Wilhelm Kåge, an 'Argenta' vase and three bowls, Gustavsberg.
Cylinder-shaped vase, silver decoration of a fish and bubbles. Marked Gustavsberg Argenta 1029 Made in Sweden. Height 23.5 cm. Two bowls with stylized silver decoration of flowers, marked Argenta 1094 Made in Sweden. Diameter 9.5 cm. Bowl with silver decoration of a fish and bubbles, marked Argenta 1094 Made in Sweden. Diameter 12 cm.
Uneven crazing. The vase is not first quality. Large chip to footrim to one bowl.
Wilhelm Kåge was a Swedish artist, painter, and ceramicist. Between 1917 and 1949, he worked as artistic director at Gustavsberg porcelain factory.
Kåge studied at Valand konstskola in Gothenburg and later in Copenhagen, where he got to know artist Gösta Adrian-Nilsson (GAN) and became familiar with modern art. He studied graphic art in Munich and began his artistic career by designing posters for theaters and exhibitions. When Gustavsberg needed new products for the home Exhibition at Liljevalch in 1917, Kåge was hired. He developed 30 different tableware, colorful faience, stoneware, and series such as Carrara, Surrea, and Våga. In 1942, Kåge developed Gustavsberg's studio together with designer Stig Lindberg. The studio became an aesthetic laboratory for objets d'art.
At the Stockholm Exhibition in 1930, Kåge presented Gustavsberg's future sales success "Argenta", a series of objet d'art glazed mainly in green but also in red, blue, brown, and celadon green and painted with various silver decorations according to Kåge's sketches.
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