SPECIAL, FEMALE HERITAGE: GANSEYS

Between 1870 -1950 all fishermen wore one colored blue, gray, black and uncolored hand knitted ganseys with motifs and patterns in knit and purl as working and outer gear. This habit disappeared after the Second World War when people became more prosperous, synthetic yarns and machine knitted clothing got available. Until the 1920s fishermen were the only ones that wore a sweater as outer layer, long before Coco Chanel made it fashionable for everyone. Until then sweaters were knitted in the round as tubes in a T-shape. From that time on tailoring techniques were used to shape knitwear.

Origin

The origin of the ganseys lies in England and Scotland, where fishermen wore them as working and outer gear from the 1830s. When Dutch fishermen encountered their colleagues from England and Scotland after the lifting of the gutting ban in 1857, they swapped ganseys for tobacco, jenever and tea. At home their spouses knitted them in their own long knitting tradition where The Netherlands were already famous for. Underwear became outerwear!

Some Dutch ganseys can be linked to their counterpart in England and Scotland, like for example the Katwijk cable gansey and the gansey from Whitby, Yorkshire.

Special guided tours by Stella Ruhe (on reservation [email protected]): 17th + 20th of April, 15th + 18th of May, 19th + 22nd of June, 17th of July and August, 18th + 2nd of September. Price: € 20,- pp (including coffee/pastry, excluding entrance)

Books on Dutch ganseys (VISSERSTRUIEN) by Stella Ruhe are available in the museum shop and the English version of book 1 as a pdf on Amazon.