18th century weeks at Skansen - revisited

Another Sunday at Skansen - this time with much cooler weather which made the hours there even more agreeable than last week! I have to repeat - I really could do this thing for my day job!

And would you believe - I brought the camera this time (although I forgot to bring newly purchased spare batteries and had to buy on site for $$$ - GAAH!) and I took many pictures of the interiors of the lovely, lovely Skogaholm manor:

A bedroom with 17th century walls and ceiling

A bed chamber

A blurry picture of the Chinese parlour

And a DARK but cool picture of the same:

The loveliest little parlour, it says: The table is set - do come in!

Another very female bed chamber......from another angle.

The nursery

I think this was supposed to be the master bedroom:

Another parlour/sitting room, where you could spin...

...play a tune......or just warm yourself up a bit!

And to wrap things up, a handful of ego pictures of me, fooling around inside and outside of the manor house:

Nothing new to wear this week either - my current project has been giving me so much pain that I've started to question my ability to sew even a pillow case in the future! I'm NOT giving up just yet, though. Grey hair makes one look distinguished anyway.

18th century weeks at Skansen

Skansen, an open-air museum/zoo in Stockholm began their annual 18th century weeks last Sunday.

Gustafs Skål's members heartily participates in the event on weekends and show off themselves, 18th century dances, arrange fashion shows and so on, very much to the tourists' delight.

This year was the first time I participated and in spite of the hot, hot HOT weather (seriously, my shift was soaking when I got it off.. Sorry for TMI) I had a lovely day.

There weren't too many fixed arrangements for this day, so my task was mostly to walk around like any other Skansen-goer (only in 18th c clothing, of course), answering the odd question from tourists, smiling for cameras and enjoying the company of the many nice Gustafs Skål members.

I could so do this every day for the rest of my life!

The activities are mainly focused around this building, Skogaholm manor.

I couldn't find my camera when I left home (I slept late and was a bit panicked) so I had to take stealth shots with my phone. A lot of them were so stealthy that I mostly got people's backs ! Oh well.

Isn't this lovely? It had original (I think) decor on the inside.

I really liked his girl's pierrot jacket.

It all ended with a lovely picnic in the green grass (and there was a bit of shade! Phew!)

Lady in blue contemplating lady in floral.

This charming man

Gossip? Surely no - everyone was talking about the heat.

And what's the only remedy for heat? ICE CREAM!

One would think that it would be cool and nice in this lovely... corridor of shrubbery, but it was quite the reverse.

Last but not least - me! I had planned to wear something new but there wasn't time (you may remember this old rag from last summer). I hope to have finished a brand new round-gown for the upcoming weekend. Then I will also try to take more and better pictures, including the lovely interiors of Skogaholm manor.

Summertime fun: A trip to Gripsholm

Me and my darling spouse made a day-trip to the little town by the Mälaren lake, Mariefred, last Wednesday.

While the town itself is charming, filled with tiny doll-sized houses and situated so beautifully by the lake...
...the Thing To See is the Gripsholm palace.





The palace not only houses the National Portrait Collection which features portraits from the 16th century to our days, but also many examples on architecture and interiors from decades past (and of course all those little quirky things one loves about old castles: small staircases leading to no-one-knows, dusky dungeons and creaking floorboards...)

Photography was not allowed, and I was too chicken to take stealth-shots (without flash, of course) because of the many guards...

That means that the gift shop got me to buy a number of post cards, at least!

Forgive my old, faithful scanner his faults:

Prince Fredrik Adolf, Duke of Ostrogothia, painted by Roslin in 1770

Courtisane, a dog. David Klöcker Ehrenstral's atelier, second half 17th century


Carl Fredrik von Breda, self-portrait


The hen-picture, with queen Lovisa Ulrika's ladies-in-waiting. Mid-18th century, possibly by Johan Pasch (if you really must compare women to poultry, I suppose this is the most stylish way of doing so...)


Princess Sofia Albertina's rooms.


The green salon. See why I wanted to take pictures so badly?!?



Duke Carl's chamber. Mostly original 16th century.


One of the really unique sights: King Gustaf III's theatre. Tiny, but fully working with machinery and all!


This charming fella's name is Adolf Ludvig Stierneld but I knew nothing about him when I bought the card. Now I know that he was the person who started to organize the portrait collection at the palace, which would have suited his history sense well. He collected historical documents and was considered something of an authority and expert in his own time. Today, however, many of his so-called "historical documents" have been exposed as blatant forgeries made by himself, often to make his ancestors look more important.

***

I have visited Gripsholm many times since my childhood but it's like a new experience every time, because you always discover something you didn't see before. There are so many rooms, so unique in their own way, and so many fantastic portraits... And if that's not anough for you, then there's always...

THE LION!

Before we left for Stockholm, we visited the town's small but charming museum which showed the home of a well-to-do family in the late 19th century.

I could take pictures, and we can haz costumes:

...and creepy dolls.

After a cup of coffee and home-baked pastries in the museum's lovely garden, we boarded the 107-year old steamship Mariefred and had a very pleasant journey home!