ArtistSwedish
Ulf Hanses
0 active items
Growing up in Borlänge, Ulf Hanses moved to Stockholm at nineteen to apprentice under Sigvard Bernadotte, the Swedish design prince who had spent decades shaping Scandinavian industrial aesthetics. The arrangement lasted two years before Hanses broke away to set up his own workshop in the capital. He stayed for seven years, building a client list that included IKEA, Boda Nova, and Handitech, before eventually returning to his hometown.
The collaboration that would define his public profile began with Playsam, a Swedish toymaker founded on the conviction that good design belongs to childhood. Hanses joined in the company's early years and in 1984 completed the Streamliner, a hand-lacquered wooden car whose silhouette strips the automobile down to its essential gesture: a single swept volume with four wheels beneath. The toy earned the jury's commendation for Excellent Swedish Design shortly after launch and has since accumulated a catalogue of international distinctions.
The Streamliner's durability as an object lies partly in its ambiguity. It sits comfortably on a designer's shelf or in a child's hands, and the form has been reissued in dozens of colourways and licensed editions over four decades. Its profile appeared on a Swedish postage stamp in 2005 alongside other nationally significant design objects. The work is held in the permanent collections of both the Tokyo Toy Museum and the Japan Toy Museum, and Hanses himself has participated in design exhibitions in Sweden and internationally.
Beyond Playsam, his portfolio spans household products, furniture, and children's goods for major Scandinavian manufacturers. His design philosophy - which he describes as playful functionalism - prioritises form, volume, and proportion over decoration, an approach that places him in a recognisable lineage of mid-century Swedish industrial design.
At auction, Hanses appears primarily through Playsam collectibles. His Saab-licensed models, including the wooden Ursaab (Saab 92.001) produced in collaboration with Playsam, have passed through the rooms at Gomér & Andersson in Nyköping, Linköping, and Norrköping, as well as Hälsinglands Auktionsverk and Crafoord Auktioner Stockholm. Prices for individual pieces have reached 1,300 EUR, with most lots trading in the 600-1,700 SEK range.