Swedens Nationalmuseum has acquired a very rare Jugendstil table lamp from 1915. It is one of only two known objects designed by Axel Enoch Boman for Orrefors. The lamp can be seen in the exhibition Light and Darkness which runs until 3 February.
Axel Enoch Boman for Orrefors, Lamp, 1915. Copper and overlay glass. Photo: Bodil Karlsson/Nationalmuseum
The mountings are in copper with relief decoration and the electric light, a modern item at the time, illuminates both the base and the shade. The glass shade has a green background with horse-chestnut leaves in orange overlay, and is signed “ORREFORS HW”. HW stands for Heinrich Wollman, who was a talented etcher from Austria. The difficult glassblowing work was carried out by another important craftsman at the factory – Knut Bergqvist. At the time that the lamp was made, he was developing the overlay technique that came to be known as the Ariel technique.
Around the turn of the last century, Axel Enoch Boman (1875-1949) was employed at Kosta and then in 1903 at Reijmyre, tasked with engraving overlay glass with designs by Anna and Ferdinand Boberg, Alf Wallander and Gunnar G:son Wennerberg. He also produced such glass to his own designs and created sets of stemware. In 1915 he sent a number of overlay glass pieces to Orrefors. The acquired lamp is one of only two items designed by AE Boman for Orrefors that are known to still exist. – www.nationalmuseum.se