ArtistSwedish
Edvin Ollers
3 active items
Few Swedish designers moved as fluently between the painter's easel and the factory floor as Edvin Ollers. Born in Norrtälje in 1888, he trained at the Higher School of Industrial Arts in Stockholm and the Gothenburg Museum School of Drawing and Painting before embarking on a career that would span glass, pewter, ceramics, and oil painting with equal conviction. His landscapes, indebted to Cézanne's structural approach to colour and form, earned museum representation at Nationalmuseum and Moderna Museet in Stockholm. But it was in the applied arts that Ollers left his deepest mark.
Ollers arrived at Kosta Glasbruk in 1917, where he introduced coloured and textured glass that broke with the crystal tradition dominating Swedish production. Over the following decades he moved through Reijmyre, Elme, Limmared, and Flygsfors, bringing each glassworks a distinctive vocabulary rooted in 1920s classicism and etched decorative detail. His work at Elme Glasbruk in the late 1920s is particularly admired: dusty blue and cobalt pressed glass vases with Art Deco profiles, and black moulded vessels that feel remarkably modern. For the landmark Stockholm Exhibition of 1930 he designed perfume bottles inspired by Chinese snuff bottles, luminous objects that distilled his ability to marry historical reference with contemporary restraint.
In parallel, Ollers designed pewter and tinware for Schreuder and Olsson in Stockholm. His candlesticks, wall sconces, lidded bowls, and vases in cast pewter share the same quiet authority as his glass: clean silhouettes softened by subtle surface texture. He also produced ceramics at Upsala-Ekeby and the S:t Eriks pottery factory, and contributed book illustrations and textile designs. This breadth was not dilettantism but a genuine commitment to the Swedish Grace ideal of bringing beauty into everyday domestic life.
Ollers was equally dedicated to teaching. He spent over thirty years as an instructor at Tekniska skolan in Stockholm, founded a private painting school in 1941, and finished his pedagogical career at Konstfackskolan. His students recalled his emphasis on drawing and direct observation, skills he considered the foundation of both fine and applied art.
On the Nordic auction market, Ollers' work appears regularly across Swedish houses including Bukowskis, Metropol, and RA Auktionsverket Norrköping. His pewter wall sconces for Schreuder and Olsson are among the most sought-after pieces, with pairs reaching EUR 6,400. Glass from Elme and Kosta trades steadily, and his paintings surface at auction with prices up to SEK 15,000. With 156 items indexed on Auctionist, Ollers remains an accessible entry point into the golden age of Swedish decorative arts.