Estrid Maria Ericson (1894–1981) was a Swedish designer, entrepreneur and founder of the interior decorating company

Svenskt Tenn Svenskt Tenn nglish: Swedish Pewteris a Swedish interior design store, founded in 1924 in Stockholm by Estrid Ericson, an art teacher and pewter artist from Hjo, Sweden. Since 1928, the company has been appointed as a royal warrant. Today, it is ...

Biography

Estrid Maria Ericson was born in Öregrund but grew up in

Hjo Hjo () is a Urban areas in Sweden, locality and the seat of Hjo Municipality, Västra Götaland County, Sweden. It had 6,094 inhabitants in 2010. The town is located on the west coast of Vättern. Etymology The place is named after Hjoån 'Hjo r ...

by Lake

Vättern Vättern ( , ) is the second largest lake by surface area in Sweden, after Vänern, and the sixth largest lake in Europe. It is a long, finger-shaped body of fresh water in south central Sweden, to the southeast of Vänern, pointing at the tip of ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

. Her parents ran a hotel, and when died, she and three of her sisters took over the company. When Ericson had graduated by the age of 19, she moved to Stockholm to attend the art school today known as

Konstfack Konstfack, or University of Arts, Crafts and Design, is a university college for higher education in the area of art, crafts and design in Stockholm, Sweden. History Konstfack has had several different names since it was founded in 1844 by the e ...

. She specialized in pattern making. After working a semester as an arts teacher back in Hjo, Ericson was offered a position at Svenska Slöjdföreningen, an arts and crafts company in

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

. She started working at the home and furniture department. From there, Ericson started working as a consultant in home furnishing for her former teacher

Elsa Gullberg Elsa Gullberg (14 March 1886 – 1 March 1984) was a Swedish interior architect and textile designer. She was a pioneer of modern textile design in Sweden and played an instrumental role in transforming the textile industry. She was one of the re ...

. There, she got to know the pewter artist , which was to become her partner in founding Svenskt Tenn in 1924. She got the money to start the company from a small inheritance from her father. The focus of the company was creating modern pewter decorative objects that Ericson designed herself, made by Fougstedt and two other staff members. These objects were displayed at the International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts in Paris 1925, as well as in other fairs in Sweden and

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

. Later on, Ericson also employed other designers and architects, such as Uno Åhrén to create pewter furniture. Ten years later, in 1934, Ericson employed the Austrian functionalist designer Josef Frank to Svenskt Tenn. This companionship was the start of a new era for the company, expanding in furniture design and interior decorating. Svenskt Tenn, Frank and Ericson were representatives for the style " Swedish Modern" – a new interpretation of functionalism, a softer and more nature inspired functionalism. In her later years, Ericson again started creating pewter objects of her own design, up until her death in 1981.

Biography

Further reading

References

Further reading