Vintage Swedish Pewter Fruit Dish by Estrid Ericson for Svenskt Tenn, 1920s

Swedish designer and entrepreneur Estrid Ericson (née Erikson) was born in 1894 in Öregrund. She grew up in Hjo, where she began her career as an art teacher and a pewter artist. In 1924, using an inheritance from her father, she founded Svenskt Tenn (meaning “Swedish Pewter”) in Stockholm. Along with pewter artist Nils Fougstedt, Ericson wanted to offer beautiful yet affordable pewter (a newly popular material at the time), including modernist sculptures, boxes, candlesticks, and mirror frames. The pair produced these pieces in a small workshop behind the store. Svenskt Tenn earned a reputation for quality and received a gold medal at the 1925 Exposition internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes. Within a few years, the company had expanded to become one of Stockholm’s most fashionable furniture and interior design shops. In 1927, it moved to a larger location on Strandvägen (where it is still located today).

In the early 1930s, Ericson commissioned works by functionalist Swedish architects Uno Åhrén and Björn Trägårdh and several artists, including Anna Petrus. In 1934, Ericson began her most famous collaboration with Austrian designer and architect Josef Frank, offering him safe haven and hiring him as the company’s chief designer. Working together for decades, Ericson and Frank departed from relatively rigid Scandinavian functionalism for what became the company’s signature style—a vivid (often patterned), simple yet sophisticated aesthetic, which was applied to a variety of product designs, including furniture, lighting, wallpaper, and textiles, as well as pieces specially commissioned for private interiors all over the world. Some of these are still in production today.

In 1944, she married Sigfrid Ericson (1888–1973), a captain on the Swedish American Line’s MS Gripsholm ocean liner. They met during one of her many transatlantic buying trips.

Ericson continued to run her company’s daily operations until 1975, when she sold Svenskt Tenn to the Kjell and Märta Beijer Foundation. She stayed on as managing director for several years. She passed away in 1981 in Stockholm.

Stockholm-based interiors firm and design production house Svenskt Tenn was founded in 1924 by 30-year-old art teacher Estrid Ericson. Inspired by the English Arts & Crafts movement and using a small inheritance from her father as seed money, Ericson hoped to capitalize on the trendiness of modern pewter objects in Sweden at the time. Partnering with pewter artist Nils Fougstedt, she began to produce an array of pewter collections in a small workshop behind their storefront. The brand, which translates to “Swedish Tin,” quickly established a reputation for quality and fashionable taste. In 1925, Svenskt Tenn received a gold medal at the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes in Paris.

By the end of the 1920s, Ericson was regularly taking on commissions to create interior designs, and the company moved to a larger location on the prestigious Strandvägen Boulevard—where it’s still located today. As Svenskt Tenn’s business continued to grow in the 1930s, Ericson began to collaborate with outside designers, such as Uno Åhrén and Björn Trägårdh, to create new furniture collections, while also traveling around the world for inspiration and client cultivation.

Around 1934, Ericson began her most famous collaboration with Austrian architect-designer Josef Frank. Frank had been an active, pioneering proponent of modernist architectural theory in Vienna; though always taking a more “humanist” approach to its aesthetic expression. As the Nazis’ power increased, he was forced to flee his homeland. Ericson offered Frank a safe haven in Stockholm and hired him as Svenskt Tenn’s Head Designer. Working together for decades, Ericson and Frank departed from relatively rigid Scandinavian functionalism for what became the company’s signature style—a vivid (often patterned), simple yet sophisticated aesthetic, which was applied to a variety of product designs, including furniture, lighting, wallpaper, and textiles, as well as pieces specially commissioned for private interiors all over the world. Some of these are still in production today.

Through major exhibitions in Paris, New York, and San Francisco in the years before World War II, Josef Frank’s designs for Svenskt Tenn created an international obsession with the “Swedish Modern” aesthetic. Blending the pared-back simplicity of functionalism with the organic patterning of Arts & Crafts and the decorative detailing of Art Deco, Frank produced designs in brass, fine wood, rattan, bamboo, and more. Today, he is considered an icon of a softer, more liveable take on modernism.

Estrid Ericson ran Svenskt Tenn’s daily operations until 1975 when, at the ago of 81, she sold her company to the Kjell & Märta Beijer Foundation. In 1979, Ann Wall was appointed the new managing director and ran the company till the end of the century. Today there is a national design prize named in Wall’s honor.

* All images courtesy of Svenskt Tenn