Original 20 centimeters 7.9 inches large vintage buy Dala horse wood wooden hand carved painted Swedish folklore collectible orange

On offer is a 20 centimeters / 7.9 inches tall wooden Dala horse from Sweden.

This is an authentic vintage Dala horse from our personal collection and not a recent production. We bought it on one of our travels to Scandinavia.

That said: these are still being produced by both Olsson companies (read below).

In our other listings we are offering two more Dala horses, just one size smaller.

The one on offer here is fairly large. It is not marked but there is a trace of a former sticker label on the belly of the horse.

The base color is a distinct dark orange (but not red) with the hand painted decoration in various earth-tone colors.

History of the Dala horse
The history of the wooden "Dala" horses go back four centuries with their roots being traced to lumberjacks that would sit around the fireplaces during early starting Nordic winter evenings, carving figures from odd pieces of wood. A horse was an important possession at the time, much like a car today, and was an easy subject for the carvings. These after work carvings were taken home to the children in the villages where they became much treasured toys in an at the time very poor part of the world.

The tradition was concentrated to the Mora villages Vattnäs, Risa, Bergkarlås and Nusnäs. The best-known carver in the region was Tysk Anders Gunnarsson, popularly known as Gambel Damben.

Commercial exploitation of these horses beyond the region can be traced to Grannas Anders Olsson who began producing Dala horses in 1922, aged 26, along with other items that he sold through traveling salesmen. His younger brothers Nils and Jannes would help out by carving horses after school. In 1928, when Nils was 15 and Jannes only 13, they started a small factory in competition to their brother Grannas Anders! Both Olsson brother lines are still making Dala horses in Nusnäs nearly a century later.

In 1939, the Dala horse gained worldwide recognition after a giant version was placed outside the Swedish pavilion at the World's Fair in New York. The following year, 20,000 Dala horses were produced for shipment to New York and the Dala horse has since then become a symbol of the Dalarna region, as well as of Sweden in general.

Dala horses have been and still are made in many sizes, from 1 centimeter / 0.4 inches to 1.5 meters / 59 inches.

The horses are made of the slowly growing pine from the forests in the area. They are carefully handcrafted, from the carving to the painting. Each product is unique.

Measurements:
Height: 20 cm / 7.87 inches
Width: 19 cm / 7.48 inches
Depth: 6 cm / 2.36 inches

Weight: 382 grams.

Condition:
Very good to excellent.

This vintage Dala horse is damage free: no chips off the wood nor paint, no dents.

Stands straight and stable.

There are very minor rubbing traces and glue traces from the former sticker label on the bottom.

As all Dala horses are hand-painted there can be imperfections in the decorations such as color differences, brush slips or dots.

This particular horse has a few white paint dots on his head.

That is all there is to report.

Please refer to the pictures to get the best impression of the buy condition.

We have more pictures available of this item. Do not hesitate to ask for them in case of doubt.