Einar Bäckströms Metallvarufabrik

Einar Bäckströms Metallvarufabrik (Malmö, founded 1918) – a Swedish manufactory for electric lighting fixtures and decorative metal craft

Company and origin

Einar Bäckströms Metallvarufabrik – frequently abbreviated in Swedish usage to "EBM" or "Bäckström Malmö" – is one of the longest-lived and most stylistically distinctive lighting manufactories in southern Sweden. The firm was founded in 1918 in Malmö by the brothers Einar Bäckström (b. 1889, d. 1978) and Sune Bäckström. Both brothers were trained ciselörer (chasers) – craftsmen specialised in the hand-worked chasing, engraving and fine finishing of metal. This artisanal foundation shaped the character of the entire production over more than five decades.
The first premises were established in Malmö in the founding year 1918, at the address Stora Nygatan 57. According to contemporary Swedish trade-register records (1923 reference), the company's purpose was "the manufacture of lighting fixtures and decorative articles, and the wholesale and retail trade in these goods". In the early 1920s the business moved into a larger manufactory at Föreningsgatan 8, which remained the company's main works until its closure in 1975. This site housed the administration, factory and a representative showroom and shop under one roof. A second showroom with shop was maintained at Hamngatan 2, also in Malmö.
After 57 years of continuous production the firm ceased operations in 1975. This marked the end of one of the most distinctive southern Swedish lighting manufactories of the modern era. Today the brand lives on almost exclusively in the international vintage and collectors' market, where Bäckström lamps count among the sought-after collector pieces of Swedish mid-century modernism.

The founders: Einar and Sune Bäckström

Einar Bäckström (1889 – 1978) was the eponymous head of the company, works manager and – according to the collection documentation of Malmö Museum – also chief designer in the sense of a "mönsterkomponist": he composed all of the workshop's patterns and models himself. Bäckström is thus one of the few Scandinavian lighting manufacturers of the classical modern era who did not primarily delegate design work to external architects but consistently concentrated it inside his own workshop. His body of work encompasses ceiling lights, chandeliers, wall, floor, table and piano lamps as well as fine-craft pewter and bronze objects. Bäckström led the firm into the post-war period and lived to the age of 89.

His brother Sune Bäckström was co-founder and also worked under his own dedicated brand "Bäckström Tenn" in Malmö as a pewter designer. In the 1920s and 1930s Sune Bäckström designed decorative pewter vessels, bonbonnières, candlesticks and bronze candelabra in the contemporary Swedish "Swedish Grace" and Art Deco style; these were made in the same workshop at Föreningsgatan 8 and partly distributed through the Nordiska Kompaniet (NK) department store in Stockholm. These early pewter objects are today documented in collector circles and in the register of Swedish pewter marks under the maker's stamp "E.B.".

Stylistic evolution: from Art Deco and Swedish Grace to Scandinavian Modernism

Bäckström's production ran through several clearly distinguishable stylistic phases across almost 60 years and thus covers virtually the entire arc of the classical Scandinavian domestic lamp in the 20th century.

In the 1920s –

the early phase – the work is aligned with international Art Deco and the Swedish "Swedish Grace" movement. Characteristic are ceiling and floor lamps in brass with geometric ornament, historicising motifs and elaborate surface treatments: green oxidation ("grönpatinerad"), antique gold, antique silver and coloured lacquer. The early workshop practice is grounded in the artisanal repertoire of the chaser – every ornamental edge is finished by hand. This early phase also included the manufacture of decorative pewter vessels, discussed among others in Erik Wettergren's 1925 publication "L'art décoratif moderne en Suède" (Malmö Museum, issued for the Paris World Exhibition of 1925). From this period stems the Swedish-Grace table lamp Model 9095, today one of the early collector items of the house.

In the 1930s

the formal vocabulary shifts towards a cleaner, more restrained "Swedish Modern" aesthetic: clear cylindrical and conical forms, untreated or matt-brushed brass, restrained geometric outlines. Characteristic of this phase is Model 1290, documented among others by Bukowskis for the 1930s.

In the 1940s

the programme reaches its international peak with the celebrated Model 5014. This table lamp is to this day the best-known signature series of the house: a slim, matt-brushed brass base whose stem is fully wrapped in dark-brown, twisted leather, combined with a conical, externally lacquered and internally white-coated brass shade. Model 5014 typically measures around 43 cm in height with a shade diameter of about 30 cm and is fitted with an E27 socket. It is regarded as an icon of Swedish mid-century modernism and is documented across nearly all international design platforms (1stDibs, Modernity, Pamono, H. Gallery, Design Addict).

The 1950s and 1960s

stand under the sign of the international Scandinavian Modern boom. The Bäckström workshop now delivers pendant, ceiling and floor lamps in matt or lacquered brass, often with star-perforated conical shades in aluminium or brass sheet, as well as multi-arm pendant and ceiling lamps with three curved brass arms. These models are typologically close to the contemporaneous Italian modernist lighting (Stilnovo, Arteluce) and are still traded as classics in the Swedish vintage market.

Formative collaboration:

Erik Höglund and Boda Glasbruk

The most important design-historical collaboration of the late Bäckström era is the partnership with the Swedish glass artist Erik Höglund (1932 – 1998). Höglund was artistic director at Boda Glasbruk (Småland) from 1953 onwards and one of the most influential Swedish glass designers of post-war modernism. In the 1950s and above all the 1960s joint pendant and ceiling lamps were created in which Einar Bäckström produced the metal frames in brass and lacquered steel, and Erik Höglund contributed the cast, mouth-blown or hand-shaped glass elements in clear and red glass. Characteristic are heavily textured relief glasses that give the light a lively, layered play. These lamps are today collector classics and are documented in several international catalogues and by Pamono, 1stDibs, Selency, Vinterior and Scandinavian Modernists.

Iconic models and signature series

Model 9095 – table lamp, early 1930s: one of the early Swedish-Grace table lamps of the house, patinated brass base with classical ornamentation.
Model 1290 – table lamp, 1930s: austere, functionalist brass body, documented at Bukowskis Stockholm among others.
Model 5014 – table lamp, 1940s (signature model): matt-brushed brass foot, stem wrapped in dark, twisted leather, conical brass shade, ca. 43 cm tall, E27 socket. The internationally best-known Bäckström lamp and reference object for the Swedish "Modern" idiom of the 1940s.
Pendant and ceiling lamps with star perforation – 1950s/1960s: conical brass or aluminium cone shades with star-shaped punched holes; produced in single- and multi-arm variants.
Multi-arm brass pendant lamps – 1950s/1960s: three-arm, curved brass pendants with conical shades, typologically related to Italian precedents.
Pendant and ceiling lamps in collaboration with Erik Höglund / Boda Glasbruk – 1950s/1960s: cubist, coloured metal frames with clear or red glass inserts. Collector classics of the Scandinavian Modern era.
Floor lamps in brass and leather – 1930s/1940s: "Scandinavian Floor Lamp" type in brass and leather, produced in several sizes.
Early pewter vessels and bonbonnières – 1920s: fine-craft series from the early workshop, partly distributed through Nordiska Kompaniet in Stockholm, documented in collector circles under the maker's stamp "E.B.".