DesignerSwedish
Paul Kedelv
4 active items
Born on 12 April 1917 in Orrefors, Paul Kedelv grew up in the heart of Glasriket, Sweden's Kingdom of Crystal. His father worked as a blacksmith at the Orrefors glassworks, and at the age of fourteen Kedelv entered the factory as a hyttlu, a glass furnace apprentice. Those early years among the master blowers gave him an intuitive understanding of molten glass that would define his entire career. Encouraged by the sculptor Edvin Ohrstrom, he left Smaland in 1946 to study at what is now Konstfack in Stockholm, training on the sculpture line.
Before his studies, Kedelv had already spent nearly a decade at Orrefors (1937-1946) and a year at the Finnish factory Nuutajarvi Notsjo. In 1949 he joined Flygsfors as chief designer, hired primarily to develop lighting but soon expanding into sculptural art glass. Flygsfors, a smaller glassworks in the same Smaland forest belt as its more famous neighbours, gave Kedelv the freedom to experiment. The result was the Coquille series, launched in 1952 and named after the French word for shell. These freeform vessels layered transparent and opaque glass in vivid colour combinations, imitating the iridescent gradients found inside seashells. Coquille pieces were signed "Flygsfors" with the year and "Kedelv," and became the design that put both the factory and its designer on the international map.
Kedelv left Flygsfors in 1956 and moved to Reijmyre Glasbruk in Ostergotland, where he served as artistic director for over two decades, until 1977. At Reijmyre his output broadened. He designed engraved crystal vases, including the Kungapokal series, as well as table lamps in clear and alpine-green glass with brass fittings. Later in his career Kedelv also contributed designs to Nybro glasbruk and Faglaviks glashytta.
After retiring from industrial glass production, Kedelv turned to sculpture, drawing, and watercolour painting during the 1980s. He received the Orrefors scholarship in 1982. He died on 2 September 1990 in Reijmyre, having spent a lifetime within the Swedish glass tradition, from apprentice to artistic director.
On the Nordic auction market, Kedelv's work appears regularly, with 104 items recorded on Auctionist. The vast majority are glass pieces, above all the Coquille vases and bowls. The strongest concentrations appear at regional Smaland houses such as Auktionshuset Thorner & Ek, Auktionskammaren Sydost Kalmar, and Vaxjo Auktionskammare. Prices are accessible: top results include Coquille vases at 947 SEK and 750 SEK, and a Reijmyre ceiling lamp at 500 SEK.