ManufacturerSE
Arvid Böhlmarks Lampfabrik
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Arvid Böhlmarks Lampfabrik was founded in Stockholm in 1872 by Daniel Arvid Böhlmark (1841-1897), initially as an importer and retailer of kerosene and oil lamps. The company had its factory and headquarters on Högbergsgatan in Stockholm, a retail shop on Norrmalmstorg, and would later control glass production at Pukebergs glasbruk in Nybro, which Böhlmark acquired in 1894 specifically to supply glass shades for a new generation of electric fixtures.
The transition to electric lighting gave the company a period of sustained expansion. Around the turn of the twentieth century, sculptor Alice Nordin designed a series of expressive Art Nouveau lamps for Böhlmarks, including the bronze Stockroslampa, pieces that remain among the most sought-after items the factory ever produced. These jugend-era fixtures combined cast metal with mould-blown glass in forms that treated light as an aesthetic material rather than a purely functional one.
The company's most influential chapter began in 1916, when Harald Notini (1879-1959) joined as artistic director for both the Stockholm factory and Pukeberg. Notini brought systematic ambition to the design office: through the 1920s his work defined the restrained, classically ordered style called Swedish Grace, and when the 1930 Stockholm Exhibition became a turning point for Scandinavian design, Böhlmarks fixtures were on show in their strictly functionalist form. Architect Gunnar Asplund designed the hemispherical ceiling lamp model 6022 for Böhlmarks, first shown at Verkstaden in 1920 and later produced in multiple variants across decades. Uno Westerberg joined the company in 1935 as a glass designer, and a lamp created by Notini and Westerberg is today held at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
At its peak, Böhlmarks employed more than four hundred people. By the company's seventy-fifth anniversary in 1947, it was considered Sweden's largest lighting manufacturer, with 250 workers in Stockholm and Nybro combined. The postwar decades brought declining demand for the company's style of production. The Stockholm factory closed in 1964, with remaining production transferred to Pukeberg. In 1965 the company was acquired by Ateljé Lyktan, which continued producing several classic Böhlmarks models, including Asplund's 6022, under its own brand.
On the secondary market, Böhlmarks pieces appear most often at Formstad Auktioner, Bukowskis, and Stockholms Auktionsverk. Art Nouveau table and ceiling lamps from the 1910s carry the strongest prices, with top recorded results reaching above 16,000 SEK. Pieces with attributed designer credits, particularly Notini or Nordin models, attract the most collector attention. Auction results on Auctionist.