Dala Horse
The Dala horse (Dalahäst), the carved wooden horse of Dalarna, painted in red, white, blue, and green with a floral saddle. The craft grew from toys carved during long winter evenings in the 17th century into a famous local industry around Mora, where the horses are still hand-carved and painted. The Dala horse has become the best-known symbol of Swedish craft. The carvers of the villages around Lake Siljan — above all Bergkarlås, Risa, Vattnäs, and Nusnäs — made the horses from pine left over from furniture and clock-making, and by the early seventeenth century the toys were already being sol