ArtistSwedish
Erik Lundberg
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Erik Lundberg built his practice around one of Sweden's oldest textile forms: the rölakan flat-weave, a technique indigenous to Skåne whose geometric interlocking patterns cannot be reproduced mechanically. In the early 1960s he assembled a small team of weavers, initially based in the Malmö area, to produce flat-weave rugs whose designs drew directly from historical Skånsk weaving patterns while adapting them to modernist interior tastes.
By 1966-67, his operation had grown to attract the attention of Svängsta Mattor AB, an established rya rug manufacturer in Blekinge. The firm acquired Lundberg's business and relocated it to Eringsboda, a small community northeast of Karlskrona. Under the name Vävaregården, meaning 'weavers' farm', the workshop employed around six weavers and maintained a catalogue of recurring patterns produced in a range of colour variations. Gretie Lundberg was among the weavers present during the formative years.
Lundberg's rugs are structured around a limited set of repeating geometries: stylised flowers, coral-like forms, and interlocking lattice patterns. The palette leans on traditional southern Swedish hues, reds, blues, whites, and warm yellows, though later pieces explore ochres and browns that suited 1970s Scandinavian interiors. Each rug was signed, often with a 'V' mark for Vävaregården, and in some cases monogram-signed by the weaver. Named patterns such as 'Korall' and 'Wemmenhög' became the workshop's most reproduced designs.
The rölakan technique requires the weft threads to be woven back and forth across the warp in a way that produces the pattern directly in the cloth, with no pile and no additional embroidery. Vävaregården's production brought this craft out of the rural household context in which it had been practised for centuries and made it commercially accessible without removing the handmade quality. Each piece remains individual in small details of colour proportion and edge finish.
On the Swedish auction market, Lundberg's rugs circulate steadily among buyers interested in 1960s and 1970s Scandinavian design. Formstad Auktioner, Bukowskis Stockholm, and Helsingborgs Auktionskammare are among the houses that have sold his work. Across 29 recorded lots on Auctionist, prices reflect the secondary-market tier for quality midcentury Scandinavian textiles, with top results reaching around 3,700 SEK for larger rölakan pieces. The 'Korall' pattern and motifs of stylised flora are the most frequently appearing designs.