December, 1908 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



483 



prices of ordinary 

 wools. 



It would be im- 

 possible to teach 

 skilled Norwegian 

 weaving in an article 

 of this kind, but the 

 principles can be 

 learned by practis- 

 ing in a small home- 

 made loom such as 

 we have shown in 

 our illustration. 



The women who 

 are teaching this 

 craft in New York 

 can supply Norwe- 

 gian looms, such as 

 have been used in 

 the making of the 

 tapestries which 

 were exhibited at 

 the recent exhibition 

 of the National So- 

 ciety of Craftsmen. 

 They also supply 

 the wool. This is 

 hand-carded and 

 hand-spun. It 

 is then dyed, each 

 skein being matched 

 to the design, shad- 

 ing also being re- 

 sorted to to get the 

 soft, subtile effect 

 noticed in all Nor- 

 wegian tapestries. 



When weaving, 

 the first part is usu- 

 ally in solid color, 

 so that the shuttle 

 can be used to throw 

 the wool backward 

 and forward 

 through the warp 

 threads, until the de- 

 sign is reached, and 

 then comes the inter- 

 esting part of the 

 weaving. Large 

 needles are threaded 

 with the various 

 colored wools and 

 the worker darns 

 backward and for- 

 ward perhaps half 

 way up the loom, 

 and then leaves the 

 needle hanging by 

 the wool to be fin- 

 ished later. Then 

 another color is in- 

 troduced, until each 

 part of the design is 

 woven; the actual 

 work is more like 

 painting than weav- 

 ing, as the skill is in 

 the correct blending 

 of the colors, rather 



The panel on the left depicts the story of the Goose Girl and the King's Son of England. The one 

 on the right represents a Norwegian fable 



Transparent tapestry portiere and wall panel"woven by Mrs. Oskar Von Irgens Bergh of New York, and 

 designed by Madame Frida Koehlei-Hansen of Christiana, Norway 



The Milky Way, woven with a blue background dotted with gold stars. The silver robes of the goddesses holding 



up the veil, draped over the flesh tones, are very beautiful. "And God said, let there be light," 



is woven in Hebrew at the bottom of the panel 



than the technic of 

 the shuttle. 



There are two dis- 

 tinct kinds of Nor- 

 wegian tapestry, a 

 firmly woven, heavy 

 kind, somewhat re- 

 sembling the Gobe- 

 lin and Bayeux tap- 

 e s t r i e s, and the 

 transparent w e a v- 

 i n g s, with open 

 spaces arranged to 

 form part of the 

 design. The illus- 

 tration of a girl 

 driving the swans 

 shows an effect of 

 sunlight, as the 

 transparencies have 

 warp threads of 

 gold, which allow 

 the light to filter 

 through. When 

 hung in a doorway 

 the effect of the light 

 seen through it is 

 very beautiful. This 

 beautiful hanging 

 and the transparent 

 flowered portiere in 

 the same illustration 

 were woven by Mrs. 

 Oskar Von Irgens 

 Bergh from one of 

 Madame Freida 

 Koehler - Hansen's 

 designs. A pair of 

 curtains of this 

 weave costs $150, 

 while the price of 

 the wall hanging 

 of the girl driv- 

 ing the swans is 

 $1,500. 



In order to appre- 

 c i a t e Norwegian 

 tapestry it is neces- 

 sary to become fa- 

 miliar with Scandi- 

 navian history and 

 the wild, barbaric 

 religion of Norway. 

 Viking history and 

 old sagas and (after 

 Christianity had be- 

 c o m e known) re- 

 ligious subjects were 

 depicted in the 

 weavings. Owing to 

 the loneliness of the 

 position of Norway 

 its art has been kept 

 pure and free from 

 a 1 1 imitations, so 

 that French or Ital- 

 ian culture has had 

 no influence upon it. 



It is not strange 

 that a country with 



