The work is in the details

window detail, originally uploaded by Vilseskogen.

Imagine the carpenter in middle Sweden, who decided to design and make these endings on every molding around every window of his house. It is gorgeous, but not fast work since they were all painstakingly made by hand, so more expensive, but of course beautiful. A luxurious detail, especially in this part of the world at this time, deep in the forests in a poorer part of Sweden. You never see details like this on newly built houses today, because it isn't cost-efficient, instead it is square, plain, and uniform. Many new houses don't even have real moldings (foder in Swedish) around their windows, which makes them look naked and cheap.