Holmegaard Misty

Holmegaard has been creating quality glassware for almost two centuries. The legendary glassworks has collaborated with scores of celebrated designers over its long history, including Arne Jacobsen, Louise Campbell, Bodil Kjær and many others, with each artisan crafting vases, bottles and other serveware and decorative objects that are widely loved by collectors and art connoisseurs alike. Today Holmegaard is a powerhouse of functionalist modern Danish glass design.

Holmegaard Glassworks was the dream of Danish Count Christian Danneskiold-Samsøe, who petitioned the king of Denmark for permission to build a factory. Sadly, by the time permission was granted, the count had passed away, leaving his dowager, the Countess Henriette Danneskiold-Samsøe, to carry on her late husband’s dream in 1825. The factory was established in the town of Fensmark in the Holmegaard bog, where rich peat could be harvested and used to fuel the high-temperature kilns required to produce glass there.

The factory initially produced only simple mouth-blown green glass packaging bottles — the need was for glassware that was merely functional. It wasn’t until the 1920s that it made progress as a significant entity in the world of design. There was a fruitful partnership to create dinner glassware with the Royal Danish Porcelain Factory and glass artist Oluf Jensen. This was followed in 1925 by Holmegaard’s hiring Jacob Eiler Bang as the glassworks’ first in-house designer.

Bang was trained as an architect and was working on the Danish Pavilion at the International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts — the fair that brought the Art Deco style to worldwide attention — when his efforts caught the attention of Holmegaard. Bang believed in the concept of making things that were “beautiful, strong, practical and cheap.” His seductive, functionalist designs for vases, decanters, bottles and other objects — guided by the theories that underpin Scandinavian modernism — garnered acclaim for both Bang and Holmegaard, and he became known as one of the fathers of functionalism in Danish glassware.

Holmegaard went on to work with Per Lütken, who created intricate objects that redefined the factory’s style and Danish glass design as a whole. Lütken produced over 3,000 pieces for the glassworks, including the revered Provence bowl, one of the pieces for which the glassworks is best known. The brand went on to work with other notable artists including Otto Brauer and Jacob Bang’s son, Michael Bang, whose Palet range, Fontaine wine glass range, and Mandarin lamps are among Holmegaard’s most iconic creations.

Today, Holmegaard Glassworks is owned by Rosendahl Design Group. It is Denmark’s largest manufacturer of glass in addition to being the oldest and most historic.

Find vintage Holmegaard sconces, vessels, decorative bowls, tableware and other pieces on 1stDibs.

Scandinavian modernism is perhaps the warmest and most organic iteration of modernist design. The work of the designers associated with vintage Scandinavian modern furniture was founded on centuries-old beliefs in both quality craftsmanship and the ideal that beauty should enhance even the humblest accessories of daily life.

ORIGINS OF SCANDINAVIAN MODERN FURNITURE DESIGN 

• Emerged in the 1930s 
• Originated primarily in Denmark, Sweden and Finland
• Introduced in the United States in mid-20th century
• Informed by the Bauhaus and modernism; influenced American mid-century modernism  

CHARACTERISTICS OF SCANDINAVIAN MODERN FURNITURE DESIGN

• Bold, clean lines and simple, sturdy symmetries
• Use of natural materials — native woods such as pine, ash and beech
• Open, airy spaces
• Promotion of functionality
• Emphasis on craftsmanship; rooted in cabinetry profession and traditional construction techniques
• Minimal ornamentation (little to no embellishment)
• A neutral or light color palette owing to prominence of light woods

SCANDINAVIAN MODERN FURNITURE DESIGNERS TO KNOW

• Alvar Aalto
• Hans Wegner
• Kaare Klint
• Arne Jacobsen
• Greta Magnusson Grossman 
• Finn Juhl
• Arne Vodder
• Verner Panton

ICONIC SCANDINAVIAN MODERN FURNITURE DESIGNS

• Ant chair
• Grasshopper table lamp
• Wishbone chair
• Stool 60
• Artichoke lamp

VINTAGE SCANDINAVIAN MODERN FURNITURE ON 1STDIBS

The gentle, organic contours that are typical of Scandinavian design appear in the furnishings and decor created by Danish, Finnish and Swedish designers not as a stylistic gesture, but rather as a practical, ergonomic — and, as importantly, elegant — response to the human form.

Each nation produced exceptional talents in all areas of the applied arts, yet each had its forté. Sweden was home to Greta Magnusson Grossman and Bruno Mathsson — creators of the classic Grasshopper lighting series and Berlin daybed, respectively — but the country excelled most notably at ceramics. In the 1920s at the great Gustavsberg porcelain manufactory, Wilhelm Kåge introduced pieces in the Scandinavian style based on influences from folklore to Cubism; his skills were passed on to his versatile and inspired pupils Berndt Friberg and Stig Lindberg.

Likewise, Finland produced a truly ingenious Scandinavian modern furniture designer in the architect Alvar Aalto, a master at melding function and artistic form in works like the Paimio chair, created in collaboration with his first wife, Aino. Yet Finnish glassware was pre-eminent, crafted in expressive, sculptural designs by Tapio Wirkkala and Timo Sarpaneva.

The Danes excelled at chairs. Hans Wegner and Arne Jacobsen were exemplars of the country’s facility with wood, particularly teak. 

Wegner created such iconic pieces as the Round chair and the Wishbone chair; Jacobsen — while the revolutionary architect and furniture innovator produced the best-selling plywood Ant chair — designed two classic upholstered pieces of the 1950s: the Swan chair and Egg chair. The list of great Danes could go on and on, including Finn Juhl, a stylistic maverick and maker of the bold Chieftain chair; Poul Kjaerholm, with his lean metal-and-rattan aesthetic; and Verner Panton, who introduced a vibrant Pop note into international design.

Today, decades after their heyday, the prolific, ever-evolving Scandinavian modernists continue to amaze and delight, and interior designers all over the world use their pieces to bring warmth to any given space.

On 1stDibs, you will note both instantly recognizable vintage Scandinavian modern chairs, sofas, rugs and tables — those that have earned iconic status over time — and many new discoveries. 

Well-crafted antique and vintage table lamps do more than provide light; the right fixture-and-table combination can add a focal point or creative element to any interior.

Proper table lamps have long been used for lighting our most intimate spaces. Perfect for lighting your nightstand or reading nook, table lamps play an integral role in styling an inviting room. In the years before electricity, lamps used oil. Today, a rewired 19th-century vintage lamp can still provide a touch of elegance for a study.

After industrial milestones such as mass production took hold in the Victorian era, various design movements sought to bring craftsmanship and innovation back to this indispensable household item. Lighting designers affiliated with Art Deco, which originated in the glamorous roaring ’20s, sought to celebrate modern life by fusing modern metals with dark woods and dazzling colors in the fixtures of the era. The geometric shapes and gilded details of vintage Art Deco table lamps provide an air of luxury and sophistication that never goes out of style.

After launching in 1934, Anglepoise lamps soon became a favorite among modernist architects and designers, who interpreted the fixture as “a machine for lighting,” just as Le Corbusier had reimagined the house as “a machine for living in.” The popular task light owed to a collaboration between a vehicle-suspension engineer by the name of George Carwardine and a West Midlands springs manufacturer, Herbert Terry & Sons. 

Some mid-century modern table lamps, particularly those created by the likes of Joe Colombo and the legendary lighting artisans at Fontana Arte, bear all the provocative hallmarks associated with Space Age design. Sculptural and versatile, the Louis Poulsen table lamps of that period were revolutionary for their time and still seem innovative today. 

If you are looking for something more contemporary, industrial table lamps are demonstrative of a newly chic style that isn’t afraid to pay homage to the past. They look particularly at home in any rustic loft space amid exposed brick and steel beams.

Before you buy a desk lamp or table lamp for your living room, consider your lighting needs. The Snoopy lamp, designed in 1967, or any other “banker’s lamp” (shorthand for the Emeralite desk lamps patented by H.G. McFaddin and Company), provides light at a downward angle that is perfect for writing, while the Fontana table lamp and the beloved Grasshopper lamp by Greta Magnusson-Grossman each yield a soft and even glow. Some table lamps require lampshades to be bought separately.

Whether it’s a classic antique Tiffany table lamp, a Murano glass table lamp or even a bold avant-garde fixture custom-made by a contemporary design firm, the right table lamp can completely transform a room. Find the right one for you on 1stDibs.