At Auktionsmagasinet Vänersborg, we take a stroll through the remarkable design landscape of the post-war era. Here we find several examples of the optimistic, forward-looking 1950s, with the light furniture that came to replace the uniform and often pompous suites of earlier times. Further into the auction we reach the glamour of the 1960s, but also its youthful side, with bold furniture in new materials. And then we arrive at the 1970s, with low-slung living room furniture in denim and lamps in the yellowest of plastics.
The bar cabinet by Svante Skogh is a lavish piece from a time when the market was seeing more and more new furniture at ever-lower prices. Bengt Ruda's armchair is fine proof of IKEA's commitment – Kamprad recruited Ruda from NK! – to furniture at the forefront of the Swedish design scene. Then there is Åke Fribytter's reclining rocking chair, once hailed by the Swedish Furniture Fair as its "most comfortable seating tool". Finally, the lighting, which around the turn of the decade in 1970 came in every imaginable form – here even built into a mirror.
One highlight is the elegant jacaranda desk. Another is the plump armchairs from Slätte Möbler, and a third – well, that would have to be Alf Svensson's armchairs from Sandslätts Bruk AB, which are rare at auction, to say the least.
