Designer: Stig Lindberg (1916 – 1982)

Item: Large Faience Leaf Platter

Manufactured by: Gustavsberg

Country of origin: Sweden

Year made: 1950s

Materials: Glazed ceramic

Dimensions: 12” x 8” 

Description:  Here is a beautiful and large Stig Lindberg for Gustavsberg Faience leaf shaped platter probably made in the 1950s.  The design on this platter is excellent.  It bears all the correct markings as shown, and is in flawless condition. 

 Stig Lindberg was born in 1916 in Umeå, a seaport town in Northern Sweden. He was the pupil, protégée and eventual successor of Wilhelm Kåge, who was the design director for Gustavsberg Potteries from 1937-1940. Lindberg continued to work for Gustavsberg through 1980 and served as its director from 1949-59 and 1972-78. 

Initially working under Kåge as a faience painter, Lindberg was eventually permitted to explore different media and techniques while at Gustavsberg. It was the objective of Gustavsberg that their industrial products should exhibit an integrated functionalism and artistry; designers like Lindberg were encouraged to experiment across numerous media, form and color to achieve this balance. 

Lindberg proved a highly adaptable craftsman, and his output included high quality stoneware and plastic household articles; Lindberg was also responsible for much of the graphic art used in Gustavsberg's advertising. Personal projects included the illustration of children's books and experimental stoneware. Many of Lindberg's works exhibits an undeniable merging of his individual style of craft with industrial techniques.  His works are in the permanaent collections of many important art museums including, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York,  Museum of Modern Art, New York, Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum, New York, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Victoria & Albert Museum, London, and the British Museum, London, as well as many in Europe. Examples of Lindberg’s Faience works for Gustavsberg can be found in many important reference books on Scandinavian pottery.

Condition: Excellent

References: Eronn, Gislea, Tusenkonstnaren Stig Lindberg, Prisma Sweden (2013); Opie Hawkins, Jennifer, Scandinavia: Ceramics & Glass in the Twentieth Century, Rizzoli (1990); Fischler, George and Gould, Barrett, Scandinavian Ceramics & glass 1940s to 1980s, Schiffer Publishing (2000).