Modern Art & Design presents Josef Frank's "Flora" | November 18–19
Already during Josef Frank’s years at Haus & Garten in Vienna in the 1930s, he began covering cabinets with various materials, at the time using textiles such as chintz and cretonne.
In parallel with Frank’s work in Vienna, Svenskt Tenn founder Estrid Ericson travelled to Uppsala in the summer of 1930, visiting Carl von Linné’s Hammarby together with her friend, the author and poet Bo Bergman. Estrid was captivated by Linné’s idea of covering bedroom walls with botanical prints. She was inspired to do something similar in her own bedroom in her Stockholm flat.
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The wallpapered furniture has become something of a signature of Svenskt Tenn’s most exclusive production. From the 1930s onwards, the pieces were varied in different ways, with the choice of covering and furniture model creating different expressions. Various types of illustrated works were used, featuring highly varied motifs and types of graphic prints—sometimes maps, different kinds of fabrics and, occasionally, leather. A few years after Josef Frank and Estrid Ericson began their collaboration in the 1930s, they created a cabinet and a chest of drawers covered with plates from Palmstruch’s flora, and later from Lindman’s flora. The chest of drawers, model no. 1050, was produced from around 1940.
The chest of drawers featured in this sale was purchased by midwife Ulla-Britt Bergström (1924–2020) for her and her husband Åke’s house in Farsta Strand, Stockholm - most likely during the 1960s. It has since passed down to the present owner. During the war years, Ulla-Britt worked for the Swedish Telegraph Agency, but she dreamed of a career in nursing. After qualifying as a nurse and obtaining her midwifery certification, she began working as a midwife at Södersjukhuset (Stockholm South General Hospital) in 1954. She was highly regarded by the midwifery students she mentored, and until her retirement in 1989, she guided countless expectant parents through their pregnancies. Her home in Farsta Strand reflected a love for Swedish design, where pieces by Carl Malmsten sat alongside works from Svenskt Tenn. The crown jewel - the present “Flora” chest of drawers - greeted guests in the hallway.
Josef Frank at Modern Art & Design
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