Erik Höglund

At Boda, Höglund broke sharply with the refined, elegant tradition that had defined Swedish glass since the early twentieth century. He introduced deliberate imperfections, trapped air bubbles, bold amber and forest-green tones, and embossed motifs drawn from folk art, animals and the human figure. The work felt raw and alive at a time when much Scandinavian glass prized technical flawlessness above all else. In 1957, at just twenty-five years of age, he became the youngest recipient of the Lunning Prize, the most significant design award in the Nordic countries at the time. His designs entered Swedish households in large numbers and Boda became practically inseparable from his name.

In 1969 he designed Fars Glas, a drinking glass series whose deliberately unpolished silhouette and thick walls made it a durable presence in everyday life. Reissued decades later in collaboration with Kosta Boda and the furniture brand Hem, Fars Glas remains one of the most recognisable objects of post-war Swedish design. Beyond glass, Höglund worked extensively in iron, bronze and wood, producing chandeliers and candelabras in which forged metal and hand-blown glass medallions were combined to create objects that sat somewhere between functional lighting and sculpture. He left Boda in 1973 to establish his own smithery, and later produced glass for Pukeberg, Åhus and the Bohemian manufacturer Nový Bor.

Höglund died in 1998. His work is held in the permanent collections of Blekinge Museum in Karlskrona, the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm and the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in New York. On the Nordic auction market, Höglund attracts consistent demand across a wide range of objects, from small amber bottles and drinking glasses to large iron-and-glass chandeliers. His most substantial works regularly exceed estimates at Swedish auction houses, and with over 665 lots currently traceable on Auctionist, he remains one of the most actively traded figures in post-war Scandinavian design.