Designer Desire: Ulla Procopé

Montage of Ulla Procopé ceramic shapes and patterns for Arabia of Finland | H is for Home

Ulla Procopé (1921-1968) was a Finnish mid-century modern ceramic designer and decorator.

In 1948, Procopé graduated from the School of Arts and Crafts (later known as the Aalto School of Arts) in Helsinki and began working for Arabia immediately after graduating. She began in the factory’s hand-painting department under Olga Osol, after which she moved, two years later, to the model & decoration department.

She designed both the shape and pattern for the Liekki (1957-1978), Valencia (1960-2002), Anemone, Ruska (1960-1999) and Meri series. She designed the shapes of much of the Arabia output including the Pomona series of lidded preserve jars whose decoration was designed by Raija Uosikkinen.

She spent her entire career at Arabia, working there until 1967, the year before her untimely death in Tenerife.

Her Arabia designs are readily available on eBay and Etsy.

Portrait of Ulla Procopécredit

Additional image credits:

1stDibs | Barnebys | Bukowskis | What’s Blogging My View

Designer Desired: Axel Salto

Montage of Axel Salto artworks | H is for Home

Axel Salto (1889-1961) was a Danish fine artist and ceramicist; stoneware being his material of choice. His iconic work is organic and earthy in form and palette and is incredibly tactile. In researching his pottery, I fell in love with his lino-cuts and screen-prints as well.

He was a member of the Paris-based, ‘The 4’, a group of modernist Danish artists that consisted of Salto, Karl Larsen, Svend Johansen and Vilhelm Lundstrøm.

His rarer pots can break sales records at auction; a piece realising £373,250 at Phillips, London in 2012. However, many of his limited-edition prints are far more affordable, selling for as little as £25.00.

There’s a beautifully illustrated monograph entitled, ‘Axel Salto – Master of Stoneware‘ edited by Susanne Bruhn and Pia Wirnfeldt. I could only find it for sale at CLAY Museum of Ceramic Art Denmark where the retrospective was originally held.

An equally stunning book (in Danish) covering his 2-dimensional work entitled På papir (On paper), has been written by Lars Dybdahl and is available from Strandberg Publishing.

Axel Salto portraitcredit

Additional image credits:

Auctionet | Bonhams | Bukowskis | Sothebys

Designer Desire: Egersund

Various ceramic designs from Egersund

This post was initially going to be about Kåre Blokk Johansen. However, so little is known about him and his designs that we’ve expanded it to include a couple of other Egersund designers. The pottery was in existence from 1847 to 1979, but we’re going to concentrate (mainly) on the mid-century modern designs.

Similar to Finel, shapes would often be designed by one designer and the pattern would be by another. For example, the Solsikke (Sunflower) and Lagune (Lagoon) patterns were applied to the Korulen shape. The Chérie pattern was done on the Circle shape.

What we do know, however, is that the popular Razorbill ‘alkemuggen’ (top) were designed by Jacob Kielland Sømme. They were available in five sizes and produced almost continuously from 1910 to 1979.

Blokk Johansen, the longest serving designer at the company, was responsible for the Unique (manufactured between 1971 and 1976) and Kongo patterns.

Unni Margrethe Johnsen (1942-2001) designed the patterns Lagune (Lagoon) and Solsikke (Sunflower).

Ingrid Marcussen designed the pretty Chérie pattern in 1966.

We have a few Egersund items for sale in our shop at the moment. There are also some available on eBay and Etsy.

If you can help fill in some of the blanks (or errors) in our knowledge, we’d appreciate your insight!

Shapes/patterns (from top to bottom, left to right):

• Razorbill ‘alkemuggen’ – Jacob K. Sømme
• Shape unknown/Inka
• Shape unknown/2 x Kongo
• Shape unknown/Cairo
• Shape unknown/Perfekt (Perfect)
• Shape unknown/Perfekt Sirkel (Perfect Circle)
• Korulen/pattern unknown
• Korulen/Solsikke (Sunflower)
• Unique/pattern unknown
• Unique/Appel (Apple)
• Circle/Chérie
• Korulen/Lagune (Lagoon)

Image credits:

Heidi Arstad | Tove

Forthcoming Attractions: April 2019

Vintage homeware selection | H is for Home

It’s been a while since we did one of our Forthcoming Attractions posts. We did actually hold back from buying new stock for a while during the deepest winter months. However, spring has now sprung, so we’re getting back out on the vintage trail. Here’s a small selection of our recent finds.

Vintage Stavangerflint plates designed by Arvid Reikvam | H is for Home

This pair of 1950s/60s plates have illustrations featuring a couple at leisure – playing music together in one, and fishing in another. They’re very sweet, whimsical & charming – and the work of a designer whose name is new to us – one, Arvid Reikvam. We’ll certainly have to investigate him further. The plates were produced by a very familiar company however – Stavangerflint of Norway.

Egersund pottery dish | H is for Home

On to another well-known maker of vintage Scandinavian pottery – indeed, another Norwegian factory, Egersund. We love this simple, stylised flower design. We have a few pieces dotted around our own house. This handled dish has a multitude of possible uses – or it could just sit on a shelf looking pretty!

Vintage white goose-neck desk lamp | H is for Home

Next up is a bit of vintage lighting, something we’re always keen to get hold of – good looking and useful. This flexi-neck desk lamp has a real space age style. We like the shade detailing too, three narrow slots allowing shafts of light upwards in addition to the main downward directional task light.

Vintage orange metal numbers | H is for Home

We couldn’t resist these vintage metal locker numbers. We loved the bold orange colour and fabulous aged patina. Someone out there must have the perfect use for them!

Mills Moore cutlery set | H is for Home

Last, but certainly not least, we have a large quantity of 1960s Mills Moore cutlery. This beautifully designed range is made from stainless steel with walnut handles. We get many requests for this cutlery so we’re sure that there’ll be some interested parties amongst our readers. We actually have six of each of all the knives, forks and spoons shown above.

All items will be heading to our web shop soon. However, if your particularly keen on anything, please feel free to drop us a line.