Candle stick
Artist/Maker
DatesMade: Made 1852
Material / Technique
Dimensionsh x w x d: Mått 28,9 x 13 x 13 cm
Inventory numberNMK 7/2012
AcqusitionPurchase 2012 with funds from Barbro Osher Pro Suecia Foundation
Other titlesTitle (sv): Ljusstake Title (en): Candle stick
DescriptionDescription: The candlesticks highlight the predilection at the time for shapes inspired by nature. Support for a united Scandinavia was strong among students in the Nordics in the 1800s. In 1852, the candlesticks were given to one of the pioneers of the cause, university lecturer and philosopher Carl Yngve Sahlin (1824–1917), in conjunction with students in the movement travelling from Uppsala to Christiania for a meeting. He was chair of the Uppsala students. Catalogue raisonné: New acquisitions, April 2012 Silver by Gustaf Möllenborg Inventory numbers: Salt cellars, NMK 1-2/2012 Candlesticks, NMK 7-8/2012 Mantel clock, NMK 9/2012 Nationalmuseum’s collection of 19th-century silver has expanded with the addition of three new acquisitions, all made in Gustaf Möllenborg’s workshop in Stockholm. The oldest of the objects is a late Empire mantel clock made in 1844, which was presented to King Oscar I’s personal physician, Professor Magnus Huss, by grateful patients. The pendulum clock is no doubt a special commission, since the decoration depicts the god of medicine, Asclepius, and one of the hands bears his serpent-entwined staff. The candlesticks, in a typically naturalistic style, were made in 1852 and were also a gift, this time to the chairman of the Uppsala Students’ Union to commemorate a student march from Uppsala to Christiania. The salt cellars decorated with two elves eating porridge date from 1899 to 1900 and were an accompaniment to the ‘elf service’ that was a gift from the women of Sweden to the Crown Prince couple Gustaf and Victoria in 1881. Gustaf Möllenborg (1796-1851) became an apprentice to a silversmith in Växjö at the age of 13, before moving to Stockholm in 1819. He became a master silversmith in 1823, at the age of 26. Möllenborg’s workshop expanded rapidly and had over 40 employees by the 1840s, making it Sweden’s biggest producer of decorative works in gold and silver. In 1850, the year before his death, Möllenborg passed his business on to one of his journeymen and the company continued until 1927, when the contents of the workshop were donated to Nordiska Museet. This acquisition considerably strengthens Nationalmuseum’s collection of silver from the 19th century, a period not widely represented among existing works. It has been made possible due to a gift from the Barbro Osher Foundation.
Exhibited
Collection
TechniqueEmbossed