DesignerDanish
Per Lütken
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Per Lütken was born in Copenhagen on 10 November 1916 and trained at the School of Danish Crafts (Skolen for dansk kunsthåndværk) between 1932 and 1938. He arrived at the Holmegaard Glass Factory in 1942 having never worked with glass before, a fact that may account for the freshness of his approach. He stayed for the rest of his life, serving as artistic director until his death on 10 February 1998.
Over those 56 years Lütken produced more than 3,000 designs, working directly with the glassblowers on the factory floor rather than issuing finished drawings from a studio. His method was to treat glass as a living material, one that required dialogue between the designer and the molten substance. He was insistent that drinking vessels carry a perceptible weight, a tactile honesty that keeps glass from feeling like mere packaging.
His output ranged from utilitarian tableware to sculptural art objects. The Skibsglas series, introduced in 1971, became one of the factory's bestsellers precisely because it balanced functional simplicity with confident form. The Charlotte Amalie vase, the Selandia series, the Provence bowl and the Ideelle range all entered the canon of Scandinavian design. His Carnaby series from the late 1960s caught the color-saturated mood of that decade, while the Kubus lamp brought architectural weight to his lighting work.
Lütken received the Prince Eugen Medal in 1983, one of the highest honors in Scandinavian art and design. His pieces entered the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York alongside museums across Europe, recognition that placed his work within the broader history of twentieth-century design rather than narrowly within applied craft.
At auction, Lütken's glass continues to trade actively across Scandinavian sale rooms. Holmegaard Kubus vases have reached approximately 3,787 EUR, while Droplet vases and Carnaby pieces regularly appear at Nordic houses including Woxholt, Palsgaard and Helsingborgs Auktionskammare. The market favors his sculptural series in strong colors, with mid-century pieces in original condition commanding the highest prices.