Ingeborg Lundin Expo Art Bottle

A rare, utterly adorable, and irresistibly tactile stout 'Expo' decanter with stopper designed by Ingeborg Lundin, for Orrefors, Sweden, 1968.

The body of the distinctive barrel-shaped bottle is hand-blown from 'seeded' or 'bubbly' glass. This textural glass is created by oxygenising the molten gather. At Kosta Boda, this was often achieved, famously, using organic materials such as potato peel. However, Lundin’s bubbles differ; they are not empty pockets of air but populated by tiny dark inclusions, likely metallic. 

These minute flecks animate the glass, making the abstract bubbles resemble strands of seaweed suspended in water. The result is a unique organic object with remarkable depth, movement, and character.

The bottles association with the ocean is also enhanced by its charming miniature stopper, made of 3 shades of opaque blue glass. Using the candy cane glass technique, 2 lighter blue rings encircle a deep navy core.
 
The base of the bottle is finely hand-engraved with Ingeborg Lundin’s signature and the inscription Orrefors Expo D 346 - 68.

D is Lundin's reference letter (until 1980), 68 is for 1968, the year of the design, and 346 indicates that this was the 346th piece in Lundin’s celebrated Expo (Exposition /Exhibition) series. Although Orrefors is known to have, confusingly, restarted the numbering on 3 occasions, it is estimated that Lundin created approximately 736 Expo pieces between 1953, when the series began, and 1971, the year she retired from Orrefors.

Without doubt, the most famous Orrefors Expo piece, by any designer, is Lundin's Äpplet [Apple] vase which was the centrepiece of the Swedish Art Exhibition 'H55', Helsingborg, 1955, and awarded gold at the Milan Triennale of 1957.