Nordiska Kompaniet, Empire Style Console

Elegant small console in mahogany and gilt bronze ornamentation, black veined white marble top, Nordiska Kompaniet, numbered, Stimulated by the grandeur and possibilities offered by high-end Parisian and London stores of the turn of the century, businessmen Swedish Josef Sachs (1872-1949) and Karl M. Lundberg founded Nordiska Kompaniet in 1902, laying the foundations for what would become the first and ultimately the most important entry into the luxury world in Scandinavia. In 1915, after a twelve-year period in a redeveloped space at Stureplan Plaza and following Lundberg's departure from the company, Sachs began construction of an entirely new and much more opulent store on the great Hamngatan corridor in Stockholm. The building was designed by Ferdinand Boberg (1860-1946), one of the country's most important architects at the time (famous for the Stockholm City Rosenbad and its central post office). Nordiska Kompaniet established itself as Stockholm's first department store: modern and multi-storey, centrally located, offering a wide range of Nordic-inspired services and merchandise capable of appealing to the most elite clientele of the region. region. Beyond jewelry, fashion, cosmetics, food, Sweden's first escalator, and endless mahogany panoramas (which, when opened, lined most of its interior), Nordiska Kompaniet Hamngatan offered customers his own line of bespoke furniture made in workshops in Nyköping (1904). The aesthetic of the design reflects the general philosophy of the company: high quality production, clean lines with touches of refined elegance and, above all, an air of exclusivity. Over the century, the design and production wing of the Nordiska Kompaniet company has attracted some of the greatest Scandinavian design innovators. From 1927 to 1938, Swedish architect and designer Axel Einar Hjorth headed the furniture and interior design department of Nordiska Kompaniet, a period that marked the company's expansion into the international arena. He directed the Nordiska Kompaniet showcases at several important industry exhibitions, such as the 1929 World's Fair in Barcelona, Stockholm in 1930, and Chicago in 1933. Along the way, Hjorth was acclaimed for its interiors often made of pine and designed for prestigious public and private clients, including the municipal library designed by Gunnar Asplund in Stockholm and a train car for the Shah of Iran. During Hjorth's tenure, Nordiska Kompaniet commissioned iconic works from Asplund (her Karmstol tubular steel side chair and GA-2 armchair (1931) as well as from renowned Swedish architect and designer Carl Malmsten, who created the furniture for the Stockholm Concert Hall (1928), the House of Nations in Geneva (1934) and more. While bespoke interior design in public spaces remained the main focus of Nordiska Kompaniet in the middle of the last century, especially in the 1950s, when Nordiska Kompaniet furniture fitted out Swedish banks, hotels, embassies, steamboats and restaurants, this era also saw the rise of designer furniture for mass production. in particular the Trivaserie (or Triva-Bygg), designed by Elias Svedberg and launched in Malmö in 1944, which featured standard furniture distributed in flat packages to be built by consumers themselves at home (one of the first examples of furniture made famous by Ikea, another Swedish heavyweight). Under the direction of designer Lena Larsson from 1947-1965, the Trivaserie line is integrated into the experimental NK-bo brand of Nordiska Kompaniet. During these years, the Triva series was not limited to removable furniture and extended to models like the Paradiset sofa by Kerstin Hörlin-Holmquist (circa 1958) and the Tokyo bench by Yngvar Sandström (circa 1964 ). Other notable mid-century creations by Nordiska Kompaniet include the Annette dressing table (1943) and the Trienna chair (1957) by renowned architect, decorator and industrial designer Carl-Axel Acking. Aided by the influence of department store consumers, which gave the space and context to showcase unique products not only in exclusivity, but also in full spaces, Nordiska Kompaniet enjoyed decades of manufacturing success before the Declining profitability forced the closure of its Nyköping workshop in 1973. Today, the company is still recognized as a leading supplier of goods and services, operating from two outlets: the original NK in Hamngatan , and another in Gothenburg (since 1971).