Rörstrand Museum

Mormor and I did a short excursion one day to the newly opened Rörstrand Museum in Lidköping. It was really fun! There is a lot of porcelain in the collections of the Louvre Abu Dhabi, so learning more about its history, both worldwide and in Sweden, is always interesting.

Rörstrand started in 1726, and this collection in the Rörstrand Museum contains around 18,000 objects, although very little from the earliest period has survived.

Below are a selection of works by Alf Wallander, the only Swedish artist represented at the Louvre Abu Dhabi, and the foremost representative of the Jugend style that emerged in Sweden at the start of the 20th century. These products found a large audience, according to the motto "beauty for all".

I loved the busts and artists presentations in this big room. A selection showed some of all the people that have designed for Rörstrand, from the 18th century pattern designers to today's freelance designers.

The museum also showcased the main manufacturing stages, techniques and tools to produce porcelain.

To the left below, a stoneware relief called Emptying the Kiln, by Gunnar Nylund. On the right, the small kiln built in c. 1920.

The display of brand and logotype throughout time was also really fascinating:

Many factories in Europe started their porcelain production by trying to imitate the "white gold", the feldspar porcelain that for many, many centuries was only produced in China. The difference between this faience and the real porcelain is that real feldspar porcelain is transparent, like below:

Some of the Rörstrand showpieces, made for the industrial expositions of the 19th and 20th centuries, very costly advertising pieces intended to attract interest. Third from the left is another flintware vase by Alf Wallander.

I had a nice chat to the curator of the museum about Wallander, and she told me a bit more about the pieces by him in the collection. I also showed her some photos of the Wallander vase at the Louvre Abu Dhabi, which she was really happy to see.