As a start...
Elias Svedberg is one of those many talented Swedisch designers that made scandinavian design known and appreciated far beyond scandinavia. As a designer he is not all that well known because much of his work was pre-war (he was born in 1913) and most of his furniture was either project specific or made for the furniture division of NK (AB Nordiska Kompaniet) an influencial department store chain in Sweden. NK's reputation was such that they did not "need" to promote the fame of their designers. In spite of that both Svedberg and the very talented textile designer Astrid Sampe became known figures in the scandinavian design world. Svedberg was the son of a Nobel price winner in Chemistry and one of the important figures in the development of rubber and plastic research in Sweden: Theodor Svedberg. Creativity must have been part of the genetic make up because the Nobel price winner was a fairly good painter. Elias (also his grand-father's name) Svedberg's contribution to making scandinavian design well known came from designing a number of pre-war exhibitions in Paris, New York, etc. Later on he contributed by being member of the board of the famous Svenska Slöjdföreningen, the oldest crafts and design promoting organisation in the world. His history with NK evolved from design into marketing and in 1962 he became NK's sales director. He was one of those early exemples of designers that studied and worked on both sides of the atlantic, but his first education was with the legendary Carl Malmsten, an important figure in Swedisch furniture design and maybe even more so in education. The school he founded still attracts young people that want to combine design with the highest levels of craftmanship in furniture making and a few other disciplines.
The "Floating chair" is one of the fine exemples of the sober, well balanced, and well constructed pieces thatSvedberg designed. The bended plywood backrest and integrated arm rests are interesting because it was technically quite a challenge at the time. As so many Svedberg pieces the chair is not only well designed but extremely well made.
He was 74 when he died and should be remembered, not for doing very original work but for designing so well, and for his contribution to the promotion of Swedish design.
Than again there are certainly swedes on this forum that know much more about him than your servant sitting here in the Canadian woods....I just could not let your question fall off the first page.
Thanks
I really appreciate your response. I recently bought a Floating chair and apart from slightly wobbily legs, it's in good condition. The person I bought it from reckoned it was 40-50 years old but didn't know any more than that. It's such a beautiful piece of furniture that I was surprised there was so little information about Elias Svedberg on the web, so many thanks for filling in the gaps.
If I had to put a date
on the chair, I would say 1947...
I do not know how far you want to reseach this but there was an article on Elias Svedberg in Svensk Form in 1983...I might still have it. You could probably get some information from Nordiska Museet, Box 27820 S11593 in Stockholm Sweden. They have some Svedberg chairs in their collection. Someone in Stockholm should help us out here. I have not been there in the last 25 years so I can only rely on an aging memory...
Your chair was most likely produced at NK's own furniture factory in Nyköping. The factory was founded a few years into the 20th century and produced most of Svedberg's designs.
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