Ateljé Lyktan

Executive summary

Ateljé Lyktan is a Swedish lighting manufacturer based in Åhus, Skåne. Founded in 1934 in Helsingborg by the young architect Hans Bergström and the textile artist Verna Norell, the company relocated in 1936 to the small coastal town of Åhus in southern Sweden and grew during its first decades into one of the defining manufactures of Scandinavian lighting design. From 1964 onwards, Anders Pehrson (1912–1982) ran the company and opened it up to industrial serial production with icons such as the "Bumling" ceiling lamp (1968) and the modular "Supertuben" office lighting system. Since 1974, Ateljé Lyktan has been part of the publicly listed Swedish lighting group Fagerhults Industrier. The company is still based in Åhus today and continues to hand-produce classics such as Gunnar Asplund's ceiling luminaire using the original tools.

Company at a glance

Company name: Ateljé Lyktan (formerly styled "ateljé Lyktan" with lowercase "a" – the lowercase spelling is intentional)
Founded: 1934 in Helsingborg by Hans Bergström (1911–1995) and Verna Norell (1912–?)
First workshop: Möllegränden 15, Helsingborg – in the town's craft quarter
Relocation to Åhus: ca. 1936; headquarters in Åhus (Kristianstad municipality, Skåne) ever since
Current site: Åhus, Skåne (factory since 1977 on a site outside the town centre; before that, the earlier plant "Gärdskan")
Group: Fagerhults Industrier (since 1974) – publicly listed Swedish lighting group
Philips interlude: From 1962 to 1964 Ateljé Lyktan was part of the Svenska Philips group
Böhlmarks acquisition: 1965 (Anders Pehrson acquires A.-B. Arvid Böhlmarks Lampfabrik of Stockholm – see the separate Böhlmarks profile)
New Åhus factory: 1977, inaugurated by King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden
Best-known icon: "Bumling" (Anders Pehrson, 1968) – a Swedish design classic; pendant, floor and table versions in six diameters (Ø 190 / 250 / 300 / 400 / 485 / 600 mm)
Website: www.ateljelyktan.se

Founders

Hans Bergström (1911–1995), son of Josef and Elin Bergström from Blekinge, grew up in a rather strict religious home. A key influence on his artistic path was his aunt Karin Persson (b. 1891, Vemmenhögsgården west of Ystad), a well-known Swedish wood engraver, who eventually persuaded her sister and brother-in-law Josef and Elin to send Hans to the Konstindustriella skolan (later "Konstfack") in Stockholm. After finishing realskola in 1927, Bergström served several years of a craft apprenticeship at the metal manufactory Ystad Metall, where the experienced gördelmakare (belt- and metal-workers) taught him the craft "nimm i nyporna" – hands-on. In 1929 he enrolled at the Konstindustriella skolan in Stockholm, graduating in 1932 with a ceiling chandelier for the Iggesund church as his final project ("examensarbete"). During his studies he had already exhibited a self-forged solur (armillary sundial) at the seminal Stockholmsutställningen 1930.
Verna Norell was born in Åhus in 1912. Her father, kammarskrivare Nils August Norell, died before she was a year old; her mother trained as a sjukgymnast (physiotherapist) in Stockholm. Verna spent much of her childhood with her aunt Hilda Bengtsén, who ran a small haberdashery in Åhus, learning textile crafts from her. Later she went to study in Lund. She met Hans Bergström again in Karlshamn, where the two had originally met during summer holidays in their school years. After Bergström's graduation and her own completed studies, they decided in the autumn of 1933 to open a lighting and craft atelier together in Helsingborg.

Corporate history

Founding and early years in Helsingborg (1934)
The name "ateljé Lyktan" was, according to Bergström's own account, conceived in a milk bar in Copenhagen: it stood for the two pillars of the business – Lyktor (Bergström's lamps) and Ateljé craft (Verna Norell's textile work). The first workshop was located at Möllegränden 15 in Helsingborg's craft quarter. Among the very first employees was the seventeen-year-old Allan Paul "Palle" Pernevi, who later became a well-known sculptor and who left the workshop after a short period to attend art school.

Relocation to Åhus and the Kristianstad shop (1930s/40s)

A few years after its founding the company relocated to Åhus, a small coastal town in north-eastern Skåne. In the early 1940s Ateljé Lyktan opened an additional showroom and shop in Kristianstad at Västra Storgatan 24–26. The range on show there included, in addition to the company's own domestic lighting, exclusive modern craft objects. The Swedish magazine "Hem i Sverige" reported on this shop in issue 43 (1950) under the heading "Belysningskonst i heminredningsaffär". By 1943 the company already employed some ten permanent staff (summer seamstresses, metalworkers, office staff); the summer textile-shade workshop was run by Stina Knutsson. The metalworkers' strike of spring 1945 hit the industry hard, and Ateljé Lyktan responded with a strongly expanded textile-shade production which dominated the Swedish market for years after the war.

Bergström as designer of the white post-war era (1945–ca. 1962)

After the war Bergström travelled to Italy several times with his wife and friends; the Mediterranean became a formative source of inspiration. From this period stem the characteristic white, sculpturally shaped lamps that made Bergström internationally known: sculptural dome lamps in blown white glass, matted milk-glass feet and fabric-covered globe lamps. The glass domes were sourced mainly from Flygsfors Glasbruk in Småland and occasionally from Orrefors. A milestone was the spun-plastic luminaire first shown to the public in 1952 at the exhibition "Skånskt hantverk" at the Röhsska museet in Gothenburg – together with works by the ceramist Signe Persson-Melin and the textile artist Marianne Richter; Göteborgs Handels- och sjöfartstidning ran a detailed piece on 13 September 1952.
International recognition came in 1954: at the 10th Milan Triennale, Bergström's floor lamp Model 181 – whose "Struten" shade is still hand-shaped over a wooden cone – was awarded the Gold Medal. This remained the most important accolade of his career. Other classics of the era included the Table Lamp No. 711 (leather-wrapped brass foot, sheet-metal shade), the Wall Lamp Model 397 (matt brass and white outer-matted glass) and the Floor Lamp Model 541 with a height-adjustable textile-covered shade.
Key customers and distribution partners included the Swedish electrical corporation ASEA (whose own distribution network benefitted Bergström's models) and the furniture retailer Hedbergs in Vinslöv, which for decades served as a natural showroom. Alongside Bergström, artists such as Greta Digman of Båstad worked as illustrators on decorative shade elements in the 1940s.

Brief interlude under Philips (1962–1964)

After several economically difficult years – the exclusive small series could no longer be produced profitably – Svenska Philips stepped in as a buyer in the late 1950s. From 1962 to 1964 Ateljé Lyktan was part of the Philips group; the "Philips Hemarmatur" line was manufactured in Åhus, with several models still coming from Bergström (the characteristic teak-and-brass shades among them). Bergström himself withdrew from the management during this period and continued as a designer. In a slightly indignant letter to the cultural critic Ulf Hård af Segerstad (1977), he summed up the takeover as a relief: at last he could devote himself entirely to drawing, which was, he wrote, "en lycka" – a joy.

The Anders Pehrson era (1964–ca. 1978)the industrial breakthrough

In April 1964, Anders Pehrson (see the separate designer profile), then 52 years old and Design Chief of Svenska Philips, bought Ateljé Lyktan from Philips – the purchase price was a symbolic one Swedish krona. Pehrson drove to Åhus in his famous Citroën DS 19 "Paddan" and settled there. He understood that a modern lighting company could not remain profitable on the previous small-scale runs and resolutely modernised the machine park – funded through a state loan. As early as 1965 he acquired the tradition-rich Stockholm competitor A.-B. Arvid Böhlmarks Lampfabrik (profiled in the same content folder). Böhlmarks' sales shifted to Ateljé Lyktan; several Böhlmarks models continued from then on under the Ateljé Lyktan brand.
In 1974 Fagerhults Industrier acquired Ateljé Lyktan; the company kept its own brand and Anders Pehrson remained as managing director and artistic director. As part of the expansion a completely new factory including offices and showroom was built in 1977 on a site outside the Åhus town centre; the inauguration was performed by King Carl XVI Gustaf.
Two models became the bestsellers of the Pehrson era and still define the brand today: the "Bumling" ceiling lamp (1968) and the modular "Supertuben" office lighting system (1967). The Bumling was offered in six shade diameters – 190/250/300/400/485/600 mm – and as pendant, floor and table versions. The prototype was, at the last minute before the Gothenburg lighting fair of January 1968, hand-painted in the local Åhus paint shop with racing-car-green "Serva Lack" car paint (spray lacquering was not available in time). Other well-known Pehrson-era models for Ateljé Lyktan include "Simris" (1964), "Rampling" (1966), "Fungus" (1969), "Crystal" (1970), "Knubbling" (1971), "Tube" (1973) and "Sovo" (1978).

After Pehrson: a technical focus (1978–today)

After Pehrson's withdrawal, Bengt Fitger (with a technical background at Tungsram) took over as managing director in 1978; his motto "Se om ditt ljus" shifted the focus to professional project lighting. The consumer market came under strong pressure in the 1980s through IKEA's entry into low-cost lighting; Ateljé Lyktan reduced this segment to a few per cent of turnover and repositioned itself as a specialised supplier for offices, schools and healthcare buildings. "Supertuben" was reconstructed in the late 1970s to maximise light output over its full length; in the mid-1990s an aluminium-extrusion successor (extruded profiles by Sapa Profiler) followed for the new narrow T5 fluorescent tubes. Anders Pehrson himself died in 1982.
It is worth noting the continued production of historical classics: the ceiling luminaire designed by the architect Gunnar Asplund (1885–1940) for the Karlshamn Läroverk is still manufactured at Ateljé Lyktan in the original way – the chains are stamped with the original tools and assembled by hand. Today (as of 2024) the company forms part of the marketing and sales unit of the Fagerhult Group; the brand manager is Thomas Holm.

Œuvre and designers

For more than ninety years Ateljé Lyktan has collaborated with architects, interior architects and industrial designers. Among the most important form-givers are:
●      Hans Bergström (1911–1995) – founder and chief designer 1934 to the early 1960s. Key models: Model 181 (Milan Gold Medal 1954), Model 397 wall lamp, Model 541 floor lamp, Model 577, Model 711 table lamp (leather, brass), Model 781 table lamp (Nationalmuseum Stockholm), various spun-plastic globes and textile-shade families.
●      Anders Pehrson (1912–1982) – owner, managing director and artistic director 1964–ca. 1978. Icons: Bumling (1968), Supertuben (1967), Simris (1964), Rampling (1966), Fungus (1969), Crystal (1970), Knubbling (1971), Tube (1973), Sovo (1978), Elevinken (medical bedside lamp, mid-1960s).
●      Erik Gunnar Asplund (1885–1940) – Swedish architect of functionalism and classicism; designer of, among others, the Skogskyrkogården in Stockholm (with Sigurd Lewerentz, UNESCO World Heritage Site 1994), the Stockholm Public Library, the Skandiabiografen (1923) and the extension of Gothenburg City Hall. Chief architect of the Stockholmsutställningen 1930. His chain chandelier for Karlshamns Läroverk is still hand-made at Ateljé Lyktan.
●      Hannelore Dreutler – her Konstfack graduation project was taken up by Anders Pehrson and produced at Ateljé Lyktan from the mid-1960s; magazine "FORM" No. 3, 1965, feature by Gunilla Lundahl. Dreutler died in March 2009.
●      Per Sundstedt – an important more recent Ateljé Lyktan designer; the authors of the Jansson book devote a dedicated portrait to him written by Staffan Bengtsson ("En riktig gnet är jag", pp. 146–197).
●      Carl Leijonborg / Jan Wettergren – designers of the floor lamp "Pisa", used, among other places, as stairwell lighting in the seven-storey residential building Island Brygge 77 in Copenhagen (as recounted in the book's prologue).
●      Tommy Govén – designer of the narrow T5 office pendant "Fovea".
●      Palle Pernevi (Allan Paul Pernevi) – as a 17-year-old, briefly an apprentice in Helsingborg in 1934/35, later a well-known sculptor.
●      Greta Digman (Båstad) – illustrator of decorative shade elements in the 1940s.
Selected awards and milestones
●      1930: Hans Bergström exhibits a hand-forged solur at the Stockholmsutställningen 1930.
●      1934: Founding of Ateljé Lyktan in Helsingborg (Möllegränden 15).
●      ca. 1936: Relocation to Åhus.
●      1943: about 10 permanent staff in Åhus; summer seamstresses under Stina Knutsson.
●      1945: the Swedish metalworkers' strike; Ateljé Lyktan switches large-scale to textile shades.
●      1951/1954: participation in the Milan Triennials.
●      1952: exhibition "Skånskt hantverk" at Röhsska museet, Gothenburg, with the first spun-plastic lamps.
●      1954: Gold Medal for Model 181 at the 10th Milan Triennial.
●      1958: Eskil Larsson joins the factory (aged 16) – he stays for over half a century.
●      1962–1964: Ateljé Lyktan is part of the Svenska Philips group; produces the "Philips Hemarmatur" line.
●      1964: Anders Pehrson takes over the company for a symbolic 1 krona.
●      1965: Acquisition of A.-B. Arvid Böhlmarks Lampfabrik of Stockholm.
●      1965: Hannelore Dreutler's graduation project enters series production.
●      1967: launch of the "Supertuben" office lighting system.
●      1968: launch of the "Bumling" at the Gothenburg lighting fair – prototype hand-painted in car paint.
●      1974: acquisition by Fagerhults Industrier; Ateljé Lyktan becomes part of the Fagerhult Group.
●      1977: inauguration of the new Åhus factory by King Carl XVI Gustaf.
●      1978: Bengt Fitger becomes managing director (until 1988), motto "Se om ditt ljus".
●      1982: Anders Pehrson dies.
●      Late 1980s: Hans Bergström returns to the company as a consultant (shortly before his death in 1995).
●      1990s: "Supertuben" is converted to T5 tube technology (aluminium profiles by Sapa Profiler).
●      2009: 75th anniversary – publication of the corporate chronicle by Johan Jansson and Staffan Bengtsson.

Sources used

Primary source:

●      Johan Jansson (co-author Staffan Bengtsson): "Ljuset ska vara vitt och lysa fritt – Historien om ateljé Lyktan", Åhus/Fagerhult 2009 (261 pp. plus appendix). Chapters consulted: Förord (pp. 9–11), Prolog (pp. 13–17), Inledning (pp. 19–24), Part 1 "Historien om lampmästaren från Blekinge" – Hans Bergström (pp. 25–92), Reflektion (pp. 93–99), Part 2 "Cyklisten" – Anders Pehrson (pp. 101–145), Staffan Bengtsson's portrait of Per Sundstedt "En riktig gnet är jag" (pp. 146–197), Part 3 "En fullastad pall med Fovea" (pp. 199–225), Epilog (pp. 227–229), model catalogue "Lamporna" (pp. 231–259), sources "Källor" (p. 261).
Supplementary online sources (used mainly for post-2009 information and model details):
●      "Ateljé Lyktan", Swedish Wikipedia: https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atelj%C3%A9_Lyktan
●      "Ateljé Lyktan – mer än bara Bumling", Bizstories: https://www.bizstories.se/foretagen/atelje-lyktan-mer-an-bara-bumling/
●      Ateljé Lyktan corporate website: https://www.ateljelyktan.se/
●      Ateljé Lyktan on Architonic: https://www.architonic.com/en/microsite/atelje-lyktan/3100189
●      "Anders Pehrson", Pamono: https://www.pamono.com/designers/anders-pehrson/
●      "Anders Pehrson", 1stDibs: https://www.1stdibs.com/creators/anders-pehrson/
●      "Anders Pehrson Bumling Floor Lamp", Vintageinfo: https://vintageinfo.be/anders-pehrson-bumling-floor-lamp/
●      "Ateljé Lyktan | Kristianstad Rotaryklubb": https://portal.clubrunner.ca/15691/stories/atelj%C3%A9-lyktan
●      "Ateljé Lyktan – en svensk lampsuccé i strålkastarljuset", LauritzBlogg Sverige: https://lauritzblogsweden.wordpress.com/2013/09/17/atelje-lyktan-en-svensk-lampsucce-i-stralkastarljuset/
●      "Ateljé Lyktan – Åhus Sweden": https://ahussweden.se/medlemmar/atelje-lyktan/
●      Hans Bergström profile, Rose Uniacke: https://www.roseuniacke.com/hans-bergstrom
●      Fagerhult Group – corporate website: https://www.fagerhultgroup.com/
Research date: 18 July 2026. This profile is an independently formulated summary of facts (people, dates, models, events) taken from the sources listed above. No extended verbatim passages from the book have been reproduced.

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