How a remarkable vintage Swedish hand-written book landed in my lap.
In the summer of 2024 I became the owner of the late Peter Collingwood’s collection of over 1000 weaving books and periodicals. (This followed the rest of the contents of his Nayland workshop but that’s another story).
It’s safe to say that I’m unlikely to run out of weaving books to read in my lifetime and really have no need to source anymore.
However, when a chance conversation with a fellow guest at a friends wedding led to the topic of weaving, the eyes of my new found friend lit up. “I’ve a book that I think you’d like..”
She described the book and although I don’t remember the details of our conversation, (wine may have been flowing), I clearly showed enough interest that it was decided that the book (or textile treasure as I was soon to discover) was coming to me.
When I did finally lay eyes on this absolute treasure I couldn’t quite believe my good fortune.
It is truly exquisite and I feel incredibly privileged that it’s now in my library.
Here’s what I know about the author so far:
Gundla Gustafson.
Born April 16th 1915 in Äsperöd, a small village 50 miles to the east of Malmo in Sweden.
One of 7 siblings, two boys, and five girls all of whom were trained weavers but she was the star.
She married in her late thirties, outlived her husband, lived on her own until she was 99 and then in a care home for 2 years and died aged 101.
What next?
I’m really looking forward to finding about more about Gustafson as her nieces widower has family records that I believe he is happy to share with me. I’ll update this post in due course.
When I set out in business I had no expectation that my job would ignite an interest in conservation and historical textile research. However, these happenstance acquisitions do suggest that the universe is sending me down this path don’t you think? I feel that opening a ‘specialist weaving resource centre’ for future generations might be moving up my ‘to-do’ list…
If this sort of thing interests you too, or you’d like to hear about opportunities to visit my studio and library please may I ask that you sign up to my mailing list and also drop me a short email. I’m currently tied up with weaving orders in the studio, but I’ll create a database with expressions of interest so I know where to find you when I’m ready for the next phase.