, and
that in many places, in consequence of the encouragement it has received from
Agricultural Societies and Societies for the Promotion of Domestic Industries,
it has increased somewhat during the last few years and, in not a few
instances, has become a fairly lucrative market-sloyd.
The same investigation shows that domestic industries to supply domestic
needs for practical use alone still play a fairly essential part in the life of the
Swedish peasant. Agricultural Societies and Societies for the Promotion of
Domestic Industries in most of the läns report that spinning for domestic needs
is carried on in a number of farmers’ families, and that weaving is practised
in still more. This is especially the case in the more remote districts of the
country, which are less affected by modern "culture", such as those in the Läns
of Norrbotten and Västerbotten, where, even at the present day, homespun and
other articles of attire required by the family, such as linen and stockings, are made
at home. The same state of things exists in districts where, as in the parishes
round lake Siljan in Dalarne, the ancient peasant dresses are still worn. In more
centrally situated tracts, on the other hand, especially in the neighbourhood of
the larger towns, the peasants prefer factory-goods to home-made articles.
The total gross value of sloyd-articles made for home needs — ordinary
needlework, repairing- and buildingwork not included — is for 1912 estimated at about
13 million kronor. Of this amount the Läns of Kopparberg, Västernorrland,
Västerbotten, and Norrbotten claim 1—IV2 million kronor each. It is quite
natural that such figures do not by any means claim to be exact, and they
are rather to be considered as fairly rough estimations, which in every case are
certainly much too low.
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