A black lacquered table with a pewter top by Nils Fougstedt, Svenskt Tenn ca 1930. Alva & Gunnar Myrdal Collection.

Model 743, the pewter top with engraved decoration, motifs from the garden of Eden, black lacquered wooden base. 69 x 69 cm, height 32 cm.

Wear. The pewter with small repairs.

Provenance

Alva & Gunnar Myrdal. Thence by descent.

Literature

Firma Svenskt Tenn, catalogue 1931, this model is depicted.
Hedvig Hedqvist, Rikard Jacobson, Jan von Gerber, 'Modernt Svenskt Tenn', Stockholm 2004, see this model depicted on p 60: 'Uno Åhrén was the one to design the first tables for Svenskt Tenn. They were stained black as was very much in fashion in the 1920s. Different artists were hired to decorate the engraved pewter tops'. This actual table was decorated by Estrid Ericson's business partner at Svenskt Tenn, Nils Fougstedt, with the motif 'Garden of Eden'.
Model nr 743 by Uno Åhrén is recorded in the Svenskt Tenn archives as designed in 1928 with two optional engraved tops designed by Tyra Lundgren. This table might be a custom made design with the decoration by Fougstedt instead.

More information

Family anecdote:
"The pewter top table was always placed at a central spot in our different living rooms. When we were little we used to copy the delicate engraved patterns on the top. A worse incident was when the next generation broke off some pieces of pewter from the edge in order to make tin soldiers".

More about Uno Åhrén

Uno Åhrén was a significant Swedish architect and urban planner who graduated from Stockholm's Tekniska Högskolan (Royal Institute of Technology) in 1919 and made his debut with an interior design at the Hemutställningen (the Home Exhibition) exhibition at Liljevalchs in Stockholm 1917. Åhrén, who initially drew inspiration from Neoclassicism and Swedish Grace, subsequently became one of the leading advocates of Functionalism, with a focus on the social aspects of housing. He was one of the earliest designers to collaborate with Estrid Ericson at Firma Svenskt Tenn, where he designed both furniture and more luxurious pewter objects.

From the late 1910s onwards, Åhrén participated in a number of exhibitions, including, in addition to the aforementioned Hemutställningen in 1917, the Gothenburg Exhibition in 1923, the World’s Fair in Paris in 1925, the Stockholm Exhibition in 1930 and the World’s Fair in Chicago in 1933. After 1930, Åhrén devoted himself primarily to urban architecture and town planning, serving, among other positions, as city planning architect in Gothenburg from 1932 to 1943 and as head of Svenska Riksbyggen during the 1940s.

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