Swedish Textile Art: Traditional Marriage Weavings from Scania

Published 1996

Viveka Hansen

Swedish Textile Art is the first book for more than a decade to present some of the best examples of textile art from southern Sweden, small panels that were mostly made for wedding ceremonies.

The 95 textiles from the Khalili Collection illustrated in the sumptuous colour plates of this volume are woven in a variety of techniques, and display the full range of the traditional designs of Scanian marriage weavings.

The large format in full colour allows the reader to examine the textiles at close hand. The main text by Viveka Hansen is the result of many years of meticulous research, during which time she examined almost 2,000 examples in Swedish museums and other collections.

The author discusses with lively detail the social conditions in Scania and the lives of the weavers, as well as the techniques, designs and materials that they used.

A preface by Professor Sir Nasser D. Khalili and an introduction by Michael Franses highlights the international appeal of Swedish textile art, placing it in a wider context. Full technical analyses of the textiles appear in the appendices.

This publication is intended to serve both as a dazzling picture book illustrating the finest examples of Swedish textile art and, with its thorough and enjoyable text, as an essential reference work.

This book is a result of a collaboration between the Nour Foundation, Textile and Art Publications and IK Foundation.