New Baltic ware collection on display for the first time at Shetland Museum

A collection of colourful Skovi Kapps which highlight Shetland’s trading and maritime links with Russia during the 19th century is now on display for the first time at the Shetland Museum.

This new display features a group of exotic wooden household items known as Baltic ware, Khokhloma ware or Skovi kapps in Shetland; Skovi from Muscovy, the region in Russia where they were produced and kapp which is Shetland dialect for bowl.

From the Russian folk-art tradition each piece is painted with plant motifs using a vibrant mixture of red, gold and black paint. These distinctive wooden bowls and utensils were brought back to Shetland by seafarers working in the Baltic fishing and timber trade during the 19th century.

Curator of Collections, Jenny Murray, who created the exhibition, explains: “This is the first time the museum has shown its collection of Skovi kapps together in a new focus display in partnership with Orkney Museum who recently borrowed some of our Baltic ware for their display last year. Volunteer at Orkney Museum, Ali Turner-Rugg, researched this shared element of our shared maritime heritage to produce the panels showing now in Shetland Museum.

“This new exhibition is a continuation of our shared project ‘New Connections Across the Northern Isles’ with PhD candidate Cait McCullagh. We co-curated museum exhibitions and a virtual museum highlighting our maritime heritage.’

Other engagement including films, music and stories can be explored at: New Connections Across the Northern Isles | Research (hw.ac.uk)

Related Posts

Shining a light on Ann Harriet Pottinger this International Women's Day

To celebrate International Women’s Day 2024 we shine a light on Ann Harriet Pottinger, née Hunter, one of many unsung, hard-working ...

Read more

New book of Shetland Fine Lace Knitting launched

A new publication, ‘Shetland Fine Lace Knitting – Recreating patterns from the past’ by Shetland Museum’s textiles curator, ...

Read more

Profound new exhibition, Polar North, captures the fragility of the Arctic landscape

A profound new exhibition which captures the fragile and shifting beauty of the Arctic landscape opens this Sunday 10 March at Da ...

Read more

Shetland Museum and Archives launches series of ‘Thursday Lates’ heritage talks

Evenings celebrating Shetland’s rich culture and heritage will begin next month as Shetland Museum and Archives launches its ...

Read more

Be My Valentine

It’s that time of year, Valentine’s Day, the 14th of February. In the Shetland Archives Catalogue references to Valentines are ...

Read more

Old style islands courtships

We’re warming ourselves up to the idea of Valentine’s Day. Some might say Shetlanders are not renowned for being romantics and ...

Read more

Shetland Museum celebrates Lerwick Up Helly Aa 2024

The Shetland Museum & Archives was full of activity last week as we celebrated Lerwick Up Helly Aa with a series of fiery events and ...

Read more

The Eyjarskeggjar

The images of Up Helly Aa go like this – the burning longship, arms and armour, and bearded men. The present Jarl Richard Moar has ...

Read more

A Fragment of Viking-Norse Life

One of the results of years of peat-cutting in Shetland is that occasionally interesting objects are revealed. So it was the case in ...

Read more

Shetland Amenity Trust’s heritage sites open for this year’s Up Helly Aa

The fiery season will soon be back and Shetland Amenity Trust is putting together a series of events as well as offering extended ...

Read more

Shetland's War Memorial - constructed by William Horne

Shetland’s War Memorial on Hillhead is now one hundred years old, and was rededicated with a ceremony on 6 January. The memorial ...

Read more

Christmas in Shetland - 1923

1923, like many of the years between the wars, was not a good one. The Shetland Times year end report spoke of a poor herring fishing, ...

Read more

Research project commissioned to encourage locals to grow more aets!

Shetland Amenity Trust has commissioned a research project with two local straw makers to understand more about the growing of ...

Read more

‘Logical Confusion’, a retrospective exhibition of Mike McDonnell opens at the Shetland Museum

An ambitious new exhibition dedicated to the artistry of well-known local artist Mike McDonnell opened this weekend at the Shetland ...

Read more

New poetry book - ‘Love in Human Herts’

‘Love in Human Herts’, a new publication celebrating Vagaland’s finest poetry has been launched today by the Shetland Amenity ...

Read more