keeping company with art

my mod 1950s vase

My daughter was in from New York this past weekend. One of our favorite traditions is to dig for buried treasure in the Heart of Ohio Antique Center. It's the largest in the Midwest with over 650 dealers and takes a good four hours or so to walk through, even at a quick pace. So Saturday, we hopped aboard the old green Land Rover, accompanied by gorgeous N.C. Wyeth skies.

One of my finds, was a mod little 7 1/2 inch vase. It was stamped UE Sweden on the bottom with a serial number and initials:  a juicy story just begging to be investigated.  Did I comply? Of course I did.

Mari Simmulson Swedish Modern tray
(I love her quirky  Picassoesque style.
Note the chignon.)

Mari Simmulson tray

My sleuthing turned up some fun results.  The "UE" stands for Upsala-Ekeby, founded at the turn of the 20th Century in Uppsala Sweden. The company produced artistic ceramics from 1920 until 1973 when it was sold and subsequently closed down. Several important Swedish Modern artists worked at Upsala-Ekeby including Mari Simmulson, Anna-Lisa Thomson, Ingrid Atterberg, and Vicke Lindstrand.

Mari Simmulson

The initials "MS" on my piece stand for Mari Simmulson, a potter and artist, born 1911 in St. Petersburg, Russia. Educated in Tallin and Munich, she started her career at AB Gustavsbergs Fabriker in 1945. Between 1949 and 1972 she worked at Upsala-Ekeby and became a Swedish citizen in 1952.

An extremely creative artist, her work has been featured in public art displays in Sweden and Copenhagen and is represented in museum collections all throughout Europe.

My little Mari Simmulson 1950s vase?  An exact match is online for $200. I paid $14 and consider it a great investment in keeping company with art.

Mari Simmulson owls