1960s FLYGSFORS BLUE OPTICAL ART GLASS BOWL

Rare 1960s signed blue zebra optical glass bowl by Flygsfors.

8cm x 8cm, in good condition, signed and dated at the base.

Iconic timeless design, was a part of our Scandinavian 1950s to 1970s glass exhibition.

Flygsfors was a glassworks established in Sweden in 1888, initially to make window glass. This was discontinued around 1920 due to cheap imports of foreign glass. For many years they also produced cut glass tableware, for which Sweden was famous during the nineteenth century.

During the early twentieth century Swedish glass companies benefited commercially and industrially by their neutrality during the two world wars, and their glassworks evolved beautiful harmonious designs in the 1940s and 50s at a time when little was happening in the glassworks of Europe. During the 1950's they led the world in the volume and creativity of their designs.

In 1939 Flygsfors appointed Wilhelm De Moor as the company's glass designer, and in 1949 Paul Kedelv became a designer for Flygsfors. In his studio at Flygsfors in the 1950's he produced his Coquille series of sculptured vessels like the one pictured above left. Formerly a student of Edvin Ohrstrom, Kedelv had worked at Orrefors in his 20s. He joined Flygsfors at the age of 32, and although he stayed only about seven years, his designs continued to be produced for many years by Flygsfors.

There were other designers working for Flygsfors over the years, one of the most well known being Viktor Berndt who designed glass for Flygsfors from 1955 to 1974. His tribal mask vases had faces moulded in relief.

Flygsfors glassworks was taken over by Orrefors in 1974 but closed only five years later. For a time in the 1990s they operated as a glass studio but finally closed in 2001. Their designs, especially those by Paul Kedelv, have become highly collectible.