Hans-Agne Jakobsson

Swedish lighting designer and manufacturer, Hans-Agne Jakobsson built his company in the small town of Markaryd and is known for lamps that hide the bulb and soften the light through brass, copper, aluminium or thin layers of pine.

Hans-Agne Jakobsson was born on 8 February 1919 in Havdhem, on the island of Gotland, and died in June 2009 in Markaryd. The Swedish national encyclopedia (NE) describes him as an interior architect and furniture designer who had been an assistant to Carl Malmsten and Werner West. Gallery and auction biographies also mention architecture studies in Gothenburg and a period at General Motors; we have not found a primary source for these two points.

In 1951 he founded Hans-Agne Jakobsson AB in Markaryd, in southern Sweden, to manufacture light fittings; the town name is often used as shorthand for his lamps. Another Markaryd company, AB Ellysett, also produced lamps of his design, as shown by an Ellysett-labelled example at Nordiska museet. In 1990 the Danish group Solar, formerly Nordisk Solar Compagni, bought the company, and sold it to Thorn Light in 1998.

• Tratten S2064 outdoor wall lamp, 1954.
• Lamingo T325 ceiling lamp, 1950s.
• V155 wall lamp, dated 1960 by one dealer source.
• BN26 table lamp, 1960s.
• Pine shaving ceiling lamps made by AB Ellysett from around 1968; an example is held by Nordiska museet in Stockholm.

Labels and stamps help: a B54 table lamp sold by Bukowskis was marked "Hans-Agne Jakobsson Markaryd Made in Sweden B 54", and the Ellysett lamp at Nordiska museet carries a label reading "AB Ellysett Markaryd / Made in Sweden". Without a label, attribution should rely on model comparison with catalogues and documented examples.