The little boy and girl looked so demure and playful as they stood there on the auction table. Their innocent faces were almost apologetic as they held white and blue petal flowers seemingly for someone special.
I didn’t recognize the style of the pieces, so I knew I was about to be introduced to a new artist. That’s one of the things I like about this auction house: I’m always meeting someone one new during its Decorative Arts sale.
This time it was a Swedish ceramic artist named Lisa Larson who apparently has been creating her “humorous and friendly pieces” – as they were described on her website – since the 1950s.
The auction included four pieces signed by Larson. The auction house identified the little boy and girl as “Eva 2 and Adam 2.” They were apparently from a series that included two similar figures bearing flowers and wearing fig leaves. Larson created the series in the 1970s for the Gustavsberg porcelain factory near Stockholm.
The others at auction were labeled “Tile Plaque of Buildings,” “Tile Plaque of King Figure” and “Tile Plaque of Knight with Spear.” They ranged in size from 8″ for the boy and girl to 18″ for the king.
I found more of Larson’s works on the web, and they were gorgeous. I especially liked the ABC Girls series that featured some pretty hefty women. According to one site, the women were all reading books and the pieces were intended to be bookends.
When they were introduced in the late 1950s, they were criticized as being disrespectful to women, according to Larson’s website. The women are now said to be among her most popular.
Their sizes were reminiscent of some buxomy black female figures made in Italy that I had seen at this same auction house two years ago. Those were not complementary at all.
Larson worked in stone “with generous shapes and artfully drawn incised decoration,” according to her website. Her menagerie included cats, dogs and other animals, children, picture frames, vases and other pottery.
From 1954 to 1980, she created ceramic works for that are now said to be highly collectible. Some of her earliest were ceramic cats. In 1992, she started her own company.
She was one of a number of important ceramists who produced works for Gustavsberg, including Stig Lindberg, Wilhelm Kage and Josef Ekberg.
Here are the prices for the four pieces sold at auction:
Eva and Adam: $175
Knight With Spear: $100
King: $150
Buildings: $200
