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Vintage Swedish Pyrography Wall Plaque — Stora Tuna Kyrka, Hand-Burned Wood Folk Art, 7″ Round

$34.00 Only one available

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Mid-Century (1940s–1960s) Wood Very Good
HDRH-VR-0024
Somebody sat down with a heated tool and burned an entire church into a plate of wood — soft smoke in the sky, feathered trees, and the tall onion-dome spire of Stora Tuna kyrka rising over its low churchyard wall. This is pyrography, the old craft of drawing by scorch, worked in the sepia-to-black tones the technique gives you and nothing else. Along the bottom rim, in flowing burned cursive: Stora Tuna Kyrka. It's a small piece of Dalarna, the heartland of Swedish folk art, made to carry a beloved place home.
  • Technique: hand-burned pyrography (wood-burning), monochrome sepia-to-black
  • Subject: Stora Tuna kyrka, Borlänge, Dalarna, Sweden — medieval church with a Baroque onion-dome spire
  • Form: round turned-wood plaque, 7" across, sawtooth hanger on the back — ready to hang
  • Signed: a small artist's monogram (reads like "IH") burned into the lower corner
  • Era: mid-20th century Swedish folk craft
Condition: Very Good. Solid, sealed wood with no cracks or chips; a couple of tiny dark specks in the sky field and light handling marks on the reverse. The sawtooth hanger is intact and it hangs beautifully.
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Vintage Swedish Pyrography Wall Plaque — Stora Tuna Kyrka, Hand-Burned Wood Folk Art, 7" Round

Mid-20th Century

Swedish Folk Art / Pyrography

Dalarna is the heartland of Swedish folk art — the country of Dala horses and hand-decorated wooden keepsakes, where people have long made small souvenirs of the places they love. This plaque is one of them: a wood-burned portrait of Stora Tuna kyrka, the medieval parish church at Borlänge, crowned by its tall Baroque onion-dome spire. The Swedes call this kind of memento hembygd — "home district" — a piece of somewhere, made to carry home. The image is pyrography, drawn with a heated tool that scorches each line into raw wood; the sepia-to-black palette is the technique showing its hand. A small monogram burned into the lower corner (it reads like "IH") marks the artisan who made it.

It reached us from a well-traveled household whose shelves had quietly gathered the world — pieces from Japan, from Brazil, and now this small corner of Sweden. You can picture the journey: a church someone stood before once, brought home in the only form that fits a suitcase. Likely mid-20th century, it carries no maker's stamp beyond that personal mark — exactly what you would expect of a hand-made folk souvenir rather than a factory piece.

Materials Turned wood plaque, hand-burned pyrography (wood-burning); monochrome sepia-to-black scorched tones; triangular sawtooth wall hanger fixed to the reverse.
Care Dust with a soft, dry cloth. Keep out of direct sunlight and away from damp or heat, which can fade or crack sealed wood. No water or polish; hang from the sawtooth hook.
From the Research Archives
vintagerose.us Catalog No. HDRH-VR-0024 • July 2026

Specifications

Dimensions
8 × 6 × 6 in
Weight
2 lbs
SKU
HDRH-VR-0024
Dalarna is where Swedish folk art lives — the country of Dala horses and hand-painted wooden souvenirs, where people have always made small keepsakes of the places they love. This is one of them. It's a wood-burned plaque of Stora Tuna kyrka, the old parish church at Borlänge, with its medieval bones and that tall, unmistakable Baroque spire crowned by an onion dome. The Swedes have a word for this kind of thing — hembygd, "home district" — and that's exactly what it is: a piece of somewhere, made to carry home. The craft is pyrography, drawing with fire. You take a heated tip and scorch the image straight into raw wood, line by line, and there's no undoing a stroke once it's burned. That's why the palette runs sepia to black and nothing else — the monochrome isn't a style choice, it's the technique showing its hand. Look closely and you'll see how much patience it took: smoky, feathered clouds over the tower, stippled stonework in the low churchyard wall, the fine linework of the spire. Down along the bottom rim the church's name flows in burned cursive, Stora Tuna Kyrka, and a small monogram tucked in the lower corner — it reads like "IH" — tells you a person made this, not a factory. It came to us from a well-traveled household, the kind of home whose shelves had quietly gathered the world — pieces from Japan, from Brazil, and now this small corner of Sweden. You can picture how it got here: a church someone stood in front of once, brought home in the only form that would fit in a suitcase. That's the whole charm of a souvenir like this. It's not grand. It's personal.
  • Technique: hand-burned pyrography (wood-burning), every line scorched by hand; monochrome sepia-to-black
  • Subject: Stora Tuna kyrka — medieval church with a Baroque onion-dome spire, Borlänge, Dalarna, Sweden
  • Detail: smoky clouds, feathered trees, stippled churchyard wall; name burned in cursive along the bottom rim
  • Form: round turned-wood plate, 7" in diameter, triangular sawtooth hanger fixed to the back
  • Signed: small artist's monogram (reads like "IH") burned into the lower corner of the scene
  • Origin & era: Swedish hembygd folk craft, likely mid-20th century
Condition: Very Good. The wood is solid and sealed — no cracks, no chips. A couple of tiny dark specks sit in the sky field, and there are light handling marks on the reverse where a piece like this naturally rests. The sawtooth hanger is intact, and it's ready to go straight onto a wall.

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