OntwerperSwedish
Elis Bergh
6 actieve items
When Elis Bergh arrived at Kosta Glasbruk in 1928, he brought with him two decades of experience in lighting, silver, and architectural decoration that few glass designers could match. His appointment as artistic director inaugurated a twenty-two-year period during which Kosta's reputation for graceful, modern glass grew into an international asset, and his tableware series became fixtures of Swedish domestic life.
Born Hagbard Elias Bergh in Linkoping in 1881, he studied at the Academy of Arts in Stockholm from 1899 to 1902, then apprenticed with architect Agi Lindegren, working on the decoration of Gustaf Vasa Church. His early career was remarkably varied: twelve years at Bohlmark's lamp factory (1906-1916) established his expertise in lighting design, followed by positions at Pukeberg's glass factory, Herman Bergman's art foundry, and C.G. Hallberg's Guldsmeds AB, Stockholm's distinguished silver manufacturer. At Hallberg, Bergh designed silver-plated table lamps, floor lamps, chandeliers, and candlesticks in the Swedish Grace idiom, work that won a gold medal at the 1925 Paris Exposition des Arts Decoratifs.
It was specifically to design lighting that Kosta called Bergh in 1928, recognising him as an authority in the field. But his influence quickly expanded to encompass the full range of the glassworks' production. His tableware series became enduring classics: "Kent", with its clean-lined wine glasses, whiskey glasses, and bowls, and "Karlberg", a comprehensive service that equipped Swedish tables for decades. The "Stella" wine glass series added further refinement. Beyond tableware, Bergh designed decorative art glass with engraved motifs, including Adam and Eve compositions and Garden of Eden vases that balanced figurative imagery with modernist restraint.
Bergh's design language bridged Swedish Grace and Art Deco, combining classical proportions with the streamlined geometric forms that defined the interwar period. His glass shares the elegance of his silver work: precise, accomplished, and always in service of beauty that could be lived with daily. A vase he designed in 1938 is held by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
After stepping down as artistic director in 1950, Bergh continued as a consultant to Kosta until his death in 1954, a career that had spanned half a century across four distinct materials and manufacturing traditions.
On Auctionist, 144 Bergh items are indexed, with glass overwhelmingly dominant (120 items). Stockholms Auktionsverk Magasin 5, Karlstad Hammarö Auktionsverk, and Helsingborgs Auktionskammare handle the largest volumes. His lighting designs for C.G. Hallberg command the highest prices, with a ceiling lamp reaching SEK 45,212. Complete "Kent" glass services are also highly valued, with sets achieving EUR 13,000. "Karlberg" services trade around SEK 6,200. For collectors of Swedish interwar design, Bergh represents the rare figure who excelled in both silver and glass, and whose tableware series remain as usable today as when they were first produced.