We have a vast collection of images here which have been shared over the years ...
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Very interesting, thanks, Annka. It is always very gratifying to see traditional ethnic pieces from Europe, which does not happen often enough, showing for one thing how quickly Europe appears to have moved away from its own former indigenous traditions. So that makes it the more important that the world be made aware of this now largely "vanished" heritage - "vanished", I mean, in that you hardly see it: not even much in museums, where surely a lot would have ended up, though one fears that probably much has been melted down. Certainly it is not easy, these days, to see traditional European reality - particularly from Western Europe - "in the flesh". The situation is better in the case of Russia and the Balkans, for example. In many countries people have moved away from their regional dress and ornaments at frightening speed. The Netherlands, where I come from, still excelled in preserving ethnic jewellery for wear (more so than in most places) when I was a boy around 1950 or so, but today much is no longer on show, even if you go to those parts of the country which held on to their jewellery for so long ...
Nice to see! thanks for posting.
Thanks for the comments.
In Norway, most people still dress in the ethnic clothing Bunad and wear appropriate jewelry around 1-2 times a year. Often the jewelry (mostly brooches) are family heirlooms. My Bunad vest is from around 1950 (?) and the brooch from around 1880 is still in use as well. I suppose some of the silver has been melted down. The demand for Søljer (as the brooches for the Bunad is called) is high, and many silversmiths are still making them. You can actually see the evolution of the brooches from the Iron Age to todays Sølje, which still have features from the Iron Age. So I guess you can't really call the Sølje made today replicas, as they have been made continuously, and haven't changed much since the 1880's. There is still schools in Norway just for learning to sew Bunad. The Sølje is never worn on anything but the Bunad. And there is still a somewhat practiced code of proper behavior when wearing a Bunad. It is no uncommon to pay more than 25.000 NOK for a Bunad. That is around 4.500 US Dollars...
So nice to see those Norwegian brooches here! Very nice a heirloom.