Nordic Museum Gift Shop, Stockholm

What to buy here: Dalecarlian horse - perhaps the most well known red horse in the world.

Perhaps the most well known of all swedish artifacts, the Dalecarlian horse with its brick red color and hand painted pattern has become somewhat of a swedish trademark. The original shape is a horse carved in wood, but nowadays the famous horse come in other shapes, in crystal, ceramics or glass. The traditional and original 'Dala Horse' will always be the hand made wooden one, carved and hand painted locally in the swedish county of 'Dalarna'.

The Dalecarlian, or 'Dala Horse' is cut out of wood and hand painted in the traditional folklore or kurbits pattern that is typical for the swedish county of Dalarna, located in the middle of the country. The original and genuine horses are only made in one specific village, Nusnäs, and the original color is brick red. Other colors such as white or blue are approved, but less traditional, even as the oldest horses were not colored at all, as they were pre-dating the production of the brick-red color of the paint.