This article forms part of the Decorative and Applied Arts Encyclopedia, a master reference hub providing a structured overview of design history, materials, movements, and practitioners.
Estrid Ericson, a pewter designer and design entrepreneur, founded Svenskt Tenn, a highly influential Stockholm store and manufacturer closely associated with the Swedish Modern aesthetic and export success.
Education
She studied art and crafts at Stockholm University from 1913 to 1915, and after working at Svensk Hemslöjd and Willman and Wiklund, she founded Svenskt Tenn in 1924 with pewter designer Nils Fougstedt.
Biography
She participated in several exhibitions in Stockholm, Gothenburg, Zurich, New York, Copenhagen, and Barcelona to boost its reputation in the following years. Its most notable success came in 1925 at the Exposition des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels, where Ericson was awarded a Gold Medal.
She met émigré Austrian designer Josef Frank in 1932, and two years later, he joined Svenskt Tenn and became a defining force in the company’s design outlook.
Ericson and Frank’s work was exhibited in Sweden and overseas, including the Paris Exposition des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne 1937, the New York World’s Fair of 1939–40, and the Golden Gate International Exposition in San Francisco in 1939, all of which received critical acclaim. In the years following WWII, the company prospered even more. Ericson sold it to the Kjell and Marta Beijer Foundation in 1975 when she was 81, but she remained in charge for another four years before handing it over to Ann Wall. She kept designing until she died in 1981, when she left her estate to a foundation that bears her name.
Sources
Woodham, J. M. (2006). A dictionary of modern design. Oxford University Press.
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