ArtistSwedish
Jan Lundgren
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Jan Adin Lundgren was born on June 2, 1934 in Kiruna, a mining town in northernmost Sweden, and trained at Konstfackskolan in Stockholm, where he completed his diploma in 1953. After a few years refining his craft he established his own studio in 1956, working under the name Janse Silversmide, a workshop that would operate from Stockholm and then Sollentuna until around 2000. From 1958 onward his focus crystallised on the manufacture and design of silver vessels - hollowware above all - pursuing a formal language shaped by modernist restraint and a craftsman's fidelity to material.
Lundgren's output was wide in form while consistent in sensibility. His vessel work, whether bowls, askfat, or pluntas, favoured hammered surfaces and organic volumes that carried the mark of the hand without tipping into folklorism. He also worked in jewellery, including gold rings set with cut amethysts, and in freestanding silver sculpture. The DB items at Auctionist show the range: a sterling silver oval bowl from Stockholm 1989, a plunta from 1969, a drinkrörare from 1970, and sculpted silver forms that achieved the highest prices in his auction record.
He participated in a significant sequence of international craft exhibitions. The World Exhibition in Montreal in 1967 brought his work before a global audience, and the Craft Centre in London in 1969 placed him alongside contemporaries at the forefront of European applied arts. Alongside his commercial production, he undertook ecclesiastical commissions, with church silver for Hagalunds kyrka among the documented public works. He was also a printmaker, with etchings and lithographs from the 1960s and 1970s catalogued under the same name - 'Tre Gracer' (1973), 'Blå puma' (1978), 'Under the sun', 'Underligt möte', and 'Komposition med figur' (1967) among the known titles.
His work entered museum collections internationally. He is represented at Nationalmuseum in Stockholm, Norrköpings konstmuseum, Gävle Museum, the Nordenfjeldske Kunstindustrimuseum in Trondheim, Norway, and the Harness Racing Museum and Hall of Fame in New York City. This last acquisition reflects a probable commission connected to equestrian sport, consistent with the silver sculpture forms visible in his auction record. Lundgren died on May 11, 2017 in Sollentuna.
On the auction market, the 13 lots tracked on Auctionist show activity spread across Markus Auktioner, Helsingborgs Auktionskammare, Formstad Auktioner, Garpenhus Auktioner, and Gomér and Andersson Norrköping. The top sales are silver sculptures at 26,000 SEK and 16,905 SEK, a hammered sterling oval bowl that brought 7,500 DKK at a Danish house, and an 18k white gold amethyst ring from 1966 at 7,010 SEK. Printworks appear at the lower end of the range - etchings and lithographs between 200 and 300 SEK. The silverwork commands clear premiums, with sculpted and hollowware pieces performing strongest.