Large Wooden Rosemaling Pedestal Bowl

To Ivar with love…

This large wooden Rosemaling pedestal bowl was a birthday gift from Gerd and Arne to Ivar.  Happy Birthday, Ivar!

A unique piece, it has a pedestal footer which lifts it up elegantly from the table.  It’s done in Hallingdal style with a central flower around which the rest of the design circles.  While shading is more minimal in Hallingdal, contrasting crisscross lines of white give depth to the scrolls and petals.  The bowl itself is black with a Norwegian red pedestal.  The flower and scroll colors are greens, golden yellow, cream and rust with some dove blue accenting.  The strokes are confident and clean.  While it’s not signed by the artist as some Rosemaling pieces are, whomever painted this knew their artform.

Around the outer rim writing says “Til Ivar – Gratuler med 50 års dagen 27-9-73 – Fra Gerd og Arne” – roughly translated “To Ivar – Congratulations on your 50th birthday September 27 73 – From Gerd and Arne”.

53 years old, this bowl is in fabulous condition.  We see no dents, scratches or cracks, just some miniscule spots where the paint is worn – all part of the charm.  Strangely, there’s a hook on the back for wall mounting and because of the pedestal, it would stand out a bit from the wall.  But it wouldn’t look bad wall mounted at all.  Personally, we’d prefer to place it on a dining table so the pedestal is visible.

The bowl was found in Jevnaker, a few hours drive north of Oslo, the capital.

The bowl is 12″ in diameter and around 3.75″ in height.  It weighs 28 ounces.  As bowls come, it’s relatively large so be prepared to give it some space!

Jevnaker