The story of Svenskt Tenn begins with its founder. Estrid Ericson was a versatile drawing teacher from Västergötland whose ability to combine different eras, styles and color schemes together with a good business sense laid the foundation for one of Sweden's most elegant interior design stores. Ericson founded Svenskt Tenn in 1924 together with tin artist Nils Fougstedt.
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Fougstedt was an established artist, familiar with pewter as a material. He inspired and taught Ericson the properties of the material, and side by side they created pewter objects together. The objects were both decorative and practical, and by the time the shop opened, almost 300 pieces of pewter had been moved from Svenskt Tenn's inner workshop to the shop. For the first few years, the shop was located on Smålandsgatan in Stockholm, but by 1927 the premises had become too cramped and was moved to Strandvägen 5, where it remains today.
The designers of functionalism
In the early 1930s, Svenskt Tenn was no longer a shop for tin and metal objects, as Estrid's great interest in interior design had slowly but surely taken over. The new store was spacious and airy, and included a solid interior design department. During the 1930s, Estrid Ericson attracted designers such as Uno Åhrén and Björn Trägårdh to the company, whose furniture contributed to the growth of Svenskt Tenn's production.
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Åhrén also designed and decorated the new store on Strandvägen. The interior was much talked about and was described in Stockholm's local newspapers as fashionable and worldly. Ericson himself traveled a lot over the years, which contributed to the store's increasingly cosmopolitan spirit.
But the most famous designer associated with Svenskt Tenn is the Austrian architect Josef Frank. The combined talents of Frank and Ericson established Svenskt Tenn as a leading interior design company. Josef Frank's almost 2,000 product designs for Svenskt Tenn include around 160 textile patterns and countless furniture designs.
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Josef Frank's light, colorful and vibrant designs were skillfully exposed by Estrid Ericson, and their joint version of modernism is still relevant and in demand.
Svenskt Tenn's most popular and sought-after items include everything from classic pewter pieces, vases and candlesticks to floor lamps, textiles, sofas and tables. Many of today's most popular items were designed in the 1930s, emphasizing the timelessness of Swedish Pewter's design. One of the most sought-after Swedish Tenn items at auction is the 1842 Floor Lamp designed by Josef Frank in 1932.
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Estrid Ericson had a keen eye for detail and so the store's own design was a central aspect of her work. It is a task Ericson's successors still take very seriously. The creation of displays is at least as important as Svenskt Tenn's focus on production, sales, import, export and interior design assignments.
Estrid Ericson's Legacy
Today, Svenskt Tenn is one of Sweden's leading interior design companies whose cosmopolitan and timeless designs contribute to the company's constant relevance. Svenskt Tenn, Estrid Ericson and Josef Frank are not only Swedish but international heavyweights whose designs often generate high prices at auction. About 80% of the products have been designed in-house, and today Svenskt Tenn collaborates with both contemporary designers and prestigious design and art schools. Svenskt Tenn's grip on the Swedish design world simply never seems to wane.
