FabrikantFinnish
Iittala
0 actieve items
The Aalto vase needs no caption. Its undulating organic form, designed by Alvar Aalto in 1936 and produced at the Iittala glassworks ever since, is perhaps the single most recognisable object in Finnish design. That it emerged from a small village glassworks in the Hämeenlinna region speaks to Iittala's extraordinary ability to attract artistic genius and give it industrial expression.
The Iittala glassworks was founded in 1881 by a Swede named Petrus Magnus Abrahamsson, in the village of Iittala in southern Finland. Because Finland lacked skilled glassblowers at the time, the original workforce was recruited from Sweden, establishing a cross-Nordic connection that would continue to define the company's character. For its first decades, Iittala produced utilitarian glassware, bottles, household items, functional vessels.
The transformation began in the 1930s, when Finnish architects and designers began to see glass as a medium for artistic and democratic expression simultaneously. Aino Aalto's pressed glass tumblers (1932), with their concentric ripple pattern, won a gold medal at the Milan Triennale. Her husband Alvar Aalto's Savoy vase (1936), its free-form curves inspired, according to legend, by Finnish lakeshores, became a global design icon. These collaborations established Iittala as a place where industrial production and artistic vision could coexist.
The postwar decades brought a golden age. Tapio Wirkkala's Ultima Thule glasses (1968), designed to evoke melting Arctic ice, and his Tapio glassware (1952) added sculptural sophistication. Kaj Franck's Kartio tumblers and art glass brought radical simplicity. Oiva Toikka's Birds by Toikka collection, begun in 1972, created a collectors' phenomenon that continues today. Timo Sarpaneva's i-glass series earned a Grand Prix at the Milan Triennale. Together, these designers made Iittala synonymous with Finnish design itself.
Today the factory, the largest in the Nordics and the only glass factory still active in Finland, operates as part of the Fiskars Group, employing around 200 people, including some 60 glassblowers. The expanded and refurbished facility continues to produce both historical designs and new work.
On the Nordic auction market, Iittala pieces appear at houses across Sweden and Finland, including Auktionshuset Thelin & Johansson, Skånes Auktionsverk, and Karlstad Hammarö Auktionsverk. Tapio Wirkkala's "Kantarelli" vase has reached over 5,400 EUR, while glass sculptures and complete table services regularly achieve several thousand kronor. With 214 lots on Auctionist, the market spans from affordable Ultima Thule glasses to rare art glass by the house's most celebrated designers.