Egersund Norway ’70s Designs

Egersund Norway is one of the Scandinavian makers I come across from time to time, but unfortunately it is not seen in the quantities here Australia compared to that of other Norwegian and Scandinavian producers.

One design from Egersund which I do see from time to time is “Unique”- designed by Kaare Blokk Johansen and in production from 1971-76, just before the closure of Egersund in 1979.

The colour of “Unique” is somewhere between an intense egg yolk yellow and bright orange, with a lovely hand painted olive brown band on each piece. Everything about it screams 1970s.

There is little documented about its designer Kaare Blokk Johansen, except that he was with the factory from the 1950s until its closure.

Other designs from Egursund which I really like are:

Firstly this gorgeous blue and white “Lagune” (or Lagoon) which was designed by Unni Margrethe Johnsen (1942-2001)

….and the second is called Sunflower/Solsikke , which is on the same forms as the previous 2 designs, and with a pattern also designed by Unni Margrethe Johnsen. This design I have only every come across once here sadly – Imagine a whole set of it!

Over time, the names of these designs have become very confused everywhere I look, and you will see everyone calling them something else depending on where you look – but from what I can work out by looking at the all the back stamps – the forms which all these 3 patterns are on is the called “Korulen” and the pattern either “Sunflower” “Lagune” or “Unique” etc etc.

The “Korulen” backstamp appears on a large number of very different patterns from the 1970s by Egursund, so it cant be referring to the pattern name – but the series of forms on which the pattern has been placed.

When Egersund closed in 1979, Dalane Folkemuseum took over the factory’s archives and item collections, and built a Museum on the old Egersund site. On their website is a comprehensive history of the Egersund, plus a record of the backstamps used HERE

Briefly, Egersund Pottery had a long and interesting history, starting in 1863, burning down in 1905, rebuilt in 1907 and expanded in the 1950 to cope with the huge demand post WWII . It was the largest producer of stoneware pottery in Norway during this era.

They merged with Porsgrund in 1967, were owned by Arabia Finland from 1975-77, then from 1978 owned by Upsala_Ekeby before closing finally in 1979. Fortunately the museum mentioned above has kept the archives and has a lot of examples on display of the designs from Egersund.