Monday 23 July 2012

Monday.


Been a good, busy day today. Worked in workshop most of the morning. Tidied meself up at about a quarter to twelve o'clock, nicely in time to greet our friends Keith and Jill Pinn, who were coming to lunch with us. Keith brought with him the above pair of leather boots, which I think are Lappish/Sami. They were very well made (a fair while ago I think) and much repaired. I promised Keith I would try and find out from Lasse, Ruth, Tuva, and Freja if I am right about them.
I then made up a jug of Pimms (Pimms, tonic water, ice and fruit), it being a lovely sunny, summery day and we then got down to business. They, too are dealers, with a taste for treen and early metalware among other things (Keith wrote the definitive work on paktong/tutenag a few years ago), and a good deal of the recently liberated Scandinavian treen and metalware changed hands.
We gave them a light lunch of mushroom soup and bread (both made by Ann this morning), followed by a cheese board, and then coffee. At about 3.30p.m. they decided it was time to hit the road, Keith informing me that they'd driven over in the Rover (I didn't know he had a Rover), we went outside with them and they climbed into the vehicle illustrated below- the blue one- the red one is ours. It is a 1934 Rover open tourer, made here and exported to India in 1934. When the owner (an Indian Army Colonel) retired a year or so later, he and the Rover returned to England.

What a SOOOOPER vehicle to drive about in through the Suffolk lanes on a lovely summer day!!

Goodnight all.

2 comments:

Nea said...

They could be Sami. The curled toe of the boot is to keep skis attatched, so they are definitely from the North. Try Googling images for "Knud Leem", an 18th C. Norwegian who published pictures and texts about the Sami and their way of life.

I have also found an image of Carl Von Linné wearing something similar in 1732:
http://www.linnaeus.se/link1_2.html

The Swedish Linnaeus Society

But the Finnish Army appear to have used similar boots well into the 20th C.
(Google images "old leather laplander ski boots")

The expert is still asleep, but I'll ask him in the morning for his opinion.

<3 Pooh

Unknown said...

Thank you very much Nea. That is very useful and I will pass it on to Keith. Any additional information that Lasse can come up with will be gratefully received.Thanks again, Pa.