The first colonial period in the history of Estonia, following the conquest of the land in 13th century by Danish and German crusaders, up till 20th century, knows several parallel handicraft traditions. Firstly there were the utilitarian crafts of commoners in towns and peasants in the country that showed little variation and mostly only satisfied the everyday household needs. Besides that we have the work of numerous journeymen busy at the manorial complexes of the landed gentry and at larger monasteries, and, most importantly, the guild members and independent artisans in towns - all introduced novel techniques and other type of innovations.

In the 14th century, a mere three or four generations after the arrival of the first German colonists, the biggest town in Estonia at the time, Tallinn (Reval), boasted more than 50 lines of handicraft. Most artisans worked with metal (black, silver and goldsmiths, swordsmiths and locksmiths, kettlesmiths, sawmakers, pewterers) and leather (shoemakers, saddlers, tanners, furriers). During the heyday of the Hanseatic League in the 15th century, there were artisans representing 73 different areas of craftsmanship active in Tallinn.

While all this looks quite similar to the history of crafts in the rest of Europe, one must not overlook a rather significant difference. Throughout most of the post-conquest period - from the medieval times up till as late as 1870s - the social divisions of Estonian society coincided quite precisely with a division according to nationality.

Estonians, always an overwhelming majority, comprised the peasantry in countryside as well as the under-privileged labour force and practitioners of less prestigious trades in towns. Higher ranks in the social hierarchy, ecclesiastic as well as secular, were occupied by non-Estonians - mostly Germans and, from the end of 19th century until the foundation of the Republic of Estonia in 1918, increasingly Russians.

The Deutschbalten (German 'Baltic Germans' - the clergy, nobility, merchants and artisans; later also intelligentsia or literati) retained close contacts with their forefathers' land of origin and through that with the rest of Europe. Thus new handicraft techniques (via itinerant journeymen and apprentices), items (by way of merchants) or patterns (copied from life or pattern guides) originating in Italy or France, or spreading from the Orient, often quickly found their way to Estonian towns, manor houses and vicarages. What prevented them from spreading widely in the countryside was the static mentality of maarahvas (from Estonian maa 'land, country, Estonia' + rahvas 'people') who clung on to their old types of adornments for generations, maintained their sacred places over the centuries or stuck to the same patterns for millennia.

Croze saws, the usual tools in European cooperage, were widely used by Estonia's urban craftsmen from the Middle Ages onwards. In the country, on the other hand, their place was taken, throughout the time when wooden vessels dominated, by grooving knives. In addition to Estonia, these tools were typical of Scandinavia, Northern Latvia and Ingria.

The poor living standard of Estonians caused a situation where a peasant could not see much sense in decorating his home. Both the land and the buildings belonged to the manor, and the landlord decided how long one could remain under the same roof. Furthermore, it would have been quite pointless to decorate the rooms of the low and chimney-less building - with the light coming through tiny 'windows' covered by pigbladder, hardly anything could be seen in the smoky half-light. The household furniture was, consequently, meagre and extremely austere. There was not much stuff around.

Apt in adjusting to circumstances, Estonians directed their attention to life outside the home: they were particularly keen on travel wraps and sleighblankets, the multitude of gifts that the bride presented to wedding guests - veimed - as well as on an array of everyday items that were used outside the house. This is most vividly expressed in the time-consuming effort put into making the colourful and diligently adorned traditional costumes.

A major change occurred in Estonian rural life after the 1860s; this was when peasants started to purchase land ('reclaim' the land forfeited by their forefathers, as most Estonians felt) and property, the period of National Awakening and the transition towards urban ideals. This was also when a new motto: "Be a master in your own house", was adopted For decorating their homes, people took to manufacturing or purchasing artefacts they had not even heard of before. The efforts that had previously been directed at embellishing 'ritual objects' for the outside world to see, were gradually channelled into improving everyday domestic life.

From that time onwards, handicraft in a variety of tastes confirmed itself as a natural and appreciated part of Estonian interiors, both at home and in office.

By the end of the 19th century, what might be called 'national handicraft' began taking shape - one of the tangible results of the emergence of ethnic self-consciousness among Estonians. 'Traditional' handicrafts became 'national' when the user had developed a sufficient distance from the previous connotations. While any countryman, at the time of the change of century, still enjoyed sipping his beer from a traditionally crafted wooden beer mug (regarding it, quite naturally, as the most suitable vessel for such a purpose, not as something particularly 'national'), his educated son, a first generation townsman, placed a similar stein on his desk, seeing it as a pretty Estonian artefact.

The first collectors looking for the beautiful handicraft articles made by their ancestors started their rounds of Estonian villages roughly at the same time. Early in the 20th century, the idea of founding 'a museum for our own national things' cropped up repeatedly, and such an institution eventually came into being under the name Eesti Rahva Muuseum (Estonian National Museum) in 1909. To this day, the museum serves people as a place to find examples and inspiration.

At the same time much of what had emerged in peasant culture during several centuries disappeared from everyday use or acquired completely new functions. While, for example, the festive and church clothes from different periods gradually turned into 'national costumes', everyday work clothes woven and sewn at home had already disappeared in many places by the end of the 19th century. Part of the handicraft tradition faded away because the items involved had lost their original function - in the approaching era of goods produced by machines and bought in shops, the crafts of making birch tar or bast shoes were inevitably doomed.

The decline of handicraft skills was partly due also to 'social anachronisation': the purchased piece of clothing, for instance, was not necessarily of finer quality or even cheaper; for a tradition to vanish it was often enough for the urban fashions to reach a place.

Still, part of the ancient skills have managed to survive the 'low point of consumption' and sprung to new life, either meeting the demands for moderntime souvenirs or thanks to other reasons, in the very start of 21st century.

Despite the extinction of many original craft traditions - or, ironically, rather because of that - 'our' and 'national' have become, during the last one hundred years or so, a true fashion of its own in Estonia. Among the most prominent examples of the trend are the Arts and Crafts influenced manifestations of the early 20th century Estonian National Romanticism - inspired by the examples of Finland and Scandinavia and adopted to compensate for the lack of shining heroes in the nation's history.

The 'artist's house' of Ants Laikmaa, one of the earliest and most famous Estonian artists, completed in the late 1920s in Taebla in West Estonia, is an impressively integral example of the Estonian National Romanticism in good taste.

In times of political difficulties, in particular, everything 'national' has easily provided moral support. The harsher the everyday reality, the more strength the surrounding artefacts have afforded to reaffirm the spirit of being Estonian.

Both the founding (in 1918) and restoration (in 1991) of the Republic of Estonia, in particular, were heydays for 'national spirit expressed in items'. On occasions, it cannot be denied, this approach has resulted in rather grotesque manifestations.

Oddly enough, the people who have perhaps cherished the Estonian handicraft tradition the most, live abroad. For tens of thousands of Estonians persuaded or forced to abandon their homeland during the 19th and 20th century, it has provided rare moments of solace, something from the past to cling to. From the Crimea to Patagonia, and from British Columbia to New South Wales, the way Estonian émigrés have interpreted and rendered the Estonian handicraft tradition has caused it to develop in a way of its own, resulting partly in fastidiously preserved 'still lifes' from the 19th century, partly in astonishing blends with local traditions.

Estonian settlers reached Abkhasia in the foothills of Caucasus, at the end of the 19th century. Since then, their rooms have acquired wall-hangings with mountain scenery in addition to the textiles with traditional Estonian geometric ornaments.

Back in Estonia, despite the ever increasing pace of urbanisation and the spread of 'ready-made' lifestyle, even today one can find a few locations - the island of Kihnu in the Gulf of Livonia and the district of Setumaa in the SouthEast corner of the mainland, to name two examples - where traditionally-made clothing as well as a variety of homecarved household items are still found in daily use.