GUNNAR NYLUND ‘ETERNA’ VASE Nr. 5 FOR RÖRSTRAND (1967)

A formidable, olive-green, Nr. 5 cylinder vase from Gunnar Nylund’s 1967 Eterna series, one of his most well-known designs for Swedish porcelain giant RÖRSTRAND. The sturdy stoneware form and the repeating, relief pattern of interlocking diamonds are both characteristic. Fully marked on the base with maker’s mark, Nylund’s initials, country of origin, and model number. GUNNAR NYLUND (1904–1997) was born in Paris in 1904 to a Danish artist mother and a Finnish-Swedish sculptor father, both of whom were art students there at the time. In 1917, the family moved to Copenhagen, and later to Helsinki, where Nylund attended elementary school. When the Finnish Civil War broke out at the end of 1918, he and his mother moved to Denmark, where he was enrolled in boarding school. Following graduation in 1923, he returned to Helsinki to complete an architecture internship and study ceramics with his father, who encouraged him to explore the physicality of animals. Nylund would craft a wide variety