Norwegian Mangle Board
I have heard of numerous uses for the mangle board. A bed smoother, used for ironing clothes, as gifts. A lot of the more decorative boards were carved by men as ‘love tokens’ for their lady friends. It is said that the man would leave the board outside his sweethearts door at night and if it was gone in the morning he knew she was saying yes to his offer of marriage.

One of the boards in our inventory is  Norwegian and it is fairly rare because of the lion handle. It seems that the horse is the Swedish emblem while the lion is Norwegian. Here in Canada it would be the beaver or in the United states, the American eagle.

I have attached a picture of a Norwegian lady using a mangle board for ironing. They had a rolling pin and around it they would wrap tightly their laundry then roll it with the board.

The mangle board fits into the folk art category because of the chip carving and paint. There are some boards that are extremely well carved and this makes them rare and valuable. Hanging them on a wall adds a nice decorative touch to any room.

Every so often we come across a piece of furniture, glass, Mora clock or decorative item that we feel stands out above and beyond our already eclectic selection of interesting things. In the past we have quietly changed our sidebar image to showcase these items, pieces that you, our readers, might miss in the depths of our inventory section.
While it may not be every month, we will now endeavour to post a quick note on these pieces in our blog.in order to further highlight items we feel deserve to be on our front page. These pieces appear on the right-hand sidebar under ‘Featured Piece’
Our current “featured piece” is a carved wood gold decorated Swedish wall clock, it is signed “Hans Wesemann, Stockholm” Continue Reading Featured Item May 2013

 Swedish Empire Mirror

In reference to the mirror below we are looking at “Swedish Empire”. The Swedish Empire period was, roughly, between the years 1810-1840. The style is characterized  by pomp and pageantry and is sometimes referred to as Imperial. The French Empire is often associated with Napoleon Bonaparte who was fond of ancient Rome and its attributes. Egyptian features with sphinxes, palettes, eagles and griffins were common as decor elements. Continue Reading Swedish Empire Mirror