I just can’t get enough of vintage Scandinavian jewellery designers! Sigurd Persson is the latest in a number that we’ve featured here on Designer Desire.
Persson (1914-2003) was an important Swedish, post-war precious metalsmith and jewellery designer. In 1960, he had a career-boosting exhibition entitled 77 rings at the department store, Nordiska Kompaniet, where he showed… well… 77 of his ring designs. In 1964, he had his first international show of 150 pieces of his jewellery, commissioned by Georg Jensen. It took place at their store on 5th Avenue, New York. Oh to have been around at the time to have visited! The New York Times reported at the time:
A COLLECTION of jewelry that combines the clean, spare lines of Scandinavian design with a splendor that is partly old‐time barbaric and partly avant‐garde sophisticated goes on view today at Georg Jensen. The jewelry was created by Sigurd Persson, who is also known in his native Sweden for the chalices, crosses and candlesticks he has designed for churches.
The Persson collection can be divided roughly into two groups. One has a rather cool and airy look, remindful of the patterns of snowflakes. The other has a heavy, architectural appearance and plays up geometric shapes, as well as domes and arrangements of crossbars.
As you can see from the images above, he was so much more than a jewellery designer. In addition, he was a sculptor and product designer working in various mediums including metal, glass and plastic. In 1976, he designed the Swedish 5 krona coin which is still in circulation today.
Examples of his work can be found in the permanent collections of the V&A, MOMA and the Musée des Arts Décoratifs.
The series of books about his work (the bottom image, above) is currently available both singly and as a set on Abe Books.
