Dalecarlian Horses
UNOFFICIAL SYMBOL OF SWEDEN
How did a painted wooden horse become one of the most recognizable and beloved symbols of Sweden? The earliest Dalecarlian wooden horse (or Dalahäst in Swedish) dates back to 1623 in the Swedish province of Dalarna. Traditionally, the Dalecarlian horse was a child’s toy, whittled from scrap wood by firelight during long winter evenings. Left undecorated or painted in a single color (red, blue, or gray), they were often traded by peddlers, along with baskets, wooden casks, and other household utensils. Horse carving became a family affair; the skill was passed down to the next generation. In the late 1800s, one of the most famous Dale painters, Stikå Erik Hansson, introduced the kurbits (flowering vine) technique of painting with two colors on the same brush, still used today.
The 1939 World’s Fair in New York City brought the horses international attention (and manufacturing orders) when the Swedish exhibition designers placed a larger-than-life Dalecarlian horse at the entrance to their pavilion. The contemporary Dalecarlian horse remains a handcrafted article, made of pine and painted in the traditional brightly colored, floral style inspired by 19th-century furniture decoration. Today most Dalecarlian horses are made in Nusnäs, a little village located around Lake Siljan in central Sweden. For four generations, Grannas A. Olsson’s Hemslöjd AB, a workshop founded in 1922 in Nusnäs, still produces hand-carved and hand-painted dala horses—so you can take a little piece of Sweden back home. —SBR
A trio of red Dale wooden horses.