Estrid Ericson was only thirty years old when she founded the firm Svenskt Tenn in Stockholm 1924. She had earlier studied at what was later to become Konstfack University of Arts, Crafts & Design in Stockholm, worked as a teacher in drawing at a school in her hometown of Hjo and as a clerk in an interior design shop in Stockholm.
With the money from an inheritance, Ericsson founded Svenskt Tenn during a time when interior and furniture designer was an occupation mainly for men. She herself worked in pewter, and when the Svenskt Tenn (tenn is the Swedish word for pewter) store opened in 1924 the shelfs were filled with over 300 pewter objects made by Ericsson together with artisan Nils Fougstedt. As a designer Ericsson made everything from mirrors, boxes, textiles (such as Elefanter pattern from 1930) as well as jewelry.
The architect Uno Åhrén was hired to make the interior architecture for the store and in 1930 also Ericson’s apartment in the same building. In just a couple of years, Ericson’s interest in interior design had increased and more furniture were displayed in the store at Strandvägen in Stockholm. Ericsson was a gifted scenographer and stylist; dark modernistic furniture and colorful textiles were placed in bright interiors with eclectic still life containing of art works, pieces from nature and cheap trinkets. According to Ericson, the focus of interiors was to create a comfortable and cozy feeling, with no pendant light from the ceiling, which made it easy to re-arrange the lay out.
Ericsson and Svensk Tenn soon became a part of the movement that brought young Swedish designers to the industry, and already at the world exhibition in Paris 1925, the firm received a Grand Prix medal for their participation. At the Stockholm exhibition in 1930 Svenskt Tenn´s tea-set created by Björn Trägårdh was given international praise, claiming that it summed up the whole exhibition. In 1934 Ericson welcomed the Austrian designer and architect Josef Frank to Sweden and Svenskt Tenn, although they had started working together two years later. Their international breakthrough came at the world exhibitions in Paris 1937 and New York 1939.
Until Franks death in 1967, he and Ericson worked closely together on design that by some are seen as the epitome of the Swedish Modern. In the 1960’s the duo made a rectangular mirror with a geometric mirror frame that is a part of the collection at the Museum of Furniture Studies in Stockholm. Ericson is also represented at the Swedish National Museum of Fine Arts.
Estrid Ercison stayed on as owner and CEO of Svenskt Tenn until 1975, when she, at the age of 81 handed over the ownership to the Kjell and Märta Beijer's Foundation, but Ericsson remained as art director for some years. In 1980 she founded the Estrid Ericson Foundation for the promotion of research and education in her field of work. She passed away at the age 87 in 1981. Frank and Ericsson´s Mirror with mirror frame was a part of the Female Traces exhibition at the Museum of Furniture Studies in 2019/2020.
