(L. to r.) Upsala Ekeby “Randa” vase (26cm), Arabia Finland Penguin by Annikki Hovisaari (11.5cm)

I recently had the opportunity to spend five wonderful days in Stockholm, a marvelous, eye-opening city whose museums, food and people are a delight. As I am an ardent Upsala Ekeby collector, I was delighted to find plenty of UE — and several other ceramic surprises — in Stockholm’s antique shops.

If you visit, I would highly recommend you make your first stop Bacchus Antik in the Vasastan district. It is two stores, really: A showroom displaying MCM furniture surrounded by lamps, rugs, paintings and ceramics, and a smaller store overflowing with Swedish treasures from UE, Rörstrand, Gustavsberg and ceramics from everywhere else in Europe. They even have a whole wall with nothing but Scandinavian coffee and tea sets, a completist’s dream. Best of all, though, is the proprietor Hans — a MCM enthusiast who will definitely brighten your day! I enjoyed speaking with him as much as I enjoyed buying the Ingrid Atterberg “Randa” from his shop.

The next stop I would highly recommend is An Ideal for Living Stockholm, in Södermalm. Although ostensibly a vintage record store, it is packed with pristine West German and Italian ceramics — and has an owner whose knowledge of these pieces and connections with some of the original artists has no rival. While I unfortunately did not make a purchase (I had many of the items already on display), I will definitely be checking back in the future to see what else appears.

Lastly is the shop where my rather bold penguin was waiting: Brinken Antik, right in the heart of Gamla Stan. While Brinken is more of a “traditional” style store, with finer items from the 18th and 19th centuries, they do have some very nice MCM ceramics tucked away if you are willing to venture to the back. While I wasn’t planning on buying something Finnish, I just couldn’t resist the strong and determined penguin I saw — and one with a hole through the middle, no less! While I was quite happy with him as is, I was even happier to find out he may have been a unique figure created by Annikki Hovisaari, who worked at Arabia Finland from 1949-1975. I’d like to think she would be happy to know he now has a home, as opposed to sitting forgotten on some shelf. While I can’t promise him much cool weather where I live, I can promise one thing — he will be appreciated!