DesignerSwedish
Margareta Hennix
5 active items
Margareta Hennix was born on July 17, 1941, and trained at Konstfack in Stockholm from 1959 to 1963 in the department of ceramics and glass. One of her teachers was Stig Lindberg, then at the height of his influence at Gustavsberg and arguably the central figure in Swedish postwar ceramics. The schooling placed Hennix directly within a tradition that emphasized practical production alongside aesthetic ambition, and the connection to Lindberg would prove formative: she eventually followed him to Gustavsberg.
Before that, she spent two years at Johansfors glassworks, from 1965 to 1967, gaining her first industrial experience in glass. In 1967 she joined Gustavsberg's porcelain factory as a decorator and designer, a role that would last twenty years. The period covered a significant stretch of Swedish design history: Gustavsberg in the late 1960s and through the 1970s was still one of the primary arenas for functional applied art in Sweden, producing work that reached ordinary households as well as design-conscious buyers.
At Gustavsberg, Hennix developed several series that have since become associated with her name. The Tussilago tableware, Änglafia, and the Aramis porcelain series represent her work in the factory's core production. Juliana, a coffee service, appeared alongside decorative pieces including stoneware wall plaques and wall sconces in glazed stoneware. The formal vocabulary she worked within at Gustavsberg was shaped by the factory's mid-century inheritance, clean lines, restrained decoration, glazes that emphasize material over pattern.
After leaving Gustavsberg, Hennix turned decisively toward glass. She worked at Pukebergs glasbruk from 1990 to 1992 and then at Reijmyre glasbruk from 1993 to 1996, where she designed the Basic series. The Basic series earned her a Svensk Form award, confirming her standing as a designer capable of working across materials without losing a consistent sensibility. Reijmyre, one of Sweden's oldest glass factories, gave her work a different register than Gustavsberg's industrial porcelain: smaller runs, more craft-oriented production, and forms that suited the particular transparency and weight of glass.
Hennix also undertook public decoration work, extending her practice beyond industrial design into applied art in architectural contexts. A brief period at Guldkrokens kakelugnarfabrik in Hjo in 1989 added tiled stove design to her range of materials.
On the Nordic auction market, Hennix is collected primarily for her Gustavsberg ceramics, with glass a secondary but growing category. Of 75 total lots on Auctionist, 47 are ceramics and 25 glass, with Crafoord Stockholm accounting for 15 lots, Formstad for 6, and Auctionet for 6 more. Prices are modest but consistent: the Juliana coffee cups reached 1,406 SEK, stoneware wall plaques 1,400 SEK, and wall sconces 1,210 SEK. One lot is currently active. The market reflects a collector base focused on well-preserved everyday pieces from her Gustavsberg years, with signed Reijmyre glass attracting growing attention.