Bacchus Antik: Part 8 - Art Nouveau Lighting

Bacchus Antik – A Series of Themed Auctions
Bacchus Antik is the title for a series of ongoing themed auctions this autumn and spring, where large parts of Bacchus Antik’s rich and diverse inventory will go under the hammer. Owner Michael Strömquist has decided to scale back, and at Formstad Auktioner we are both proud and delighted to present these auctions in close collaboration with Bacchus Antik.
Bacchus Antik has long held a unique position among Stockholm’s antique dealers. The shop was established in Stockholm in 1994, after seven years in Kivik on Österlen, and has become a true meeting place for anyone interested in 20th-century design and decorative arts. It is the kind of place where one can step inside and immediately find oneself discussing anything from Danish lamps to Berndt Friberg’s exquisite ceramics. The shop has also served as a school of sorts for many aspiring collectors and dealers.
The atmosphere is refreshingly unpretentious. Exclusive design classics stand side by side with vinyl records in plastic crates. This coexistence between the everyday and the distinguished is rare in Stockholm, and part of what makes anyone who steps inside feel instantly at home. Perhaps this has to do with the owner himself always keeping his feet firmly on the ground. His father was an ICA grocer, as were his grandparents, who each ran their own store, one in Tommarp and the other in Gärsnäs. From that side of the family came the sense for buying and selling, while the love for objects themselves was shaped at home by his mother. When the choice was between a new teak table and an old farmhouse table, the latter always won – because that’s what she wanted.
Michael inherited the best of both worlds and became an antique dealer almost by destiny – one who acquired through his own passion, and who insists on “looking properly” at an object before letting it leave the shop. Some items, he admits, he still hasn’t finished looking at. “I was born a collector,” he says. “In a way, the shop is my collection. As a child I collected everything – film stars, matchboxes, spent rockets, movie tickets, coins, Merry bottle caps… I kept everything that was nice.”
Now, a significant part of all these “nice things” will be offered at auction, for you to bring home and look at yourself. It is a unique opportunity – one that will never come again.

Part 8: Art Nouveau Lighting

A little in the shadow of all the furniture and decorative arts from the 1950s and 60s that fill the shop, Michael Strömquist at Bacchus Antik has managed to cultivate his interest in table and ceiling lamps in the Art Nouveau and Jugend styles. Once you get Michael talking about this, he can’t stop—whether it’s about Alice and Hjördis Nordin, Böhlmarks lamp factory, or the extraordinary craftsmanship behind these lamps. And he can get a bit exasperated with the occasional “finance pup” who buys an apartment on Strandvägen or similar for 20–30 million, only to complain about how expensive the lamps are.
People often fail to understand how beautiful it is to have a sculpture by Alice Nordin in a home—a sculpture that also lights up. I’ve tried to keep Jugend lamps in my assortment, because they express what I’ve always wanted the shop to stand for: that things should work well, transform a home for the better, and also convey beauty and an artistic experience.
Among the highlights of this auction we naturally note Alice Nordin, Gerda Sprinchorn, Alf Wallander, as well as several French fixtures, including pieces by Émile Gallé. An outstanding collection of lamps to brighten the home during the winter darkness.