Böhlmarks

 Aktiebolaget Arvid Böhlmarks Lampfabrik

Executive summary

Aktiebolaget Arvid Böhlmarks Lampfabrik was a Swedish importer and manufacturer of lighting fixtures based in Stockholm, active from 1872 to 1977. In the first half of the 20th century, it was one of Scandinavia's leading producers of decorative and technical lighting and played a decisive role in the development of Swedish lighting design – from Art Nouveau through Swedish Grace and Functionalism to the Swedish Modern aesthetic of the post-war years. The company also owned the southern Swedish glassworks Pukebergs Glasbruk in Nybro. At its 75th anniversary in 1947, Böhlmarks was Sweden's largest lighting company, with roughly 250 employees in Stockholm and Nybro; in 1965 it was acquired by Ateljé Lyktan, and it ceased operations in 1977.

Company at a glance

Company name: Aktiebolaget Arvid Böhlmarks Lampfabrik (originally the firm "Arvid Böhlmark")
Founding of the trading firm: 1872 in Stockholm, by Daniel Arvid Böhlmark (1841–1897)
Founding of the lamp factory: 7 April 1888 (application to the Överståthållarämbetet); trade register entry 16 May 1888 Conversion to a joint-stock company: Constituting general meeting 28 January 1898
Headquarters: Factory and administration: Högbergsgatan 19–25, Stockholm-Södermalm; showroom: Norrmalmstorg 4, Stockholm; glassworks: Pukebergs Glasbruk, south of Nybro (Småland)
Trademark: Antique oil lamp beneath a "strålsol" (radiating sun), in use since 1886; simplified version from 1908; registered in the Swedish trademark register 1914

End of operations:

Stockholm factory closed 1964, production moved to Pukeberg; acquired by Ateljé Lyktan in 1965; company dissolved in 1977
Peak workforce: ca. 250 (Stockholm and Nybro combined, 1947)
The founder Arvid Böhlmark (1841–1897)
Daniel Arvid Böhlmark was born on 10 April 1841 at the farm Emaus in Järna parish, Dalarna, about seven Swedish miles west of Falun. His grandfather Pehr Böhlmark (b. 1782) was cashier at the Stora Kopparberget copper mine in Bengtsarvet, Kopparbergs parish; his father Daniel Anton Böhlmark (b. 1807) took his land-surveyor exam in 1825 and became ordinary "kommissionslantmätare" (surveying commissioner) in 1840. The Böhlmark family name derives from the place of origin "Böle" in Hälsingland (Erik Andrén, "Aktiebolaget Arvid Böhlmarks Lampfabrik 1872–1937", Stockholm 1937, pp. 21–22).After schooling in Sala, Arvid Böhlmark worked from 1859 to 1863 as bookkeeper at the Uddeholm-owned Likanå iron works in the Värmland mining district, then in 1863–64 as bookkeeper at Korsnäs sawmill near Falun. In 1864–65 he took a commercial course at J. F. Georgii's Handelsinstitut in Stockholm, where he also met Carl Schnell – his later business partner (Andrén 1937, p. 22). On 6 October 1865 Böhlmark settled permanently in Stockholm and joined "Messrs. Hierta and Gullberg's Stearin Candle Factory on Barnängsgatan" as bookkeeper – founded in 1838 by the celebrated industrialist and Aftonbladet publisher Lars Johan Hierta together with the chemist Johan Michaelson (today known as Liljeholmens Stearinljusfabrik). Böhlmark stayed there until 1869. In 1868 he opened, in parallel, a small general store at Tjärhovsgatan 86 (Andrén 1937, p. 23).In 1869 he joined the wholesale firm Carl Schnell & Co. at Kornhamnstorg 49, which sold, among other things, kerosene stoves of a newly patented design by engineer Carl Östlund (Böhlmark's brother-in-law), simple kerosene lamps and leather goods. In 1872 the partners split: Carl Schnell kept the leather agency, while Böhlmark took over the lamp and kerosene-stove trade – the founding moment of the Böhlmark firm proper (Andrén 1937, p. 24). Arvid Böhlmark died on 28 April 1897 in Stockholm, after a long stomach illness. He was buried at Dalby churchyard in northernmost Värmland – the home parish of his wife Karolina "Lina" Pollack, whom he had married in Dalby in 1870 (Andrén 1937, pp. 27–28). The marriage remained childless; Böhlmark took in two nephews, Klas and Edvard Östlund, who would later occupy leading positions in the firm.

Corporate history

The lamp shop (1872–1888)

After parting with Schnell, Böhlmark rented office space at Västerlånggatan 57 in 1872. As early as 1873 he expanded the business to retail, opening his first shop at Stora Nygatan 36 with shop-girl Hilma Norström. In 1874 he bought a property in the Perseus block (address Österlånggatan 28, with entrance also at Baggensgatan 27) from Eva Sara Schnell – the widow of a mirror-factory owner – for 33,000 riksmynt daler; there he housed the shop, office, warehouse and his own residence. He sold the building on to tile-stove maker C. A. Pettersson in 1875 but remained as a tenant until spring 1888 (Andrén 1937, pp. 29–30).
The most important supplier at this time was the Norwegian firm Christiania Glasmagasin, which delivered semi-finished lamp components that were assembled and lacquered on Österlånggatan 28. Complete elegant table lamps were imported from Germany. From the end of the 1870s Böhlmark ordered cast parts and hanging-lamp arms from Brevens Bruk in Närke, a Swedish iron works with privileges dating back to 1676. During the 1880s the retail organisation grew rapidly with additional shops at Regeringsgatan 45 (from 1878, then 40 from 1881), Hötorget 8 (1881), Götgatan 3 (1885) and Norrtullsgatan 8 (1886). From the mid-1880s onward, several travelling salesmen worked throughout Sweden (Andrén 1937, pp. 31–33, 108).

The first factory (1886–1897)

On 26 May 1886 Böhlmark signed a preliminary contract with the executors of the late Carin Wallén's estate for the property at Högbergsgatan 21 (now 21–25) on Södermalm; the purchase was closed on 1 October 1886 for 100,000 kronor. The factory drawings – dated 19 January 1887 – were approved by the building authority in spring 1887; in April 1888 the office and warehouse were relocated from Österlånggatan to the new address (Andrén 1937, pp. 35–36).
On 7 April 1888 Arvid Böhlmark applied to the Överståthållarämbetet of Stockholm for permission to operate a lamp factory with a galvanising installation for nickel, copper and brass plating. On 16 May 1888 the firm was entered in the trade register – for the first time under the registered name "Arvid Böhlmark". The trademark – an antique oil lamp beneath a rising sun ("strålsol") – had already been in use since 1886 (simplified in 1908, formally registered in 1914) (Andrén 1937, p. 39). According to the Swedish Kommerskollegium factory report of 1888, the plant ran a 6 hp steam engine, an eccentric press, three lathes, a dynamo, two grinding and two brushing machines. In the following year 21 people were employed: one foreman, eleven factory workers, eight apprentices and a "dalkulla" (a young woman from Dalarna) who executed the painted decoration on shades, cupolas and glass bases. The office was staffed by three bookkeepers and a female clerk, the warehouse by six workers and a driver, and the shops by five shop-girls – 37 employees in total, plus Mrs. Lina Böhlmark as cashier. By the early 1890s the factory comprised the following departments: printing shop, metal and turning workshops, galvanising and grinding, assembly, lacquering workshop and glass-painting studio (Andrén 1937, pp. 39–41). The new customs tariffs of 1888 and 1892 significantly reduced the import of German lamps and supported domestic production, while the years 1890–91 also brought a general economic boom. Klas Östlund, who had been promoted to prokurist in 1891, was made a partner on 1 April 1894 (with a 25 % share); the agreement was formally confirmed on 1 December 1896 – five months before Böhlmark's death – by häradshövding Uno Oldenburg (Andrén 1937, pp. 42–44). At Arvid Böhlmark's death on 28 April 1897, the firm employed roughly seventy people at the Stockholm factory (including office, warehouse and shops) and close to one hundred at Pukebergs Glasbruk (see below). The products were sold not only in Sweden but throughout the Nordic countries; the kerosene stoves were even exported to the Far East (Andrén 1937, p. 44).

The joint-stock company under Klas Östlund (1898–1922)

In accordance with a testamentary supplement of 1 December 1896, the firm was converted into a joint-stock company after the founder's death. The constituting meeting was held at the Högbergsgatan office on 28 January 1898; the founding shareholders were the widow Lina Böhlmark, her nephews Klas Enoch Östlund and Constantin Edvard Östlund, works manager Karl August Löthner and notary Uno Oldenburg. The share capital was set at 520,000 kronor, divided into 520 shares of 1,000 kronor (Lina 381, Klas Östlund 127, Edvard Östlund 10, Löthner 1, Oldenburg 1). Klas Östlund was appointed managing director on an annual salary of 5,000 kronor (Andrén 1937, pp. 45–46). The company got off to a strong start: dividends of 12 % and 8 % were paid in 1898 and 1899, and turnover reached 662,707 kronor at the Stockholm factory and 206,070 kronor at the glassworks (Andrén 1937, p. 52). In spring 1901 Erik Löthner – son of C. A. Löthner and nephew of the widow Böhlmark – was hired as works manager at Pukebergs Glasbruk, which he ran for nearly thirty years, until his death in January 1930 (Andrén 1937, p. 52). On 12 January 1901 the board decided to extend production into electric fixtures – only months after Stockholm city council approved a municipal electricity plant on 1 June 1900. The number of incandescent lamps in Stockholm rose from about 4,000 in 1892 (17 % market share) to 95,000 in 1902 (65 %). In 1904 the flagship showroom at Norrmalmstorg – rented since 1892 – had to be enlarged to accommodate the new electric fixtures (Andrén 1937, pp. 53, 97–98). On 19 September 1902 Böhlmarks joined the newly founded Sveriges Arbetsgivarförening (Swedish Employers' Association) among its first fifty members. In December 1903 the factory's 60 hp steam engine was replaced by an own electric power plant (investment of about 25,000 kronor). In 1905 – to designs by the architecture office Hagström & Ekman – the construction of a new factory wing began along the southern edge of the property; a plastered brick building in five storeys plus attic. At the 1907 general meeting, 180 new shares of 1,200 kronor were issued, raising the share capital to 700,000 kronor; total turnover was 1,343,847 kronor (Andrén 1937, pp. 54–55). In October 1912 the board decided on another expansion of the factory and acquired the adjoining property at the corner of Högbergs- and Östgötagatan, whose ground floor housed a corner shop for the company's fixtures. In 1913 a new glass furnace was built at Pukeberg – at a cost of about 70,000 kronor – to serve a large English order. The outbreak of the First World War on 3 August 1914 briefly shut down the Stockholm factory due to coal shortages; the old steam engine at Pukeberg was replaced by a diesel engine. With German exports cut off, Böhlmarks began producing installation material (porcelain parts from Rörstrand, lamp holders, switches, isolators); production ceased again after the war (Andrén 1937, pp. 56–57). On 1 March 1918 the civil engineer Evert A:son Eworth (b. Stockholm, 13 May 1884) was hired as director's assistant. By 1920 the share capital had reached 1.5 million kronor. After the severe post-war crisis – in the financial year 1921 the company posted a loss for the first time – Klas Östlund died on 5 February 1922 (Andrén 1937, pp. 57–58, 61).