Orrefors Glasbruk a Swedish glassware manufacturer.

Orrefors Glass Making
Orrefors Glass Making

History

Orrefors Glasbruk is a Swedish glassware manufacturer. An ironworks was established in 1726 on the property of Halleberg ( the Orrefors estate), Socken, Småland. It started the production of ink bottles in 1898. In 1913, Johan Ekman purchased the estate and placed forester Albert Ahlin in charge.

Glass Craft & Bead Expo

Ekman produced art glass with little success until he hired Simon Gate in 1916 and Edward Hald in 1917, members of the Slojdforeningen (Swedish Crafts Society), as designers. The two artists had done no glass designing before. Gate and Hald collaborated with the glass blowers and former cutter Gustav Abels on reviving engraved glass.

Developed the Graal technique

With master glassblower Knut Bergqvist, they developed the Graal technique in 1916. In 1933, Gate became director of Orrefors. Orrefors also produced a full range of tableware. Designers Edvin Ohrstrom, Vicke Lindstrand and blower Gustav Bergqvist developed the ariel technique. In 1889, the Sandvik glass works were leased. In 1918, Orrefors purchased it; it specialised in plain, inexpensive tables and household soda glass and expanded the Orrefors range.

Orrefors Banner

In 1975, Orrefors bought Strömbergshyttan; in 1984, the SEA and Alghuit glassworks. Designers included Nils Landberg, Gunnar Cyren, Eva Englund, and Lars Hells ten. The firm today operates a school for glassblowers and engravers from among whom it draws its workforce.

Orrefors glassmaking
Orrefors glassmaking

Recognition

Received three grand prizes and three gold medals at 1925 Paris ‘Exposition Internationale des Arts Decoratifs et Industriels Modernes, Work (by Edvin Ohrstrom) shown at 1937 Paris ‘Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques clans la Vie Moderne.’

Today

Orrefors glass is a significant part of Kosta’s business. It is a genuine glass studio close to glassworking and designers. They run tourism and events operations that attract more than one million visitors each year.

Glasma, a glass pellets manufacturer, is owned by Orrefors Kosta Boda AB.

Since 2005 Orrefors Kosta Boda AB has been part of the New Wave Group. New Wave Group is involved in several brands in the consumer and corporate markets. New Wave Group is listed on the NASDAQ OMX Stockholm exchange.

Kosta Boda’s CEO is Ulf Kinneson.

Sources

Byars, M., & Riley, T. (2004). The design encyclopedia. Laurence King Publishing.

Advertisements

Swedish Design – Amazon

* This website may contain affiliate links, and I may earn a small commission when you click on links at no additional cost. As an Amazon and Sovrn affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

More Swedish Design

  • Stockholm Design Week September 5-9, 2023

    Stockholm Design Week September 5-9, 2023

    The Stockholm Design Week will be held from February 6 to 12 and from September 5 to 9 in 2023.Stockholm has a lot of places where design events take place, from galleries and showrooms to dinner parties, meetings after fairs, opening cocktails, museums, and cultural centres.Read More →

    Learn more

  • Julius Olaf Randahl (1880 – 1972) Swedish silversmith

    Julius Olaf Randahl (1880 – 1972) Swedish silversmith

    In 1901, he moved to New York and worked for Tiffany and Gorham Manufacturing. In 1907, he worked at the Kalo Shop in Chicago before opening his own Randahl Shop in Park Ridge, Illinois, in 1911.Read More →

    Learn more

  • Kurt Versen (1901 – 1997), Swedish lighting designer

    Kurt Versen (1901 – 1997), Swedish lighting designer

    In the 1940s and 1950s, executed many assignments from architects for flexible lighting appropriate to Modern interiors.Read More →

    Learn more

  • Orrefors Glasbruk a Swedish glassware manufacturer.

    Orrefors Glasbruk a Swedish glassware manufacturer.

    Orrefors Glasbruk is a Swedish glassware manufacturer. An ironworks was established in 1726 on the property of Halleberg ( the Orrefors estate), Socken, Småland. Read More →

    Learn more

  • Pukebergs Glassworks – Swedish Glass Factory

    Pukebergs Glassworks – Swedish Glass Factory

    Glassworks in Kosta CW Nyström and JE Lindberg started the mill in 1871. They acquired land from Jonas Bergstrand, a farmer from Madesjö parish, who owned the land at PukebergRead More →

    Learn more

  • Electrolux – Swedish domestic appliance firm

    Electrolux – Swedish domestic appliance firm

    Electrolux was the first electrical appliance manufacturer to produce a horizontal-cylinder vacuum cleaner. Its flexible hose made it possible to clean in places other floor models could not reach. In 1924, the Electrolux vacuum cleaner was successfully introduced in the U.S. READ MORERead More →

    Learn more

  • Ola Wihlborg Swedish industrial and product designer

    Ola Wihlborg Swedish industrial and product designer

    He took his first steps towards his career as a designer at Beckmans College of Design in Stockholm, Sweden, where he studied furniture and product design. After graduating in 2004, he began working as a freelance designer.Read More →

    Learn more

  • Sydney Opera House – Design Classic

    Sydney Opera House – Design Classic

    The design of the Sydney Opera House (1956-73), which he won in an international competition, was Utzon’s crowning achievement. He envisioned a solid sculptural building made of a series of giant interlocking billowing white ‘sails’ inspired by the ships of Sydney Harbour.Read More →

    Learn more

  • Simon Gate (1883 – 1945) Swedish artisan and designer

    Simon Gate (1883 – 1945) Swedish artisan and designer

    Gate began his long affiliation with the Swedish glassmaking firm Orrefors in 1916. He worked as an artistic director and built the firm foundation for Sweden’sSweden’s substantial modern glass industry, alongside Edvard Hald, Vicke Lindstrand, Knut Bergqvist, and others.Read More →

    Learn more

  • Edvard Hald (1883-1980) Swedish Sculptor

    Edward Hald (17 September 1883 – 4 July 1980) was a Swedish sculptor. His work was part of the art competitions at the 1932 Summer Olympics and the 1936 Summer Olympics.Read More →

    Learn more

  • Design in Scandinavia travelling exhibition, 1954 – 1957

    Design in Scandinavia travelling exhibition, 1954 – 1957

    Brilliant examples of contemporary home furnishings were shown from Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden and exposed Americans to Scandinavian design, inspiring a shift towards mid-century design.Read More →

    Learn more

  • Praktika Tableware (1933) designed by Wilhelm Käge

    Praktika Tableware (1933) designed by Wilhelm Käge

    Praktika Tableware (1933) designed by Wilhelm Käge. White earthenware stacking dishes, oval with rounded sides.Read More →

    Learn more

  • Group of Ten (est. 1970) 🇸🇪 design collective promoting creative individuality

    Group of Ten (est. 1970) 🇸🇪 design collective promoting creative individuality

    Because its members had previous careers in the textile industry, they wanted to be free to promote their creative ideas. Read More →

    Learn more

  • Bruno Mathsson (1907 – 1988) Swedish Designer & Architect

    Bruno Mathsson (1907 – 1988) Swedish Designer & Architect

    Mathsson grew up in the town of Värnamo in Sweden’s Smland region, the son of a master cabinet maker. After a brief period of schooling, he began working in his father’s gallery.Read More →

    Learn more

  • Ulla Forsell (b.1944) Swedish Glassware Designer

    Ulla Forsell (b.1944) Swedish Glassware Designer

    Ulla Forsell was born in 1944 and studied at the College of Art and DesignRead More →

    Learn more

  • Margareta Aberg (b.1929) Swedish Designer

    Margareta Aberg (b.1929) Swedish Designer

    In 1956, she opened her own architecture studio with her husband Rolf Aberg; designed the Salabim cupboard of 1986 produced by Swedfun (Sweden). She specialized in interior architecture and designed hospitals, hotels, and schools including the Bracke Osterjard Hospital, Gothenburg, for handicapped children.Read More →

    Learn more

  • Ingeborg Lundin (1921 – 1991) Swedish Glassware Designer

    Ingeborg Lundin (1921 – 1991) Swedish Glassware Designer

    Ingeborg Lundin (1921 – 1991) was a Swedish Glassware Designer. Between 1941 – 1946 she studied at Konstaackskolan and Tekniska Skolan, Stockholm.Read More →

    Learn more

  • Stig Lindberg (1916 – 1982) – Swedish Ceramic, Designer, Painter

    Stig Lindberg (1916 – 1982) – Swedish Ceramic, Designer, Painter

    Stig Lindberg (1916 – 1982) was a Swedish ceramic, glass, textile, industrial designer, and painter and illustrator. During his long career with the Gustavsberg pottery factory, Lindberg produced whimsical studio ceramics and graceful tableware lines, making him one of Sweden’s most important postwar designers. Read More →

    Learn more

  • Anders B. Liljefors (1923 – 1970) Swedish Ceramicist

    Anders B. Liljefors (1923 – 1970) Swedish Ceramicist

    Anders Liljefors was a Swedish ceramicist. He initially concerned himself with household ware, discovered a new method of casting ceramics in a sand mould, and worked feverishly to extract new and unexpected effects from this material during the later years of his life.Read More →

    Learn more

  • Sven Markelius (1889 – 1972) – Swedish Architect, Textile Designer

    Sven Markelius (1889 – 1972) – Swedish Architect, Textile Designer

    Sven Markeilus (1889- 1972) was a Swedish Architect, Town Planner and textile designer born in Stockholm. He taught in Stockholm and at Yale University. In the 1950s, Markelius designed simple wooden furniture and printed fabrics with Astrid Sampe, produced by Nordiska in Stockholm.Read More →

    Learn more

More design articles

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.