DESIGNER OF THE MONTH July 2008: Hertha Bengtson (1917-1993)   Hertha Bengtson grew up on a farm in the village of Ysane in Blekinge, in the south of Sweden. When at school she dreamt of becoming an art teacher. Instead she became one of the most popular designers of the 1950´s and 1960´s. Her career did not start in the usual way, with training at an art college. Instead she signed up for a course to learn to paint porcelain. In 1947 she travelled around Europe and studied in Paris at Académie de la grande Chaumière. Her first trip abroad was followed by several more to France, England, Italy, Greece, Israel, Lebanon and Egypt. Hertha Bengtson started her career working with porcelain  when she was only 20 years old and she became employed by Hackefors

Hertha Bengtson

porcelain factory as designer of porcelain decors. Four years later she moved to Rörstrand where she worked as a designer for more than twenty years. At Rörstrand she designed two classic dinner services, Blå Eld in 1950 and Koka Blå in 1953. She wanted to make the work of the housewife easier and designed dinner services with bold but still functional design.   When the ownership of Rörstrand changed in 1964 Hertha resigned. For five years she worked for Höganäs until she started to work free lance for the German company Rosenthal. There she designed many dinner services, such as the best seller Scandic. Hertha Bengtson became internationally renowned and won many design competitions. Even today the dinner service Blå Eld is one of the most sought after modern antiques.   From 1990 until her death in 1993 Hertha Bengtson was fascinated by glass. She started to work with glass when she was designing for Rosenthal and continued to work free lance. She booked studio time at the glass studio Strömbergshyttan and started to create glass in strong, bold colours. From sketch book, 1949 Design for boxes with lid, Perstorps AB, 1969 Design for coffee service, Scandic, Rosenthal 1970 Design for decor of coffe pot, Rosenthal, 1970 Design for candleholder/ wall decoration, Rosenthal,          1970 Design for coffee service, Scandic, Rosenthal, 1970 Sketches of coffee ware, Thomas Rosenthal, 1970 Design for decoration of plate, Silvana, Thomas Rosenthal, 1978 Textile, Fiskelycka, Mölnlycke Design for unique boxes, Studioglas Strömbergshyttan, 1990 Design for unique plate, Studioglas Strömbergshyttan, 1991 Design for unique vases, Studioglas Strömbergshyttan, 1992 Education  1947-50          Courses in panting at Gerlesborgskolan; on leave from Rörstrand to study at Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Paris.   Grants and awards  1961               Received the award Utmärkt Svensk Form- Excellent Swedish Design 1964               Winner of the Kåge prize 1971, -76        Received the award Gute Industrieform, Hannover, Germany -80, 83   Artistic career  1937-41                   Employed by Hackefors Porcelain AB 1941-64                   Designer for Rörstrand AB 1958-61                  Textile designer for Mölnlycke Väfveriaktiebolag 1965-69                   Designer for Höganäs-Keramik AB 1969-79         Working with color coordination, interior design and exhibitions at Träslottet, Arbrå. 1969-80´s      Designer of porcelain for Rosenthal, Germany. 1976-81         Designer of sanitary ware for Ideal-Standard, Europe. 1990-93         Designer of unique glass pieces.   Museums and collections  The collection of the Swedish King Nationalmuseum Röhsska Konstslöjdsmuseet, Gothenburg Malmö Museum Helsingborgs Museum The Glass Museum, Växjö Kunstindustrimuseet, Copenhagen Kunstindustrimuseet, Oslo Museo Internazionale delle Ceramiche, Faenca.     Read more  Rörstrand gennem tre århundreder. Kunstindustrimuseet, Köpenhamn, 1954 Lindgren, Bo Gunnar, Servisporslin. Svenska Slöjdföreningen, 1962 Marcus-Luboff, Camilla, Den blå elden, 1992 Schreiber/Honisch/Simonet, Die Rosenthal story 1879-1979, 1980 Söderholm, Caroline, Svenska Formgivare, 2005 Wolowiec, (red), Blå eld och nya ting, Hertha Bengtson: Formgivare i Sverige och Tyskland, Vikingsbergs Konstmuseum, Helsingborg, 1984