Carl-Harry Stâlhane (Swedish, 1920-1990) was born in Mariestad, in the west of Sweden and trained as a painter in Stockholm and as a sculptor in Paris. He became a ceramic artist for the Rörstrand porcelain works in Lidköping beginning at the age of 18 years in 1939 decorating for leading artist, Gunnar Nyulnd (see our previous posts!), and later Isaac Grünewald’s assistant. He was soon promoted to be artistic director and chief designer in the 1960s. In addition to his studio art pieces, he designed functional dinnerware. While still working at Rörstrand he also taught ceramics from 1963 to 1971 at the Konstindustrieskolen in Göteborg. He left Rörstrand in 1973 to set up his own studio, Designhuset, in Lidköping.

Responsible for a multitude of inventive works, here we highlight vase shape ‘SPD’ from the ‘Alphabet’ series in their iconic raindrop shape and glossy glazes produced in the 1950s.

In addition to the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, he is represented in most of the major museums in Scandinavia, among them the National Museum and the Nordic Museum in Stockholm, Malmö Museum, Rhösska Museum, National Museum in Oslo, Art Industry Museum in Copenhagen, Halland Art Museum and Kulturen in Lund.Stålhane participated several times at the Milan Triennial and was awarded a gold medal in 1948 and an honorary diploma in 1951.