Mid-Century Modern Crystal Orrefors Embassy Pendant by Carl Fagerlund

Many museums, churches and headquarters of large companies house the work of Scandinavian modernist lighting designer Carl Fagerlund. Initially an instructor of illustration, Fagerlund shifted into the world of lighting design during the 1940s with the advantage of having an artist’s eye, and today his vintage table lamps, chandeliers, wall lights and other fixtures enrich dwellings and continue to captivate collectors all over the world.

During the early 1940s, Fagerlund taught burgeoning artists to draw at Solbacka läroverk, a private boarding school in Sweden that was based on the successful institutions of its type in the United Kingdom. Shortly thereafter, he took a job designing provocative sconces and other wall fixtures of brass and textured glass elements for a manufacturing company in Stockholm called ASEA (Allmänna Svenska Elektriska Aktiebolaget, or General Swedish Electrical Limited Company). 

Fagerlund is best known, however, for the work he did at Orrefors Glassworks, a legendary glassworks in Småland that garnered worldwide acclaim for its wares after introducing a range of decorative objects and art glass at the International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts in 1925 — the huge design fair that brought global attention to Art Deco. Fagerlund joined Orrefors in 1946 and designed richly intricate mid-century modernist pendants, flush mount lighting, a range of works with Murano glass and other fixtures for more than three decades. 

Fagerlund’s designs can be found in Prins Eugens Waldemarsudde, a museum “castle” that was once the private residence of royalty, the Swedish Embassy in Tokyo and the head office for General Motors, U.S.A. in Detroit, Michigan. 

Find vintage Carl Fagerlund flush mount lighting, pendants, serveware and other items on 1stDibs.

The Swedish design philosophy of “beautiful things for everyday life” is actualized in the vintage glassware of Orrefors. Founded in 1898, this glass manufacturer was one of the leading companies in the Scandinavian modernism movement and is revered by collectors for the fine craftsmanship and innovation of its superlative art glass.

Orrefors began making art glass — works that, distinct from mass-production pieces, are made in small numbers to showcase the skills and talents of artists and artisans — in 1913. Two of the first artists hired by the firm were Simon Gate and Edward Hald, who worked initially in the organic Art Nouveau style, and later proved adept with the geometric imagery of the Art Deco period.

Hald and Gate worked closely with glassblowers to refine traditional glassmaking methods, creating new materials such as "graal" glass. In the graal technique a design made with colored glass is encased in layers of transparent glass, preserving the image while the overall glass form is worked and shaped. Orrefors won an international following when it presented such pieces in Paris in 1925 at the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes — the design fair whose name gave rise to the term Art Deco.

In the years following that success, Orrefors attracted more dynamic and experimental artists such as Vicke Lindstrand and Edvin Ohrström, who joined the company in the 1930s. Lindstrand and Ohstrom worked with glassblowers to create the "ariel" glass technique, an innovation that produces deeper, richer imagery that seems to morph and flow as light is refracted by the glass.

As you will see from the items offered on 1stDibs, there is a special aesthetic quality to vintage Orrefors glass. Whether a vase or a set of wine goblets, the work of this premier Swedish company represents the apex of functional artistry.