KunstenaarSwedish
Bengt Liljedahl
1 actieve items
A necklace of interlocking bar-shaped links, hammer-finished and weighty in the hand - objects like these, made from the 1960s onward in Bengt Liljedahl's Stockholm workshop, show what seven decades of silversmithing look like when the maker refuses to compromise on material or method.
Liljedahl was born in 1932 and began his training at Konstfack, the Stockholm arts and crafts university, where he studied from 1949 to 1953. Even as a student he received commissions from architects working on Sweden's postwar church-building programme. Over his career he contributed silver objects - chalices, candlesticks, patens - to more than 70 Swedish churches, a body of liturgical work that runs quietly alongside his better-known jewelry production.
After graduating he travelled to Paris to study at the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Arts Decoratifs, and while there he worked alongside Torun Bulow-Hube, the Swedish designer whose fluid, body-conscious approach to silver had already attracted international attention. The time in Paris and later in Biot, in southern France, deepened Liljedahl's feel for form. Back in Stockholm he opened his own workshop in 1954 and set about building a practice defined by handwork in sterling silver.
His jewelry - necklaces, pendants, bracelets, rings - tends toward geometric simplicity: bar and rod forms, open link structures, smooth surfaces interrupted by a semi-precious stone or a controlled texture. Pieces from the 1960s and 1970s carry the economy of Scandinavian modernism without becoming cold. Hollowware from the same period, including bowls and cups, shows the same preference for weight and finish over decoration.
Liljedahl is perhaps most widely known beyond the silver world for a commission he held for over five decades: designing successive versions of Guldbollen, the annual award presented by Aftonbladet and the Swedish Football Association to the best male Swedish footballer. He crafted more than 50 versions of the trophy before retiring from that role in 2021 at the age of 89.
His work is held in the collections of Nationalmuseum and Moderna museet in Stockholm, as well as Rohsska museet in Gothenburg. He is a member of Nutida Svenskt Silver, the organisation dedicated to contemporary Swedish silver.
On the Nordic auction market Liljedahl's pieces appear regularly at Bukowskis and Kaplans Auktioner in Stockholm, alongside Stockholms Auktionsverk. Necklaces, pendants, and bowls make up the majority of lots. Recorded prices range from around 2,600 SEK for a sterling silver necklace to 9,000 SEK for a set of six sterling whisky cups, with a 460-gram silver bowl achieving 5,770 SEK.