Björn Trägårdh

Designed by Björn Trägårdh

Hildur Hansson (1912-1999)

Hildur Hansson was born in Southern Sweden. Eventually she was married to Erik Hansson (b. 1906) but unfortunately she was widowed when Erik died in the Finnish Winter war 1930-1940. Hildur was left with their only child, Ingemar. Hildur Hansson had early on become good friends with Estrid Ericson (1894-1981), founder of Svenskt Tenn, and hence started to collect objects from Svenskt Tenn. An interest that continued over the years and their home was filled with some very special pieces of pewter as well as furniture from Svenskt Tenn. When Ingemar Hansson grew up he continued to cultivate the interest for items from Svenskt Tenn he had inherited from his mother. The collection comprises lots nr 329-377

Björn Trägårdh (1908-1998) was an artist, furniture designer, draftsman, and graphic artist. He worked as a designer at Svenskt Tenn from 1928 to 1936, where he designed furniture, pewter objects, and other art industry products. Trägårdh joined Svenskt Tenn when he was only 20 years old and was influenced by a functionalist design approach. He worked with a restrained color palette, using black, white, and gray as his main colors. Additionally, he and Estrid Ericson were exhibition organizers for several notable exhibitions. After Josef Frank joined Svenskt Tenn, Trägårdh moved to Paris in 1939, where he worked as a visual artist. During and after the war, he returned to the field of crafts and the fashion industry, creating buttons and brooches for fashion houses such as Dior, Bruyère, and Schiaparelli. Trägårdh's work can be found in the collections of the National Museum in Stockholm, the Gothenburg Museum of Art, the Institut Tessin in Paris, as well as art museums in Tours and Pau, France.