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Sami Knife with sheath
Nils Nilsson Skum1934-09-03
Nordiska Museet
Stockholm, Sweden
Knife with silver birch handle. The knife handle is decorated with rings of bone and metal. Knife sheath of reindeer antler with cut decoration. The decoration depicts a group of three elk surrounded by a geometrical border. A carved inscription reads: “3/9 1934 Ingrid Kuhmunen”.
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Details
- Title: Sami Knife with sheath
- Creator: Nils Nilsson Skum
- Creator Lifespan: 1872/1951
- Date Created: 1934-09-03
- Location Created: Sweden, Lapland, Gällivare
- Physical Dimensions: h21.8 cm
- More Information: Nils Nilsson Skum (1872-1951), Sami artist, artisan and reindeer herder. Born in Kautokeino in Norway. Died in Sjiska, Gällivare in Sweden. From the 1930s he was active as a full-time artist. Skum is best known for his paintings and drawings featuring motifs taken from Sami life. He also worked as a sculptor. In addition, Skum was also a skilled craftsman and made a large number of richly decorated knife handles and knife sheaths. Skum's paintings and drawings were exhibited at numerous exhibitions both nationally and internationally, including the World's Fair in Paris in 1937. A hundred or so of his drawings are reproduced in the books Sáme siida – samebyn (Sami Village, 1938) and Valla renar (Tending Reindeer, 1955). The Sami are an indigenous people, originally from the northern parts of present-day Sweden, Norway, Finland and the Kola Peninsula in Russia. They lived in these areas long before these modern states existed. The Sami supported themselves through hunting, trapping, fishing and reindeer herding. During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, tourism, handicrafts, art and music became new sources of income. Today, Samis reside in many places and can be found in most professions. There are a total of at least 80,000 Samis, with at least 20,000 resident in Sweden. Approximately 2,500 Swedish Samis still make a living from reindeer herding. Other important industries are handicrafts, hunting, fishing and tourism. There are three different Sami languages, which in turn can be divided into a number of dialects. All three Sami languages are included on the UN's list of endangered languages. Since 2000, Sami has had minority language status in Sweden. Sami handicrafts (in Sami duodji) have their origins in the period when the Sami lived a nomadic life. Such an existence frequently involved breaking camp and moving around, meaning it was useful to have tools that were easy to carry around. They made most of the things they needed. The material was mainly taken from the surrounding environment, such as bone, antlers, hide, sinew, wood and roots. But sometimes they also bought textiles, yarn, tin and glass beads. Today's Sami handicrafts draw on tradition, but are also constantly changing, and modern materials such as plastic and plexiglas are now also used. Nordiska museet has a large collection of Sami objects. The first was collected during the museum's first year in the 1870s and the most recent in 2010.
- Materials and Techniques: Silver birch, metal, reindeer bone, reindeer antlers.
- Type: Sami
- Rights: Photo: Bertil Wreting, © Nordiska museet
- External Link: http://www.digitaltmuseum.se/things/slidkniv/S-NM/NM.0255556A-B
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