Cast Iron Candleholder by Ulla Fogelklou-Skogh — Antikjärn Series, Ystad-Metall, Sweden, circa 1965

A rare and wonderful piece of Swedish design history — this cast iron candleholder was designed by Ulla Fogelklou-Skogh as part of the Antikjärn series, made by Ystad-Metall of Ystad, Skåne, from 1965 until the company was sold in 1969.

The shape is very interesting: a wide, low body raised on four arched feet, with two square candle sockets rising from the top — each with a circular opening for a standard taper candle. There is something ancient about it, somewhere between a crouching animal and a small piece of architecture. The whole surface is covered in a hand-stamped pattern of circles and small snowflake marks — running the full width of the piece and up around the sockets — giving this heavy, dark casting an unexpected sense of life and movement. Flip it over and you see the rough hollow interior that is the hallmark of sand-cast iron, with faint traces of the maker’s mark still visible in the base.

The Antikjärn Series

Antikjärn — which means something close to “cast iron antiques” — was launched by Ystad-Metall in the mid-1960s as part of a push to bring new ideas to the company’s range. There was a real appetite in Sweden at the time for home objects that felt raw, honest and handmade, and Ystad-Metall responded by investing in a new cast iron line and bringing in designers to explore what the material could do. The pieces were finished to look aged and worn, and the timing was just right: cast iron felt completely at home in the interiors of the late 1960s, and the series found a loyal and lasting audience.

The pieces most people know from the series are the cast iron wall plaques — especially Ulla Fogelklou-Skogh’s zodiac panels and the figurative scenes by Danish designer Rolf Grenov — which come up at auction from time to time. Functional objects like this candleholder are a different story: they are much harder to find, and among the most sought-after pieces for anyone collecting Swedish decorative metalwork from this period.

Ulla Fogelklou-Skogh

Ulla Fogelklou-Skogh was a Swedish designer and artist who spent much of her career working in metal. Her best-known contribution to the Antikjärn series is the Stjärnbilder (Star Signs) wall plaques — a set of zodiac cast iron panels that became some of the most loved items in the Ystad-Metall catalogue. Her work has a boldness and clarity to it, and moves easily between the decorative and the useful. Her bronze sundials Ikaros and Daidalos, first designed in 1937, were later recast by Ystad-Metall — a sign of just how lasting her work proved to be.

This candleholder shows a side of her work that is less often seen: not a flat wall panel but a fully three-dimensional object, and one that makes the most of everything cast iron can be at its most sculptural and expressive.

The condition of this piece is excellent throughout. The surface is even and consistent, with no chips, cracks or damage of any kind. Any variation in tone you see in the photographs is simply the effect of studio lighting, not the condition of the piece.