63 Arts and Crafts

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Crafts and Artsin Estonia


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tonian Inst

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4ISBN 9985-9509-1-7

Designed by Piia Ruber

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s:Merike Alber, Mare Hunt,Anu Jesaar, Tiina Kala, Lea Kiv, Eeva Ksper-Lennuk, Kai Maser,Ave Matsin, Maiken Mndi, Mirja Ots, Inna Pldsam, Kaljo Pllu, Jana Ratas, Elmar Reisenbuk,

Krt Summatavet, Maret Tamjrv, lle Tamla, Ketli Tiitsaar, Liina Veskimgi;Ants Laikmaa Museum,Art Museum of Estonia, E. Strauss Ltd. (Avinurme), Estonian olk Art andCraft Union, Estonian Museum of Applied Art and Design, Centre of Archaeology (Estonian Instituteof History), Estonian Open Air Museum, Museum Europischer Kulturen (Saatliche Museen zuBerlin), Rocca-al-Mare School, Setu arming Museum,Tallinn City Archives, Tallinn City Museum,Tartu Art College, Viljandi Culture Academy

Special thanks for illustrations to Anu Ansu, Vaike Kajak and Arp Karm

P

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:b bottom, t top, c centre, l left, r right

Academic Library of the Tallinn Pedagogical University p 20 bAdamson-Eric Museum p 41 bl, brArt Museum of Estonia pp 6 cl, cr, b, 36 tEstonian Open Air Museum p 26 cl, crEstonian ilm Archives p 20 tEstonian olk Art and Craft Union pp 22 b, 28 b

Estonian Historical Archives p 18 crEstonian Institute pp 2 t, 3 cl, cr, 4 t, 5 c, 7 t, 10 tl, 11 t, c, 13 br, 15 bc, 16 t, cl, b, 21 tl, 23 t, 25 br,27 bl, br, 28 cr, 29 br, 31 br, bl, 32 cr, 33 b, 34 cl, bl, 35 t, c, 37 cl, 39 t, 45 t, 46 t, 47 cEstonian Museum of Applied Art and Design pp 30 tr, 31 c, 37 bl, br, 40 tl, tr, 42 t, bJorma riberg (courtesy of Aiboland Museum) p 14 cr


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Crafts and Artsin EstoniaPast and Present

Vaike Reemann and Pir

et unapuu


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Museums in Estonia are filled to the brim with examples ofhandicraft from the past that we tend to label folk art. Themen and women who once produced these things knewnothing about museums or the concept of folk art theseterms were devised by modern scholarly thought. Weappreciate and systematise and try to figure out the

connections between people and artefacts, whichregrettably slip gradually further out of our reach andbecome all the harder to understand. The original causesand effects are pushed aside by present-day suppositions.We do, after all, explain and decode in a system of signsthat we can comprehend ourselves.

Thus it may happen that we overlook the most simple ex-

planations: they made their pretty clothes, work tools,textiles or other useful artefacts both for observing focalpoints in their lives as well as for everyday use; they gotmarried and celebrated weddings; they covertly comparedtheir homespun lap robes and sleigh-blankets with those oftheir neighbours, or embroidered white patterns on whitelinen in a dark room lit only by the dim light from the flameof a wooden splinter.

Watercolour of a coif ornament from

Tarvastu (see map on the inside of theback cover)


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Pikesevene(Boat of the Sun; mezzotinto, 1974) from the cycle Kodalased(Ancient Dwellers) by Kaljo Pllu


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Traditions

of urban handicraftThe first colonial period in the history of Estonia, following the conquest

of the land in 13th century by Danish and German crusaders, up till 20thcentury, knows several parallel handicraft traditions. irstly there were the

utilitarian crafts of commoners in towns and peasants in the country thatshowed little variation and mostly only satisfied the everyday household needs.

Besides that we have the work of numerous journeymen busy at the manorial

complexes of the landed gentry and at larger monasteries, and, most importantly, theguild members and independent artisans in towns all introduced novel techniquesand other type of innovations.

Doorknocker ofthe Great Guild

of Tallinn


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Estonians, always an overwhelming majority, comprised the peasantry in countrysideas well as the under-privileged labour force and practitioners of less prestigious tradesin towns. Higher ranks in the social hierarchy, ecclesiastic as well as secular, wereoccupied by non-Estonians mostly Germans and, from the end of 19th century untilthe foundation of the Republic of Estonia in 1918, increasingly Russians.

The Deutschbalten (German BalticGermans the clergy, nobility, mer-chants and artisans; later also intelli-gentsia or literati) retained close

contacts with their forefathers landof origin and through that with therest of Europe. Thus new handicrafttechniques (via itinerant journeymenand apprentices), items (by way ofmerchants) or patterns (copied fromlife or pattern guides) originating inItaly or rance, or spreading from the

Orient, often quickly found their wayto Estonian towns, manor houses andvicarages. What prevented them fromspreading widely in the countrysidewas the static mentality of maarahvas(from Estonian maa land, country,Estonia + rahvaspeople) who clungon to their old types of adornments

for generations, maintained theirsacred places over the centuries orstuck to the same patterns formillennia.

Cooper ElmarReisenbuk fromAvinurme cuttinga croze witha grooving knife

Grooving knife fromthe 19th c.


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Traditional skirts from the collection of the Estonian National Museum

To show off ones clothes


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A major change occurred in Estonianrural life after the 1860s; this waswhen peasants started to purchaseland (reclaim the land forfeited bytheir forefathers, as most Estonians felt) and property, theperiod of National Awakening and the transition towardsurban ideals. This was also when a new motto: Be a master

in your own house, was adopted. or decorating theirhomes, people took to manufacturing or purchasingartefacts they had not even heard of before. The efforts thathad previously been directed at embellishing ritual objectsfor the outside world to see, were gradually channelled intoimproving everyday domestic life.

rom that time onwards,

handicraft in a variety oftastes confirmed itself asa natural and appreciatedpart of Estonian interiors


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The first collectors looking for the beautiful handicraftarticles made by their ancestors started their rounds ofEstonian villages roughly at the same time. Early in the 20thcentury, the idea of founding a museum for our ownnational things cropped up repeatedly, and such aninstitution eventually came into being under the name EestiRahva Muuseum (Estonian National Museum) in 1909. Tothis day, the museum serves people as a place to findexamples and inspiration.

At the same time much of what had emerged in peasantculture during several centuries disappeared from everyday

Antiques donated to the Museum during nation-wide collecting tours in

190011


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The return

of the dugoutsOne of the most conspicuous achieve-ments in the field of revival of ancient

Still, part of the ancient skills have managed tosurvive the low point of consumption andsprung to new life, either meeting the demands

for modern-time souvenirs or thanks to otherreasons, in the very start of 21st century.

Despite the extinction of many original crafttraditions or, ironically, rather because of

that our and national have become,during the last one hundred years or so, a truefashion of its own in Estonia. Among the mostprominent examples of the trend are the Artsand Crafts influenced manifestations of theearly 20th century Estonian NationalRomanticism inspired by the examples ofinland and Scandinavia and adopted to

compensate for the lack of shining heroes inthe nations history.


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A hi t t tt

In times of political difficult-ies, in particular, everythingnational has easily providedmoral support. The harsher

the everyday reality, the morestrength the surroundingartefacts have afforded toreaffirm the spirit of beingEstonian.

Both the founding (in 1918)and restoration (in 1991) of

the Republic of Estonia, inparticular, were heydays for national spiritexpressed in items. On occasions, it cannotbe denied, this approach has resulted inrather grotesque manifestations.

Oddly enough, the people who have perhaps cherished the Estonianhandicraft tradition the most, live abroad. or tens of thousands ofEstonians persuaded or forced to abandon their homeland during the19th and 20th century, it has provided rare moments of solace,something from the past to cling to. rom the Crimea to Patagonia, andfrom British Columbia to New South Wales, the way Estonian migrshave interpreted and rendered the Estonian handicraft tradition hascaused it to develop in a way of its own, resulting partly in fastidiously

preserved still lifes from the 19th century, partly in astonishing blendswith local traditions.


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Neighbours at home

and abroadCultural loans that have given fresh ideas to the peoples ofthe Old World, curious and eager to communicate, havethroughout the ages preferred to follow their own paths,primarily favouring trade routes plied by seafarers andmerchants. In Northern Europe, the Baltic Sea, unitingWestern and Central Europe with Russia and its hinterlands,reigned supreme. This might be one of the reasons why

Estonia (territorially no bigger than the Netherlands) hasacquired such a wealth of different handicraft techniquesand products compared with many a larger country on thesame latitude.

Ethnographically speaking, Estonia straddles thewatershed of the two influential handicraft industries atransitional zone between the traditions of maritime

Scandinavia and these of the more land-locked forestcultures of northern Eurasia. Local folk culture is full of loansand influences from both.

An item of handicraft, for example, that here has extendedto the eastern edge of its distribution area, is the clotheschest with corner-pillar construction.

The clothes chest wasa most significantpiece of furniture in a


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The frontier between those two spheres ofinfluence largely coincides with the borderseparating Lower Estonia (Western Islandsand the depressions that rose from theone-time seabed of the countrys western andnorth-western parts) and Higher Estonia(elevations and plains of the countrys East

d S h)

Handicraft of Mulgimaa, inmany ways the most inward-looking region of Estonia,

has preserved various fea-tures from the Middle Ages(probably 11th13th centu-ries), such as patterns with


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//Because this truth must be clear to anyonewho examines our antiques: however flat andeven our country is geologically, therebyfavourable to all movement and communicationgeographically: the history of its inhabitants,however, has proceeded as if insurmountableAlpine mountain ridges separated one parishfrom another, one village from the other. Such

modest mutual influence regarding the everydayitems between people living so close to oneanother is something to be marvelled at. Evenneighbouring villages went their own way as faras national costumes are concerned, and atchurch it was easy to recognise a womansbirthplace by her coif.

In my own parish Kolga-Jaani, for example, theOiu women walked around with huge whitewheel coifs. In the nearby Otikla they worenicely curved coifs like a roosters feather.

People in the neighbouring Oorgu made do withmuch humbler, hemstitch-topped coif, and inParika village Karulas tulle-topped soft coifswere in vogue. And yet it is a mere 22 versts(i.e.about 23.5 km) from Oiu to Parika village, andeven less by taking the paths across the mires.//

Life was different inEstonian border areas where

over the centuries variousfragments of people settledin search of a better life, orfleeing from persecution

In 1918, Helmi Reiman-Neggo, the firstuniversity-educated Estonian ethnologist,summarised this recognition as follows:


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Closeness of the maritime routes of communication made

also Estonians of the coastal areas more open and perceptiveof the new than their inland contemporaries. Since thebarren land could not feed the family, much of livelihood ofthe people of littoral, especially the islanders, came bothfrom and across the sea doing various jobs on themainland or on board the ships. In Juminda on the northerncoast, when farms could be bought from the landlords thepeasants bluntly said: Water will see to the debts!

It is now probablyimpossible to as-certain which BalticSea nation intro-duced others tothe ancient skillsof making sea-

worthy rowingand sailing boatswith over-lappingclinker-planking

Runic calendarfrom the Pakri

Islands

The other influential minority group was made up ofSwedish-speaking fishermen, seal hunters and seamen, whoenjoyed ancient privileges from the times of their earliestsettlements on the Western Islands and Coast in the 13th

14th centuries. In 19404, virtually the entire communityfled to Sweden to escape WW II, but for seven previouscenturies the people of Aiboland the collective name ofSwedish settlements in Estonia introduced their Estoniancountrymen to many a new costume fashion, fishing tooland calendar rite.


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A craft that continues to carry on atradition that comes perhaps closestto the terms genuine and nation-al in Estonia is knitting, primarilybecause winter tends to be cold in

these latitudes.

The Estonian knitting heritage is richin design and lore some patternsused for mittens, for instance, havebeen in continuous use from as farback as the 16th century right up tothe present day. or ornamenting

mittens and socks, both clockingand colour patterning were used.

Local tradition knows more thantwo hundred mitten-patterns, mostof which are connected with nature,especially with animals e.g. pole-cat-paws, swallow-tail, bird-

head, frog-thighs, elk-antler.Although the majority of Estonianswould probably not know theoriginal name of the patterns or

Warm socks and

mittens for winter


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Nalbinding

The sources of the technique of making woollenmittens and socks with a single bone needle arelost in the prehistory in Estonia. Nalbound orneedle-netted articles, usually felted, lasted for a

long time they were thicker and warmer, in comparison toknitwear, and were not liable to unravel. According to the folk

tradition: In olden times the devil unstitched all mittens, buthe hadnt a clue how to unstitch those.

The oldest museum specimens of thiskind of mittens date from the eleventhcentury. rom about two centuries later(in spite of another saying: Knit

mittens lazy wife), knitting faster,simpler and enabling patterning began taking over from needlework.

People used needle-netted mittens lessand less in daily life, and by the nine-teenth century they had become simplyan element at the rites of passage

wedding and funeral rituals. A mitten ofthat type was placed on the gift chest,or a pair of mittens in the coffin, inorder to ward off evil


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In the circumstances of global holiday-making andincreasingly mass-oriented commercial tourism thehonest souvenirs that still retain the craftsmans touchand the association with a certain place and culture inyears to come, are becoming scarce Estonia is no

exception in this respect.

Tourist traps in Estonian towns and in the countrysideoffer a wide range of kitschy bric-a-brac, the sole pur-pose of which is, presumably, to be mementoes. Unfor-tunately, for many Estonians too, the concept Estoniansouvenir evokes, more often than not, precisely this typeof quickly and sloppily made piece of so-called handicraftthat is not actually meant to be used at all.

The authenticity of Estonian traditional handicraft hasalways been measured by its utility value. In peasantculture, the creative effort put into production anddecoration could only be spent on objects that were ofactual use: articles to wear as clothing or for

ornamentation, and protection, things to eat with orfrom, etc.

Luckily for visitors, many

Genuine souvenirs

and the memorabilia- industry

The invasion into handicraft of


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The survival of a tradition depends on honestand well-functioning instruction. Anapprentice learning his craft under thesupervision of a master, besides acquiringcraft skills also learns the canons of tasteand, on happier occasions, gains somesecret wisdom to provide the things hemakes with a soul.

In medieval craft guilds which continued togovern the crafts in Estonian towns untilthe end of 19th century the instruction

Transfer of the handicraft tradition

Master potters certificate of Daniel Bornschein (1787)

Welcome cup of the

Tanners Guild of Tallinn(Johann Georg Stier, 1730)


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A major change only arrived together with the spread of theideas of German Enlightenment and National Romanticismin Estonia in the 1800s. During their studies at Gttingen,Halle, Jena and other German universities many future

manor-owners developed a sense of responsibility for theintellectual advancement of the peasantry back at home.The popular Estonian-language home economics calendarsand magazines were one of the results, as were handicraftinstruction for the servants at the manor houses. It wasthrough the coachmen, maids, stableboys and wet nursesthat a good deal of the more refined patterns, fashions andcrafting techniques spread from the manor to the general

populace.

Thus, in the early 19th century, the fashion and styles fromR t E i t l d Bi d th t f d d

rame chairs from the19th century provide ampleillustration for the imitationof urban and manorialfurniture fashions (from

Baroque to Chippendaleand Biedermeyer) bypeasant craftsmen.


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The new heyday of societies and the spread of popularhandicraft skills arrived in the 1920s after Estonia becameindependent. In order to promote everything national, thenew nation state added political commission to alreadystrong societal readiness. olk art, hitherto regarded assomething lowly and vulgar, became the sign andmanifestation of Estonian national ideas, to be introducedand taught to as many as possible.

In 1927, with strong governmental backing, the jointventure Koduksit (Domestic Handicrafts) wasestablished for commissioning purchasing and trading

Ladies craft course in Jrvamaa(1930s)


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UKUIn Soviet Estonia, after the initial shock caused by theworst Stalinist repressions of the late 1940s to the early1950s, cultivating national handicraft became a sort ofprotest against communist ideology that was preachinginternationalism.

The central part in heritage protection was that of theAssociation of Handicraft Masters UKU (founded in1966 and named after an Estonian

household spirit), which consistedof the best craftsmen all overEstonia, and served as the bannership for the production of Estoniansouvenirs and household items inthe national style. These masters in 1970, 16 UKU branches operatedall over Estonia, providing work to

1500 artisans crafted artefactseither modelled on the originalsdeposited in various Estonianmuseums, or produced according todesigns by modern artists in thestyle of folk art.

As the majority of craftsmen were spread throughout

Estonia, their craft often conveyed a feeling of theessence and charm of where they lived. The more so, asa lot of their articles were made by using old techniquesand tools


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Today, the study and instruction of the Estonian traditionalhandicraft in the most authentic sense of the term is centredin the Viljandi Culture Academys Department of National

Handicraft. In addition to traditional womens handicraft,focused on various textile techniques, a brand new line ofstudy into the field of traditional mens handicraft, that ofvernacular construction, has emerged in Viljandi. Based onold methods of log-building and timber-crafting, thesestudies integrate ancient skills with modern principles ofecological construction, as well as with the regionalapproach towards Estonias diverse construction heritage.

The programme of the Department strives torevive and make the old crafting techniques

l i b t i i f t


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Modern commodities are often made of materials the namesof which we have not even heard of, to say nothing of themanufacturing process. In peasant culture everything wasclear and simple. The everyday craftwork done by meninvolved mainly making various wooden objects which wereneeded in a farmstead household. It was quite justified to callthe long period until the mid-1800s in Estonia the

f d h f d l

Wood and splintersare the task of a man...


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Vessels for beeror Estonians, beer has been the

favourite beverage for feasts andcelebrations, and as a sacrificialdrink that was offered to bene-volent spirits and to ancestors. Thatcould be one of the reasons for richdcor found on a number of typesof vessels used for beer.

Although wooden, lidded steins are not typical ofEstonia only they are known also in inland, Swedenand Latvia those in the neighbouring countries are nomatch to Estonian ones, either in regard of size, ordcor.

Ktkann on thenorthwestern coastand on the WesternIslands, craftsmenmade lidded mugsfrom lighter and

darker alternatingstaves.

Old beer steins show an excellent

harmony in form and are remark-ably embellished. Both the lidand the handle are regularlydecorated with notches, the


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Bending is another major technique in Estonianwoodwork, used, in older times, when makingshaft-bows for horse harnesses, sledge runners,

wagon wheels and so on.

A different group of bent artefacts, partly still inuse today, are vessels made of thin curved boards all kinds of items from small round boxes for foodto the huge winnowing screens. These artefacts areuniquely typical to Northern Europe, as notechnique utilised in their production shows

evidence of a Central European influence.

Other elaborate wooden utensils weremade as engagement orwedding presents.These includedall the board-shapeddistaffs and band-knives for

weaving textile belts, and other practical tools carvedby the bridegroom for his future wife. In addition todecorative, and probably magic patterns, the craftsmanoften carved the name of the recipient (i.e. the bride) andthe date of the event into the gift. Although the custom isnow virtually extinct, there are some rare examples ofhand-carved engagement and wedding gifts from the 1950sand, rarer still, from the present day.

Ornamented bridal box

Decoratedcourting gifts(19th c.)


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While wood- and metalwork are traditionallyconsidered to be a male domain in the Estonianhousehold, everything concerning textiles havebeen womens work. Although similarly to manyother cultures, the professional weaving, dyingand tailoring in the towns and manors was done

by men in Estonia, this did not much concernEstonians, as less than a hundred and fifty yearsago virtually all clothes for the peasant family

were produced at home.

The only exception were someovergarments, such as longcoatsand fur coats, which were ordered

from the tailors and coat-makers.

In a peasants household, only inth fi t t f th

... dry goods and clothing

are a womans job


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As a response, in the 1930s, textiles become one of the first

handicraft branches to see the full-scale advent of scholarlyfolklorism. Ethnologists who graduated from the newlyEstonian-language Tartu University did their best to workout the proper versions of Estonian parish costumes. Their

Such ideas met with a warm welcome among manyEstonians, since under the double rule of the Russian tsarand Baltic German nobility, traditional costume was taken tosymbolise national self-awareness and aspirations for

self-determination.

Yet, there was an alternativeapproach present as well, withmany urban Estonians sub-scribing to the idea of be-coming Europeans, the fasterthe better and at any cost; this

included giving up peasantclothing in favour of smartEuropean urban attire. Com-bined with the gradual dis-appearance from the collectivememory of the habit ofwearing national costumes,the pursuit resulted in the

everything goes with every-thing attitude by the 1920s,national costumes were rapidlydegenerating into pseudo-national carnival dress.

Dancers of the mixed choir Koitfrom Viljandi (1930s)


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Textile work in general in the post-SecondWorld War Soviet period survived anddeveloped along its natural path, largelythanks to the lean times. Hardships taught

people to make something out of nothing,which is certainly an excellent accomplishmentas well as being a significant feature to

distinguish Estonians fromthe population of thewestern European welfarestates. The imagination oflocal people here as well

as their frugal habits orthe skill to put everythingto use, gave remarkablyfine results at toughtimes. A good illustrationof this is any creative anddiscreet reinterpretationof the traditional costume

pattern, cut or style.

Heathen peopled b th i bl k t


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Vaipcontinues to enjoy a remarkable eminent position onthe cognitive maps of many Estonians a venerated piece oftextile work, it is considered a prestigious item of award ona range of occasions.

West Estonian blanket has become thetraditional Grand Prixof the PrnuInternational Documentary andAnthropology ilm estival

In Estonian village society, carriage and sleigh blankets fortravelling to a wedding or church served as a status symbol.In the mid-1980s an old lady, known for her beautifulembroidery, told the museum people a lovely story. I wasquite young and sensitive in the time when embroideredcoverlets became the height of fashion. Our house was soclose to the church that we always went there on foot.

Lap covers and travel wrapsremained important and in usewell into the 1930s, but at thesame time bedspreads and rugs,

followed by wall hangingsgradually became more popular.The ornaments created by

i i i d


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Estonian professional artists,too, have expressed theircreativity in textiles through-out the last century.

A sequence of marvellousworks from the 1915Ussikuningas(Serpent King)by Oskar Kallis to thetextiles by the late grandold lady Elgi Reemets, suchas her depiction of the first

Estonian professional sing-er, Aino Tamm (1977), donot fall into the category ofnational handicraft, but re-present professional art innational style that hasemerged from the sameroots.


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The masters of a farmstead used to do every-thing themselves. He was a blacksmith and acarpenter, made his own barrels and kits, healso shoed his horses and made iron runnersfor his sledges, hammered his ploughs and

harrows, crafted his household utensils,spoons, plates, mugs, piggins, boxes andcupboards, built his houses and stoves, andso on and so forth A rare thing it is today to

Handymen of the

Estonian village


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Estonia with its homogeneous agriculturaltraditions dating back many centuries did notexactly offer the most favourable conditions forthe specialisation of rural artisans, or theestablishment of separate handicraft centres.Almost everything needed in daily life and evenon special occasions, such as weddings orchristenings, was produced at home. Yet, someinformation on specialised craftsmen such ascarpenters and woodwork-artisans in theEstonian countryside dates back to the sixteenthcentury.

Some two centuries later, a number of handicraftcentres had developed in various richly forestedareas and agriculturally unsuitable regions. Themost important products of these, usually inlandcrafting centres, were wooden artefacts, dulyexchanged for grain or fish or sold at the craft

fairs. In the course of time, particular regionsbecame known for the concentration of certainartisan specialities. or example, Avinurme in thegreat forests of Alutaguse in the North-East was

Tool- andtar-makersof the backwoods


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Muhu chairThe best-known chair-makers inEstonia came from the island ofMuhu; their work was distinctiveand evolved into a particular type ofchair, which came to be known asmuhu tool(Muhu chair).

Originally a bridal chair this piece of furniture became known amongEstonian peasants, in the 18th century, in the form of a wedding gift to

the bride on which she was seated during the ritual tanutamine(capingof the bride). The frame-chair provides a significant example of a transferof motifs from the feminine crafts to the masculine ones the

t th b k i f M h h i i f th b id


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PottersUnlike the Latvians and, even more so,

Lithuanians, Estonians did neither manu-facture nor utilise pottery during most of thelast four hundred years or so. Instead ofearthen- or stoneware, metal cooking potstogether with lathe-turned or cooper-madewooden tableware and storage vessels wereused.

Some sort of change arrived only in thesecond half of the 19th century, a period thatwitnessed the foundation of several largepotteries in the Setu villages around Petseri(Pechory), that had the deposits of clay withsatisfactory quality available nearby. It wasfrom these pottery shops that the peddlingpotisetud(Pot-Setus) obtained their goods simple, scantily decorated bowls and cups which they then sold or exchanged for rags forpaper mills.

Haanjapipe-carversand hatters

Artisans of Haanja Upland in South Estonia ,whose lands were too infertile and steeply

sloped for farming and not sufficiently forestedto allow them to pursue any timber-basedhandicraft, became skilled in making felt hatsand pipes. The heyday of pipe-making havingpassed in the middle of the 19th century, therewere about 40 pipe-makers still around inHaanja by the end of it.

Today there isno longer anypipe carving in


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Of all the things that have survived from whatprevious generations have used, jewellery isamong the most resilient to age. All around

Estonia, archaeological excavations or farmersploughing their fields keep unearthing pins orbrooches or some other kind of adornmentsthat have been buried in the ground forcenturies. This kind of information offers a slightchance for scholars to learn about the tastecanons of Estonians beyond the range of literarysources.

These pieces of cast, hammered and mintedmetal bear witness to the extensive and bustlingtrade network Estonia was involved in at thebeginning of the second millennium AD. Boatrivets in the burials, Arabic coins and Oriental

jewellery in the hoards, all relate to the traffic onthe NevaVolkhovVolga waterway as well asthe famous route from the Varangians to theGreeks that took local sailors and oarsmen tothe distant lands of the Great Bolgar,

When she strides, she clatters,when she travels, she twinkles,

when she goes, she glistens(runo-song from Mustjala on Saaremaa)

Certain types of ornaments were distinctiveto particular nationalities in the 13th and14th century Estonia. or instance, the

persons depicted in the bas relief of theinterior of the Karja Church one of theearliest rural churchesof Estonia arethought to be theEstonians, judging bythe conspicuouspenannular brooches

they are wearing.


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The share of silver and other metal ornaments in Estonianclothing has been diminishing ever since ancient times. Theabundance of metal that lasted several centuries after theconquest before the devastating wars of the 16th and17th centuries the churches received large donations ofmoney and jewellery not only from town-dwellers and thenobility, but also from wealthier peasants graduallyretreated into ever more remote regions, mostly as a resultof the clothes becoming more European and the generalcircumstances more miserable.

The German Enlightenment man of lettersJohann Christoph Petri (17621851),describing the life of Estonian peasants inthe early 19th century, found that thesilver jewellery of the peasant women

jingled so loudly that it could be heardfrom afar as if a horse with sleigh bells was

approaching.

Estonian bride(oil, 1852)by Gustav Adolf Hippius(17921856)

Conical brooch

from the late 18th century


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Aesthetic preferences naturally got mixed when thegold- and silversmiths had ideas of their own; it washowever up to the client, a peasant woman or man, toaccept or reject a design. It was that sort of practice that ledto Estonian brooches being decorated with Medieval Gothicimagery, or with rich renaissance mauresques.

Strong traditionally, jewellery art today has managed toretain a lot of its originality and dignity in Estonia. Could this

be explained by the fact that the designers and artisans havealways been professionals?

Richly decorated ring brooch bearingthe name Michgel Vnkael(Michael the Pigheaded) from 1587

Ring brooch with mauresqueornament (16th17th cc.)

Unlike textiles and woodwork, jewellery of the Estonianpeasants was usually made by professional artificerswho quite often were not ethnic Estonians. In spiteof the fact that the ornaments were mostlypurchased or traded the conical brooch andthe flat brooch, for instance, both considered tobe genuinely Estonian types of adornments,were introduced by the non-Estonian guild

jewellers in the 18th century one is still justifiedto speak in terms of Estonian-style jewellery.


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Highly professional leatherwork is consi-dered creative art that has brought well-

d i i E i i

The sources of

Estonian leatherwork

The heritageof the Medieval craft guilds

The formation of craft guild organisations, in Estoniantowns called the trades, dates back to the end of 14thcentury. The first trades to receive the statutes scraa in Tallinn were the tailors (136375), the goldsmiths(1393) and the butchers (1394).

Already in the 15th16th centuries, the Germansbegan restricting the access of craftsmen of othernationalities to the more prestigious guilds those forgoldsmiths, shoemakers, tailors, hatters, etc. Estoniansand other non-Germans had to be content with lowerstatus guild professions masons, stone-dressers,coopers, carpenters, weavers, sail-makers, hemp-twisters, etc. The majority of urban Estonians, however,

could not rise any higher than what were known aslesser trades outside the craft guilds.

The statutes of the St Canutes Guild of Tallinn(16th c.)


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Competitors on the market, the craftsmen

and traders of Estonian origin became quite anuisance for the German guild authorities. Inthe early 16th century Tallinn, for instance, theburghers demanded that the non-Germansmall dealers and pistelmakersbe chased withdogs from the market and replaced by civiltraders from Germany.

It is not known whether their grievances weremet, but pistelmakers disappear from thewritten sources during the 17th century, andthe Estonian-run professional leatherworkingdoes not surface again before the end of 19thcentury.

The professional discrimination wasnot confined only to the towns.As urban gold- and silversmithsmade a good profit by sellingBauernsilber (German for

peasant silver) to the countrypeople, they did everything intheir power to stop illegal (i.e.not guild members) artisans whoworked at the manor houses andother rural centres.

The Triskelion-masterSince Estonians were still called neophytes inthe 18th century, it is no wonder that the16th17th century peasant adornments, e.g.the twelve brooches of the Triskelion-master

series, found in West Estonia, boast symbolsbelonging in the pre-conquest period.

Tin pendants for decorating dresses typical merchandise of pistelmakers


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The birthof the Estonianapplied art

Urbanisation andthe concomitantrapid changes insociety had created

the preconditionsfor the emergenceof professionalEstonian fine andapplied art by theearly 20th century.As local Germanmaster artisans

were often less than pleased to share their trade secrets withtheir socially inferior co-citizens, Estonians chose to go andstudy abroad: in St Petersburg, several applied art schools inGermany, etc.

Siurulind(Wonderbird) from the cycle Kalevipoegby Oskar Kallis (designed 1915, woven 1997)

Bookbinding by Mihkel Ulemann(around 1900)


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Along with the establishment of Estonian-languageuniversity programmes of ethnology and folklore, the 1920ssaw the nation-wide encouragement of the NationalRomanticist style applied art that would rely on originalEstonian motifs.

This was accompanied by an unprecedented interest on thepart of leading Estonian artists in creating fancy sketchesand designs for all areas of (applied) art and handicraft, fromfurniture design to leatherwork. What is more, they did thiswithout having the slightest worry about their reputation asprofessional architects, painters or sculptors.


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Th ti f E t i i 1940 b ht ith it th


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Y t ith th

ARS

Jewellery modelmade by HeinzValk for ARSUnlike the national handicraft par excellence cultivated at

UKU, the ARSproducts were more focused on the artist

the small number of copies did not rely so much ontraditional ornamentation and topics.

Three decades from the pre-war boom of Estonian appliedart and crafts, the Khrushchev Thaw in the Sovietestablishment made it possible for Estonian artists and crafts

masters to make another attempt along similar lines. Underthe auspices of the newly established Association ofMaster-Artists ARS, various items of jewellery and otherartefacts were produced, and these have later come to beregarded as classics.

The curricula of the Colleges departments


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The curricula of the College s departmentsof furniture, textile and leather artemphasise the importance of acquiringtraditional working techniques, whichprovide the right touch of technique

necessary for any artistic self-expression.

Yet, as a reminiscence of the pastcentralisation, the hub for research andeducation of applied arts in Estonia remainsin Tallinn. The aculty of Design of theEstonian Academy of Art which includesthe departments of jewellery and black-smithing, ceramics, glass, leather art andtextile, continue to provide education forthe students from both Estonia and abroad.

One of the many ancient skills in danger ofoblivion in Estonia that the staff and students ofthe TAC have thought worthwhile to revive, is theOriental method of hand-block printing of fabric.


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Estonian traditional folk art lacks lush decorativeness,forceful dominance or playfulness of form and decoration,so typical of many other nations. On the other hand, thereis no naivety either, something considered so characteristicto folk art.

A typical feature of the creative activity of this nation is an

urge to kirjatato compose a pattern. Throughout centuriespeople have used the Estonian term kiriwriting instead ofthe borrowed musterpattern or ornament.

Kiripatterns and writing

Laundry bat carvedb h ld

Ornaments cut onto the lidsof Estonian beer mugs


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Apparently a farm-mark, a symbol traditio-nally marking ownership, conveyed aconsiderably larger amount of information.An owners mark such as this, representedthe whole family and the magic signcontained quite a particular power. These

marks provided the user with strength andgood health, protected against evil, and, inaddition, quite simply looked pretty as anornament or decoration.

irst, when school education spread,Estonians started to write and read in

two ways: writing based on the

alphabet and writing based ontraditional symbols. Yet, as timewent on, the alphabet, richer in

arm-marks on the floatsof the fishing net


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While there are numerous historicalaccounts of sacred objects and places statues of fertility spirits, sacrificial stones

and gardens, and other places of worship in Estonian peasant households, by themid-19th century, the efforts of the

Unfortunately for the ancient traditions,though, the freshly found religious zeal wasoften manifested in neglecting and activelyrooting out everything pagan, be it folkpoetry or traditional music, or vain, such asnational costumes or household artefacts

decorated with ancient ornaments. In theirstead, the Brethren encouraged the spreadof psalm singing, plain clothes and piouswritten culture among the peasants.

Eucharist cloth with Baroque embroidery from theTarvastu church (middle 18th c. or earlier)

By the time the Estophile Baltic Germans and later the first


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By the time the Estophile Baltic Germans and later the firstEstonian linguists and ethnographers began taking aninterest in the old writings of the county people, they wereoften presented with popular pseudo-interpretationsinstead of the genuine traditional meanings. Provided the

scholars new-way-of-writing background and theirinformants old-way-of-writing background would haveallowed for any reciprocal understanding at all.

Yet, even when the original meaning has vanished intooblivion, the messages hidden in the shaping beauty anddecorations still render a sense of something mystical. Thesame way as feelings expressed through song in a foreigntongue can still charm and impress a listener, even one whois unable to understand the meaning of the words.


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Map by Krista MlderMap data courtesy of Regio Ltd.


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Published by the Estonian Institute2004

Suur-Karja 14 Tel. +372 6314 35510140 Ta ll inn ax.+372 6314 356Estonia e-mail: [email protected] www.estonica.info

Documents

63 Arts and Crafts