Eleven Arm Chandelier by Erik Höglund for Boda Glasbruk, Sweden

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Arriving at Boda Glasbruk in 1953, Erik Höglund proceeded to upend nearly every convention of Swedish art glass. He favored … Read more Arriving at Boda Glasbruk in 1953, Erik Höglund proceeded to upend nearly every convention of Swedish art glass. He favored thick, irregular forms, trapped bubbles and primitive imagery, bringing something earthy and distinctly human to Scandinavian modernism.

Designed by Höglund for Boda, this extraordinary eleven-arm chandelier pairs a hand-wrought iron framework with two sizes of clear glass pendalogues. Some are left deliberately plain, while others are stamped with Höglund’s wonderfully archaic fish and faces. A substantial multi-part glass pendant anchors the composition below. Intended for candles rather than electricity, its eleven candle cups would have sent flickering light through the glass and across the dark iron.

Höglund’s work at Boda helped redefine twentieth-century Swedish design, proving that modernism needn’t be pristine to be sophisticated. Here, iron and glass become something wonderfully unruly: part sculpture, part chandelier, unmistakably Höglund. See less