IKEA Jubilee

What began with two empty hands turned into a global empire with Swedish meatballs all over the globe. From the small company in Agunnaryd, it became pens, mail order, Älmhult, flat packs, furnishing the people's homes, furniture department stores, and classics upon classics, leading to everything it is today as IKEA now celebrates an incredible 80 years!

Stockholms Auktionsverk is one of the well-wishers and is celebrating the festivities with an extensive theme auction accompanied by a design talk featuring Emma Olbers, Lars Bülow, Finn Ahlgren, and Li Pamp.

From being viewed as an upstart, a challenging competitor, and for a while even as a price and quality dumper, IKEA now has a clear and significant role in the design scene. In recent years, the furniture giant has rightfully been recognized as an integral part of Swedish design history. Given that hardly any other actor comes close to IKEA's importance for the modern Swedish home's interior ideals.

At Stockholms Auktionsverk, we have over 120 examples of what IKEA has accomplished over the past 80 years. From the company's early era, we find the Oxford cabinet with a touch of sculpture as a complement to the modern expression. As an example of the Danes' entry into the IKEA range in the 1960s, two Florence armchairs, designed by the central figure Erik Wørts, are presented. The 1970s offers icons - the sofa bed Impala, the denim armchair Tajt - and considerably more peculiar pieces - like the armchair and sofa from the very typical Turo with green-lacquered steel tubes. The 1980s are represented primarily by Niels Gammelgaard and Tord Björklund, who, with their contributions, renewed aesthetics and color schemes. A prime example of this is Gammelgaard's bookshelf Guide, which is, of course, available for bidding. The end of the century, the disparate 1990s, offered a couple of very interesting IKEA collections. Here we get a taste of both, including the 18th-century series that exuded quality and became highly sought after in the discerning auction world early on, as well as the furniture and lamps marketed under the artistically held headline PS. Among the highlights of the 2000s, we find Thomas Bernstrand's stylish Uddebo table (one copy owned by the National Museum) and Marcus Engman's serving trolley, which, with a nod to Scandinavian design history, rolls into Stockholms Auktionsverk's living room.

Welcome!