Ateljé Stigbert is one of the best known
producers of Swedish modernist jewelry of the 1950s. The style is mostly
variations of plant motifs on brooches, bracelets and necklaces, but there
are also strictly geometric and abstract pieces. Ateljé Stigbert
was founded by the goldsmith Stig Engelbert in the early 1940's. Like
several other Swedish goldsmiths of the time, amongst whom Sigurd Persson
is the most prominent, Stig Engelbert had got his education in Germany,
mainly at 'Kunstgewerbeschule' in Pforzheim. The Ateljé was organized
as a modern branch within the older company 'Heribert Engelbert', and
therefor the early pieces had two sets of maker's marks, that of the Ateljé
and that of the company.
To promote jewelry production in the war time, one of Sweden's leading
high quality jewelry producers, Ateljé Borgila, organized exhibitions
of modern jewelry, the first one in 1943. These exhibitions were to be
of great importance for the break-through of Swedish modernist jewelry.
The exhibitors were Erik Fleming of Ateljé Borgila and the young
Sigurd Persson who had resently joined the company, as well as Stig Engelbert
from Ateljé Stigbert and Åke Strömdahl, another young
goldsmith. Stig Engelbert used these exhibitions to launge a collection
simply named 'The Stigbert Jewelry'. It was inspired by the clean classic
lines of the early Scandinavian design, and more specifically the strictly
geometric jewelry by the master and pioneer of Swedish modernist Jewelry,
Wiwen Nilsson. The collection got it's distinct character from richly
fazetted Rock Chrystals reflecting the light.
From 1946 to the mid 1950s Sigurd Persson joined Stig Engelbert and
designed models for serial production at Ateljé Stigbert. He started
off with leafs and plants, and moved on to more abstract models. The greatest
success was a collection of 'modular jewelry' from 1953 named 'Bowl and
Cube'. The collection got it's name from the two forms, a bowl and a cube,
that were made in four different sizes and put together to form necklaces,
bracelets and earrings.
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Earrings,
silver with Rock Chrystals, 1940s.
Pendant
silver with Rock Chrystal, 1942.
Bracelet,
silver with Rock Chrystals, 1944.
'Bowl and Cube',
silver earrings by Sigurd Persson,
Atelje Stigbert 1953.
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