Svenskt Tenn
nglish: Swedish Pewteris a Swedish
interior design
Interior design is the art and science of enhancing the interior of a building to achieve a healthier and more aesthetically pleasing environment for the people using the space. An interior designer is someone who plans, researches, coordi ...
store, founded in 1924 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 ...
by
Estrid Ericson
Estrid Maria Ericson (1894–1981) was a Swedish designer, entrepreneur and founder of the interior decorating company Svenskt Tenn.
Biography
Estrid Maria Ericson was born in Öregrund but grew up in Hjo by Lake Vättern in Sweden. Her paren ...
, an art teacher and
pewter
Pewter () is a malleable metal alloy consisting of tin (85–99%), antimony (approximately 5–10%), copper (2%), bismuth, and sometimes silver. Copper and antimony (and in antiquity lead) act as hardeners, but lead may be used in lower grades ...
artist from
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 ...
,
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 ...
. Since 1928, the company has been appointed as a
royal warrant. Today, it is owned by the Kjell and Märta Beijer Foundation and all profit generated is donated to research in areas such as environmental
sustainability,
genetics
Genetics is the study of genes, genetic variation, and heredity in organisms.Hartl D, Jones E (2005) It is an important branch in biology because heredity is vital to organisms' evolution. Gregor Mendel, a Moravian Augustinian friar wor ...
,
biomedicine
Biomedicine (also referred to as Western medicine, mainstream medicine or conventional medicine) and
pharmaceuticals.
History
1924–1999
![Josef Frank Villa Carlsten 01](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2f/Josef_Frank_Villa_Carlsten_01.JPG)
Ericson's father's inheritance served as seed capital for starting the company. Together with pewter artist , she produced modern pewter objects and thus Svenskt Tenn quickly gained recognition as a brand of quality, eventually leading to a gold medal at the 1925 ''
Exposition des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels in Paris''. Further successes in the
USA
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
were following, beginning in 1927 with an exhibition of Swedish design at the
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...
in
New York that also toured to
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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and
Detroit
Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...
. As a result of her success, in 1927, the store moved from Smålandsgatan to larger premises on
Strandvägen
Strandvägen is a waterfront on Östermalm in central Stockholm, Sweden. Completed just in time for the Stockholm World's Fair 1897, it quickly became known as one of the most prestigious addresses in town.
Stretching 1 km (3.500 ft) ...
, where it is still located today.
[
At that time, the Swedish functionalist architects ]Uno Åhrén
Uno Åhrén (6 August 1897 – 8 October 1977) was a Swedish architect and city planner, and a leading proponent of functionalism in Sweden.
Biography
Uno Emrik Åhrén was born in Stockholm, Sweden. He graduated as an architect at the KTH R ...
and Björn Trägårdh
Bjorn (English, Dutch), Björn (Swedish, Icelandic, Dutch, and German), Bjørn (Danish, Faroese and Norwegian), Beorn (Old English) or, rarely, Bjôrn, Biorn, or Latinized Biornus, Brum (Portuguese), is a Scandinavian male given name, or less oft ...
started to design for the company. In 1932, Ericson ordered the first furniture designs from the already well-established Austrian architect Josef Frank. Two years later, she hired Frank after he fled the burgeoning Nazism
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) i ...
in Austria
Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
for Sweden at the age of 50 together with his Swedish wife Anna.
Svenskt Tenn's exhibition room at the world exhibitions in Paris (“ Exposition des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne”) in 1937 and New York in 1939 was completely contrary to the ideal of the time with its bold contrasts in materials, colours and prints. The duo of Frank and Ericson received a great deal of attention and were quickly associated with the expression “ Swedish Modern”.[ Jonathan Woodham: ''A Dictionary of Modern Design'', Oxford University Press 2004]
Over time, the designer duo won many notable clients. In 1932, Sigvard Oskar Bernadotte commissioned Svenskt Tenn for a new interior design of his residence. Similarly, Ericson and Frank were commissioned to design the house of Anne Hedmark (''Annes Hus'') on the site of the Swedish sculptor Carl Milles
Carl Milles (; 23 June 1875 – 19 September 1955) was a Swedish sculptor. He was married to artist Olga Milles (née Granner) and brother to Ruth Milles and half-brother to the architect Evert Milles. Carl Milles sculpted the Gustaf Vasa sta ...
’s studio and home.
During the Second World War, Josef Frank was forced into exile yet again. At the height of the war he fled to Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
, resulting in a number of new textile designs between 1941 and 1946.[ Sweden’s Prince Eugen was among those who took a great delight in them; he felt that the new designs actually exceeded those of the legendary print designer and Frank role model, ]William Morris
William Morris (24 March 1834 – 3 October 1896) was a British textile designer, poet, artist, novelist, architectural conservationist, printer, translator and socialist activist associated with the British Arts and Crafts Movement. He ...
.
After Frank died in 1967, Ericson ran the daily operations of the business until 1975. At the age of 81, she sold the company to the Kjell and Märta Beijer Foundation, which provides research grants within ecology
Ecology () is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere level. Ecology overlaps wi ...
, medicine
Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care pr ...
and the preservation of Swedish interior design tradition. Ericson, however, remained as the managing director
A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...
of the company. In 1979, Ann Wall took over her role and transformed Svenskt Tenn into a profitable business by modernising the product range, administration and organization, as well as renewing the marketing concept. Collaborations with selected new designers, as well as art and design schools, were also established under her direction.[
]
1999 – today
After Wall’s retirement twenty years later, the Kjell and Märta Beijer Foundation established the ''Ann Wall Design Prize'' in her honor as a part of Svenskt Tenn’s new business concept, which was “to preserve the spirit of Estrid Ericson and Josef Frank in a modern form.”[ In that context, the foundation in 2015 bought Frank's residence ''Villa Carlsten'' in ]Falsterbo
Falsterbo (, outdatedly ) is a town located at the south-western tip of Sweden in Vellinge Municipality in Skåne. Falsterbo is situated in the southern part of the Falsterbo peninsula. It is part of Skanör med Falsterbo, one of Sweden's histor ...
, a town located at the southwestern tip of Sweden in Vellinge Municipality
Vellinge Municipality (''Vellinge kommun'') is a municipality in Skåne County in southern Sweden. Its seat is located in Vellinge.
The present municipality is a result of the latest local government reform in Sweden. In 1974 the municipalities o ...
in Skåne. Frank had also designed a number of summer houses in that area.[
Today, eighty percent of Svenskt Tenn's range consists of products that are of its own design. Josef Frank alone left behind 2,000 furniture sketches and about 160 textile designs. In 2009, Prince Carl Philip of Sweden debuted a silver cutlery collection at Svenskt Tenn. The following year, he presented a fireplace screen that he had co-designed.
Frank's designs are highly esteemed not the least among today's young and established designers and his textiles are a source of inspiration for many contemporary print designers both in Sweden and other countries. A famous fan of Frank is ]Apple
An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple fruit tree, trees are agriculture, cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, wh ...
designer Marc Newson
Marc Andrew Newson CBE RDI (born 20 October 1963) is an industrial designer who works in aircraft cabin design, product design, furniture design, jewellery, and clothing. His style uses smooth geometric lines, translucency, strength, tran ...
. Many of Franks furniture designs can be found in Swedish embassies around the globe, such as in Algiers and even the Consulate General
A consul is an official representative of the government of one state in the territory of another, normally acting to assist and protect the citizens of the consul's own country, as well as to facilitate trade and friendship between the people ...
in New York.
At auction, Frank's and Ericson's designs fetch high prices and can be found in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues.
It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...
in New York (MoMA) and the National Museum of Stockholm.
In May 2018,
Craftsmanship
Inspired by the British Arts and Crafts designer William Morris
William Morris (24 March 1834 – 3 October 1896) was a British textile designer, poet, artist, novelist, architectural conservationist, printer, translator and socialist activist associated with the British Arts and Crafts Movement. He ...
, Ericson held the highest esteem for work that was crafted by hand. Today, large portion of Josef Frank's furniture is made at the same carpentry shops in Småland and Södermanland
Södermanland ( or ), locally Sörmland, sometimes referred to under its Latin form ''Sudermannia'' or ''Sudermania'', is a historical province or ''landskap'' on the south eastern coast of Sweden. It borders Östergötland, Närke, Västman ...
that have been producing them since the 1950s. The glass is made at, among other manufactories, the celebrated Reijmyre glassworks in Östergötland. All of Svenskt Tenn's textiles are made from 100 percent cotton and linen. The pewter workshops in Western Götaland in Sweden are also counted among Svenskt Tenn's long-time suppliers.
References
{{Authority control
Purveyors to the Court of Sweden
Design companies of Sweden
Interior design firms
Swedish brands
Design companies established in 1924
Swedish companies established in 1924
Companies based in Stockholm