Building 7

This residential building has been transferred to the Old Kuopio Museum from Tulliportinkatu 36. The building’s floor plan is a so-called double-room type, which became common during the modern era. The double-room floor plans have one bigger room on both sides of the hall and a porch-chamber. It is not known when this house was built. The museum has decided to place tailor’s and weaver’s living and working quarters from the early decades of the 20th century to the building.

Room 701/Tailor’s workshop

The oldest information of tailor’s profession in Finland is from the Middle Ages. The first tailor’s guild in Finland was established in Turku in 1624. The guild institution was abolished after the freedom of trade act in 1868.

The first sign of significant handicraft activity in Kuopio is Per Brahe’s town plan in the 1650’s. In the 18th century King Gustav III’s actions lead to the foundation of the town of Kuopio in 1775. The foundation attracted handicraftsmen to the town. Approximately five tailors lived in Kuopio in the 1790’s. In the 1850’s association activities were started in order to control the common interests of the tailors. In the 1940’s a tailor’s vocational school was transferred to Kuopio from Vyborg.

Some objects in the tailor’s workshop date to the 1920’s, although some are even older.

The doorway side of the workshop with its table and chairs functions as tailor’s reception hall. In the 19th century, it was common for tailors’ workshops to have two rooms. In the front room sat the master himself, cutting the fabrics and sending the pieces for further processing to the backroom where journeymen and apprentices worked.

The finished customer orders are hanging on the garment-rail in the corner of the room.

The back of the room is dominated by a large, two-piece tailor’s worktable. The boxes underneath the table were used to store the leftover pieces of fabric. Under the table, on boards was also stored some heavier pressing equipment, for example, pressing stands and ”pulvaskas”, which were wooden models for shaping hats, pressing sleeves et cetera.

There is some equipment required in tailor’s profession in the vitrine on the worktable.

In addition to the sewing machine, an ordinary needle and a thimble (”syyrinki”) were needed in measuring and cutting the fabrics. Already in the 1860’s, there were sewing machine suppliers in Finnish towns. Since the 1930’s electric machines started replacing manual and treadle machines. The basting threads were unpicked with a so-called ”pryyli” or with a small knife. The buttonholes were made with buttonhole-irons, with a hammer or with a wooden club and a buttonhole ”pulvaska”.

On the worktable, there are storage boxes for small things like buttons and reels of thread. A pincushion to be held around the forearm is from the 1930’s. In the vitrine’s lower part there is a silk thread, which was used to sew buttonholes.

In the process of pressing the clothes, various kinds of ironing cushions, different models of irons, damp cloth and wooden ”pulvaska” were needed. The ”pulvaska” could be used also for unpicking. In pressing the sleeves, a particular sleeve board or a padded ”pulvaska” was needed. With a so-called ”moses” the seams were moistened for the ironing.

Hats were shaped over the hat-”pulvaska”, which is on the table next to the vitrine. Below the hat-”pulvaska” are the patterns for a Puskin-model hat.

In front of the stove, there is an iron oven. It was used for heating the irons and keeping them hot. In addition to iron ovens, a cover made out of plate was used to keep the irons hot for a longer time.

There is an oil lamp hanging from the ceiling to light the room.

Room 702/Tailor’s dwelling

The porch-chamber serves as a tailor’s dwelling. The room portrays a modest standard of living. Some master tailors were nevertheless people of a considerable wealth. Often they lived in their own houses, which had several rooms.

As a source of warmth, there is a plastered register stove, which is a substitute for an actual tiled oven.

The walls of the room have been covered with tautened paperboards, which are painted with
single-coloured distemper (glue paint) and splash-decorated by various colours of paint drops with the help of a twig whisk. This sort of splash-decorating could have been done also straight on the timber surface. For instance, the stone walls of the 17th and 18th century castles and mansions were often decorated with this technique. In the 19th century the splash-painting became common on the townhouses’ walls.

In front of the window, there is a table with a drawer and a seat.

In the corner, there is a shelf for storing small things, books and photographs.

In the corner, by the doorway, there is an imperial bed with its high pile of bedding. The type of bed saved space, and thus, it was favoured for long time up to the 20th century, in small dwellings in particular.

Next to the stove there is a washing place with its commode, washbasin and water jug.

For light, there is an oil lamp, which can be attached to the wall.

Room 703/Weaver’s room

The weaver’s room tells us about living of the 1910–1920’s.

The lower part of the wall is covered by a half-panelling, which became common at the turn of the 20th century. The upper part of the walls is covered with painted cardboard.

The wall with the doorway is dominated by a combination of a stove and a baking oven.

Next to the doorway, there is a washing space with a washstand made out of iron, enamelled washing vessels and a water bucket. This type of white, blue-edged, enamelled vessels came into use already before the turn of the century.

As a worktop in the kitchen there is a cupboard table. Above the cupboard table, some utensils required in kitchen have been attached with nails and set on display, which was customary at that time. These utensils include, for example, cake and muffin moulds, whisks and a round bread mould made out of tinplate.

The dishes were kept on a set of wall-shelving which were also open. In the 1920’s aluminous cooking utensils appeared in to the kitchens.

On top of the stove were kept among other things a poker, a bread scoop, a baking board and an ironing board.

On the room’s left sidewall, there is a wooden sofa, which is to be pulled out from the side and functioned as a bed.

In the corner of the room there is a hand loom, a skeining reel and a spinning-wheel. The spinning wheel was already at the end of the 18th century an ordinary implement both in the homes of towns’ civil cervants and humble folk, and in the dwellings of the rustic people.

In the corner on the right there is a chiffonier, on the top of which is a so called ”satulli” eg toilet glass. For its functional purpose the toilet glass is a women’s toilet drawer. It became popularized during the 19th century.

Rocking chairs were known in Finland as early as the middle of the 18th century. Merchants and civil servants did not start acquiring them until the first decades of the 19th century. In to the estate inventory deeds of the handicraftsmen and the humble folk the rocking chair appeared little later.

Close to the wall on the right side is among other things an iron spike, functioning as a newspaper stand and a manually operated sewing machine.

In the middle of the room, there is an oval-shaped twintable.

As for the light there are oil lamps on the wall and on the table.