Anniversary at Svenskt Tenn: Sweden can also do maximalism

2024-10-05 15:13:54

Italian dinner, for example, Italian dinner: mussels, fish, lobsters and googly-eyed octopuses swirl in a blue streak. Above it, tomato and aubergine plants, as well as lemon and olive branches grow from the same colorfully patterned trunk. Or Manhattan: excerpts of the New York City map in strong shades of red, green and blue, framed by banners with street names. Terrazzo, on the other hand, abstracts the material of the same name into a multicolored swarm of shapes in poison green, dark green, red and orange against a gray and white background.

Josef Frank’s motifs are so colorful, imaginative and sometimes even a little crazy: it seems hard to imagine that the Austrian architect designed them from the late 1920s to the late 1940s. Thanks to strong color contrasts and organic patterns, they shine like psychedelic record covers or hippie clothes.

A close-knit team: Estrid Ericson (centre), founder of Svenskt Tenn, relied entirely on the Viennese architect Josef Frank (right) for the choice of motifs and colours. Here you can see two of them in their shop in Strandvägen in the 1960s.Pursue

Perhaps even more surprising: Many of Frank’s wild designs have been Svenskt Tenn bestsellers for decades. The Swedish furniture company sells them printed on curtain fabrics and wallpapers or in the form of cushions, napkins, trays or bags. For many tourists in Stockholm, a visit to the Svenskt Tenn shop on the elegant Strandvägen harbor waterfront is part of the standard itinerary. Simply for the labyrinthine rooms, which extend over two floors and several buildings and are filled with furniture, furnishings and home textiles.

Even the royal family shopped at Svenskt Tenn

The numerous impressions can be digested in the internal café, a little hidden on the upper floor. Fans of Svenskt Tenn should soon take a detour from Strandvägen to the other side of the harbour, towards the Liljevalchs art gallery on the island of Djurgården. The exhibition “A Philosophy of the House” for the centenary of Svenskt Tenn has been held there since the end of September, naturally featuring many designs by Josef Frank – not only fabric samples, but also furniture and lighting.

If the Viennese architect and modernist was able to give free rein to his imagination, it is thanks to a courageous young woman. In 1924, 30-year-old Estrid Ericson opened a tin shop with a legacy in Stockholm. But a short time later he broadened his perspective to the furnishing of the entire house and in 1927 he moved to his current address in Strandvägen; The shop was considered a popular address and even the royal family shopped here.

In 1932 he finally commissioned Josef Frank to design his first furniture. The Jewish architect, a well-known representative of moderate and “humane” modernism, founded the furniture company Haus & Garten in 1925 in Vienna with his colleagues. When Frank emigrated to Stockholm with his Swedish wife Anna in 1934 due to growing anti-Semitism, he began an intense collaboration with Estrid Ericson, which lasted until her death in 1967.

Combine what belongs together

It was a congenial connection, as Frank’s creative enthusiasm and wit met Ericson’s entrepreneurial vision and inimitable taste. He wasn’t afraid to combine old and new, flea market objects with precious handicrafts, for example, long before mix & match in interior design became a fashionable cliché.

Together with the equally free thinker Frank, Ericson created an eclectic, happy and welcoming universe, in an era in which orderly and reserved modernity was the precursor of style, especially in Scandinavia.

The legacy of Estrid Ericson and Josef Frank “is one of remarkable longevity,” says Tora Grape. “Svenskt Tenn’s most important task is to preserve this heritage,” says the company’s marketing director. The conditions are good, because Ericson once again demonstrated foresight in 1975, selling his company to a foundation shortly before his death.

Since then, the company’s profits have gone to scientific research and other charitable purposes. And since profit maximization plays no role at Svenskt Tenn, the assortment still includes an economically unreasonable number of products today, including some of the first tin objects from the 1920s.

The products are still made in specialized artisan workshops in Sweden. According to Tora Grape, no additional stores are planned to open. But that doesn’t mean they wouldn’t try something new at Strandvägen after 100 years. The house regularly collaborates with contemporaries, including designers Ilse Crawford and India Mahdavi, fashion entrepreneur Margherita Maccapani Missoni, Acne Studios founder Jonny Johansson and artist Luke Edward Hall.

The results of these collaborations are presented as displays on the ground floor of the store and can also be found as products in the range. Creatives are often inspired by Josef Frank’s models: it is difficult to escape their exuberant charm.