Gustavsberg (Sweden)

Gustavsberg/Lisa Larson 'Unik' elephant wall plaque

1950s Gustavsberg/Stig Lindberg Eldfast 'Duett' Dishes

Britt-Louise Sundell

Hiya

Definitely Stig Lindberg.

Don't be fooled by the "hand" mark. This not Stig Lindberg's signature - it only denotes that the piece was handmade. There are many pieces with the hand mark that have nothing to do with Stig Lindberg as the other designer/throwers at Gustavsberg used it too.

Similarly, there are many ranges that Stig designed for Gustavsberg which were cast and don't have a "hand" mark. For example, like the Grazia range, the Reptil, Domino, Veckla and Pungo ranges don't have any Stig related markings on them (although many have stickers with "designed by Stig Lindberg" on the base).



Kurt

10cm high Argenta vase

The G + "hand" mark is for Gustavsberg Studio, established by Wilhelm Kåge, who employed Stig L initially as a decorator. Pieces designed by Kåge at the studio bear the G + "hand" in black, those by Stig are in blue. The well known faience pieces with white tin glaze and colourful on glaze decoration were designed by Stig and hand-painted by a small team of decorators each of whom had their own mark or cipher, such as a boomerang, a star, a mushroom etc.
Stig's actual studio ceramics were mostly thrown by Sven Wejsfelt who died quite recently. Stig didn't throw his pieces. These studio ceramics are signed Stig L scratched into the bottom of each piece along with the G + hand mark.
Other series such as Grazia, Reptil, Domino, etc were made at the Gustavsberg factory and are more mass-produced, though some,such as Grazia may have been hand-painted/decorated

Here are some pictures of Stig Lindberg faience pieces with typical marks to the base


and here is a Stig studio piece - the mark is just about visible in the photo




Hope this is of use...

two advertisements from a design magazine 1953 for Stig Lindberg and the wonderful Berndt Friberg. They might be of interest to lovers of Scandinavian ceramics...

As promised, some photographs of Stig Lindberg "Spektralov' gourd.
I seemed to have backed myself into a corner...
my interests in reverse order are Retro, MidCentury, Scandinavian, Swedish, Gustavsberg, Stig Lindberg, Lidded Gourds.
I have included a group shot of some of the other gourds in the collection.

Oops! Thanks Pip, didn't realise there was a Gustavsberg thread.
I do a "Stig of the Month" post on my blog kirkmodern.blogspot.com to show some of the rare designs. I will post some more soon but here is a nice selection of vases to drool over.

A real Stig Lindberg very large Spektrum pot from around 1948.

I've had a Gustavsberg vase for a few years that I'm a bit curious about and wondered whether you could pass judgement on(although a bit embarrassed about posting among your exceptional pieces). Is this a Lindberg piece?

Hi Kurt, it's definitely Gustavsberg. The G hand mark is often confused as Stig signature, but it is the studio mark. I am not sure of the initials of the top of my head, I will do a little digging and let you know - but it's almost definitely not Stig.

Hi,

According to this text in Swedish, the initials MH is Margareta Hennix who was a designer at Gustavsberg between 1967 and 1986.

http://fyndchans.wordpress.com/2009/04/10/signaturen-mh-identifierad/

Thank you very much for that. I'd always thought that it was similar to Stig Lindberg but not quite right. Nice to have that sorted.

All the best

Kurt

I thought Hennix at first , but can't find any initialed pieces, only full stamp Margareta Hennix

A selection of Stig Lindberg leaf 'salad' bowls. These guys came in two sizes, the large ones being harder to find because they were so easily damaged. Organic curved forms, particularly leaves, were a recurring theme in both shapes and decoration.

....and some classic Stig leaf dishes.

This is one of the biggest pieces of Stig Lindberg I have found. The size really gives a great display of the pattern.