Artek in Hedemora, Dalecarlia Sweden 1946-1956.
On 12th April 1946, the Swedish offshoot of the company Artek, opened their first factory at Callerholsgatan in Hedemora. Alvar Aalto’s new factory was a collaboration with Ernst Sundh Byggnad’s company and the goal was to be able to secure deliveries of Aalto’s various furniture designs to the rest of Europe and, above all, to the USA.
Ernst Sundh, who had a good relationship with Aino and Alvar Aalto, quickly received large purchase orders from the USA. Due to long waits for payments from creditors, however, profitability was low and Aalto decided to close production after ten years. In 1957 the factory switched to producing kitchen equipment.
Ingvar Norman was the head of Ernst Sundh’s design studio and had many engineers working under him. At its height, thirty people worked in the design studio. Alvar Aalto designed furniture for Ernst Sundh’s head office and this design studio. These were pieces that were unique to the Hedemora factory and were never massproduced. A few of these unique pieces designed for Artek’s Hedemora office are the magazine rack (catalogue nr 62) and this circular table (catalogue nr 63).
At times, there were ambitious plans to allow Alvar Aalto put his stamp on the towns of Avesta and Hedemora in Southern Dalarna. However, the plans never came to fruition and apart from ‘Det Blå Huset’ in Avesta, today little trace remains of the close collaboration between Aalto and Ernst Sundh Byggnad’s company.
The collection of Aalto furniture, catalogue numbers 61-72, all has the same provenance of Ingvar Norman and was previously used in Ernst Sundh’s design studio in Avesta.