Creative communities: knitting in Europe 1500-1800
January 2010 - December 2011:
Dr. Maj Ringgaard investigates archaeological knitted ware from Denmark and submit this material to a comparative study of items from other places in Europe. This involves field work in Köln, Kalmar, London, Scotland, Madrid, Iceland and Dresden.
The project takes an in-depth case study of a single type of object: the knitted garment. Archaeological analysis is thereby used to understand circulation and dissemination in one European region.
The research project is an interdisciplinary investigation of textile cultures in the 17th and 18th centuries Denmark, with comparative material from Sweden, Norway and the UK. The research project is framed around a case study of knitted textiles found in archaeological excavations in Copenhagen, Denmark.
The unique finding of more than 10,000 textiles, including a great deal of knitted items such as stockings and waistcoats in a deposit of the harbour of Copenhagen give new and challenging insights into the 17th and 18th centuries Danish textiles and clothing (Ringgaard 2007). A textile find in Kalmar in a warship sunk in 1676, among these a knitted silk waistcoat in a ships trunk (still unpublished), adds to the knowledge of knit ware fashion amongst the well to do in the 17th century. Furthermore this Swedish find enables the precise dating of historic knitted artefacts from parts of the old Danish Kingdom.
Ringgaard will investigate both finds and include similar historic textiles from Norway, South West Sweden and England. Three approaches will be taken into account. Chronological and geographical spread of this type of knit ware and the question of evolutionary development of fashion in terms of knitwear.
For example, the star lozenge pattern of some of the knit wares is typically Danish and has had a wide chronological spread. It is seen in knitted silken waistcoats as early as the burial clothes of the children of Danish King Christian 4th from the 1620’s. The same pattern is also used in peasant’s clothes in the late 19th century. An investigation of how far back and forth in time the pattern can be traced will therefore reveal interesting information into the mechanisms of diffusion of a fashion and technique over time.
Knitted waistcoats in this pattern were produced in silk, worsted and woollen yarns. The knitted silk waistcoats are embroidered with gold tread at the neckline. The embroidery resemblances the English Tudor embroideries, and therefore it has been suggested that these waistcoats were produced in England. Some identical waistcoats are preserved England but they differ from the Danish in that they are not embroidered. This raises the question of whether this type of waistcoats originates in Denmark or England.
Another issue is that some of the woollen waistcoats are of a higher workmanship and this may suggest that they could be worsted waistcoats imported from England. An analysis of yarn and metal tread will give insight into possible North European production centres. Further analyses of the dye stuff employed in the waistcoats will give other directions about how the waistcoats can be grouped geographically.
The knitted items also display interesting information about fashion evolution. Did the production of knitwear evolve from home production over model industry to drapery production? In the large and impressive Danish find of archaeological textiles, hand knitted as well as machine knitted stockings are found side by side. This raises the question of the spread of knitting technology. It need to be investigated – from a technological as well as designer’s view - why the knitting frame was not implemented earlier to a greater extend in Denmark although it was introduced as early as 1589?
In conclusion the project aims at understanding the position of a peripheral European region – Scandinavia - and its role in the European-wide knitting innovation and developments of fashions.
Ringgaards approach is interdisciplinary: textiles are investigated as archaeological artefacts, as elements of museum collections, as items described in contemporary written sources, and as depicted items in contemporary art. This requires an insight into a whole range of disciplines: archaeology, art history, history, and conservation.
The various sources in the textile cultures of 17th and 18th centuries are analysed in their own right and subsequently compared. Not surprisingly, the various sources tell different stories about the textile cultures of the 17th and 18th centuries. Secondly, the project aims at setting the case study of textiles in early modern Copenhagen into a broader perspective by a comparative European study. This includes the partners’ areas of Sweden and UK, and Norway which was previously part of the Danish Kingdom.
Thirdly, the project has an experimental part in which textile conservation is investigated. Previous experimental studies are demonstrated that only a selection of dyes survive in the anaerobe environment and thus archaeological textiles only provide a restricted view of the original dyes, which must be completed via data from other sources, or via new technical analyses on trace level of dye stuff in the archaeological textiles. Analyses of both dyes, metal tread and yarn will be conducted in collaboration with the Brussels based laboratory KIK-IRPA.
Finally, the project includes a terminological approach to textile studies. The project aims at understanding the adoption and adaptation of European textile-related loan words in the Scandinavian languages. Here the research question is whether this terminological development and the incorporation of new terms correspond to the technical developments and incorporation of new technology.