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The Maihaugen Collections

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Category: Ramblings | Posted: Tue May 26, 2009 10:22 pm

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There are so many things to see in Maihaugen, Lillehammer. The most known and photographed are the houses, but I'll deal with those later. Today I want to show the cultural treasures from a not-too-distant past. That was when everyting was hand-made, and one strove to please the eye as well as the hand in ordinary, everyday things. Like the spoons. People brought their own wooden spoons for the meals, and there were some lovely ones:



Care for a drink? The welcome toast was made in one of these bowls or "birds", and the vessel was passed around:



If a young man went courting and decided to pop the question, he often brought a household implement, lovingly carved and painted. These "mangletre" were used to smooth clothes and came with a rolling pin. I've never used one:



Lovely handles on them:



And they are pretty old:



If the lucky man got his "yes", off you went to church. Psalm books were few and far between, and you had to take extra special care of it if you were lucky to have one. Nice boxes:



The bride's outfit was topped by a silver crown, like one of these:







All homes had to have storage facilities. These are some examples:







The price of a cow in 1650:



If the people were wealthy, they'd have some cupboards for their treasures:



The treasures:









When out in the fields you could bring some food in something like this:



And your home might look like this, but that's for another day:




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Sjoerd wrote on Tue May 26, 2009 10:12 pm:

Gracious me Droopy!--those are some wonderful things to see. If I ever mke it up to your neck of the woods, I shall have to visit some antique shops. ;-)

The carving and colour of the wooden impliments are really nice, and the silver and gold things are quite spectacular.
The Mangletre are very interesting to me.
It's nice that you included a picture of a dwelling...that is to whet our apitites no doubt. It worked.

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kaseylib wrote on Tue May 26, 2009 10:16 pm:

Thanks much for sharing and educating. I'd like to take a drink (or two) out of one of those bowls...would hold a lot more beer than one of our present day mugs!

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eileen wrote on Tue May 26, 2009 10:50 pm:

Those carvings are so intricate and definately very pleasing to the eye especially on the spoons and mangletre. I would love to visit your part of the world and see Lillehammer for myself and all those wonderful hand-made creations.

I could certainly make good use of at least two of those storage chests. The bridal crowns are beautiful and must look wonderful when worn.

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glendann wrote on Wed May 27, 2009 12:25 am:

Those are great .Its nice to
see different cultures.

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daisybeans wrote on Wed May 27, 2009 2:59 am:

I am loving these photo essays that you've been posting Droopy. You do a wonderful job of selecting interesting things and details. Thank you!

I have to laugh at the custom of bringing a household implement when coming to propose. Can you imagine what would happen if today, a man proposed and then presented an IRON! hahaha! That did make me laugh.

I can't wait to see what is next.

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Droopy wrote on Wed May 27, 2009 6:59 am:

Haha, daisybeans, I can picture the reaction.

Thank you for liking the photos. There is so much to see in there, and just about impossible to make a selection of the things to show.

I keep thinking about the wood work, and how long it must have taken to make the things back when they did everything by hand. And we complain of not having time to do anything, with all our modern whatchamacallit's.

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Netty wrote on Mon Jun 01, 2009 12:20 am:

I loved those photographs Droopy, thanks for sharing.

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