Click here to read about Lundby Gothenburg Dollhouse - Its evolution and survival from "modern" to "traditional" by
Jennifer McKendry

About dollhouses made in Sweden

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Per Börnfelt
*1926
+2005

"Room for Childlike Reality in 1:15 Scale" by Olle Wilson [1]

Lundby has entertained children for more than 50 years. Previously, dollhouses were an exclusive toy, often hand-made in a large, heavy scale. With efficient manufacturing methods, costs could be kept low, a prerequisite for the success of the modern dollhouse,

It began in 1947, when Axel Thomsen delivered the first dollhouses from the Lundby section of Hising Island [2] to the Ferdinand Lundqvist Department Store in Göteborg. The houses were said to have been transported in a baby carriage (pram) over the Hising Bridge.

Two years later, Per Börnfelt began producing dollhouse furniture. The company was named "Lerro" and production was done on the ground floor of his parents' home. The house burned down in 1959, one result of which was the two companies merged. Their joint factory was constructed in Lerum in 1962.

Per Börnfelt was responsible for interior design, everything from wall-paper patterns and lamp fittings to coffee tables and TV sets. He is retired now and paints watercolors in his studio in Åkersberga. The need for aesthetic expression has always been there.

He said, "It was Dad who saw I had ideas and invented things, and told me, 'You should not sit in an office.'"

Per Börnfelt in "Leksaksland in Stockholm" 2001

A Feeling for the Details

Per Börnfelt decided to be a cartoonist and was admitted to drawing school at the Craftsmen's Association. The work suited his feeling for detail and ability to create lifelike objects. Just for the fun of it, he built a group of dollhouse furniture, and when his father saw it, he encouraged Per to show his work to a wholesale toy dealer. And that is how Per Börnfelt obtained his first order.

"I was forced to leave school before I really got started, and started my own business when I was 23 years old."

The young businessman did a market survey in the city's toy stores and verified the available dollhouse furniture was dull and poorly made.

"There weren't any fine details, and children love details; it has to look real."

Per went back to the basics, could recall himself how it felt to play with cars and construct buildings and landscapes in damp sand. From that experience the interior designs were created. The biggest challenge was to re-create that feeling in large volume; everything had to be able to be mass-produced and sturdy enough for children.

In the beginning, everything was made of wood, and the house itself was the same as it is today, asymmetrical in a scale of 1:16 with three rooms, a kitchen, and a little bathroom. The style of architecture was developed from the technical and financial aspects of manufacturing, just as it is today.

100 Worked at Home

The company expanded. Bror Åsberg, formerly a representative for Lego in Sweden, was responsible for marketing and finances. One marketing gambit was to loan dollhouses to the toy stores during the Christmas season, and see to it they were set up and displayed like sparkling Christmas Scenes in the shop windows. It was the Christmas trade which was responsible for the greatest share of sales that year. At the peak of the season, seven tractor-trailers were loaded with dollhouses every week. Soon Lundby in Lerum was the largest supplier of dollhouses in Sweden.

35, 000 houses were manufactured in 1967. The factory had 40 employees and some of the production was done by people at home. Approximately 100 people were busy making furniture and other decorative accessories in their homes. They regularly received a box of materials, and had various patterns and templates to help them assemble the parts.

The full range of items grew in pace with the increase in prosperity in the country and homes began to fill up with more and more acquisitions. The TV set with Pippi Longstocking or the playful kitten on the screen was immensely popular, as was the aquarium, the telephone, and the vacuum cleaner.

Per Börnfelt doesn't want to name any prototype for his designing, but he admits the pattern "Virrvar" [3] on the kitchen table was stolen from Sigvard Bernadotte [4].

Sold without Profit

The grand piano had been part of the whole line since the 1950's, but when pop music took over a decade later, one could also purchase a modern electric organ. It had the same sheet of music, and with a magnifying glass one can see it is the introductory notes to "The Marseillaise".

Per Börnfelt remembers, "We sold the houses with almost no profit."

By the end of the 1960's, the house alone cost approximately 50 kronor. It would then have to be furnished, and that's when profits were made. The Rococo bureau with an oriental rug cost 5 kronor.

"For that matter, I designed the original of that rug," explained Per.

That was how it went. He sat there and, by hand, meticulously drew every brick of the house facade and the fire-place so they would look realistic.

Bourgeois and Old-fashioned

Lundby received a great deal of criticism in the 1970's. Dollhouses were said to represent a bourgeois and old-fashioned life style and reinforced out-dated gender roles. They inhibited fantasy and the furniture was not ergonimically adapted to children's hands.

"A psychologist called me one day and asked if I had any education, if I had studied child psychology. I replied that I was only self taught."

Even if many boys who grew up in the seventies did not miss any opportunity to play with dollhouses, there were few of them who had their own houses. Perhaps that depended on their parents' fears of encouraging feminine traits in their sons."

In 1979, Lundby in Lerum had a turnover of 30 million kronor [5]. A large portion was exported, to the U.S., among others. More flashy models were made for that market and Lundby was forced to omit the bathroom bidet which could give offense. On the other hand, Per Börnfelt felt compelled to design a car and a garage. It was an open, 2-door model, the original of which was impossible to guess. The problem was to adapt the proportions to the dollhouse, and as a result, the car was as wide as a Mercedes and as short as a VW.

Lundby continued to expand internationally during the 1980's and the greater part of the production was moved abroad. Ownership changed and Lundby became a part of a larger company that experienced difficulties in the early 1990's. The dollhouse factory went bankrupt in 1993 and the name Lundby was taken over later by Micki Leksaker. By then, Per Börnfelt had already retired.

"In any case, almost all the things I designed are still produced today, which is a good testimonial to my work." Besides those, there aren't so many additions to the assortment. Except for a personal computer in miniature. A dollhouse for our time.

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Micki 1962?                                                                    Lundby/Micki "Småland" (Gothenburg) 2011       

Lundby/Micki "Stockholm" 2005                                                              "Lundby Gotland" 2008

NEW DESIGN FOR THE CHILDREN’S PLAYROOM[i]
Ann Morsing and Beban Nord have created a dollhouse for 21st Century children.
By Cia Wedin© and translated from the Swedish by Patricia Harrington[ii]

                 Four floors up in an old industrial building in Södermalm, Stockholm, Ann Morsing
and Beban Nord have their architects’ office.  Together they constitute the successful duo
“Box Design/Arkitekter”, well-known for the quality of the smallest details in interior furnishings
and the extraordinary international sense in their furniture designs.  Lundby/Micki Leksaker AB
thought this was the perfect combination and contacted them:  “We need a modern house with
several play areas.”  Of course, thought the Box Design women, and they began what would
turn out to be one of the most fun-filled projects with which they have been involved.

                 “It has meant a completely new way of thinking during this process”, said Beban.
“We have tried to transport ourselves back to our own childhoods and to remember what
triggered playing!”

                  Ann and Beban have had the help of Lundby’s long experience with dollhouses,
which first came out in 1945 , but their own children have also acted as a field-test group.

                 “We used the children to help us check every part, to make sure it aroused a desire
to play with it,  and that it was experienced as something fine in the children’s eyes.”

                 Opportunities for playing have been expanded to several levels;  instead of children
only playing in front of the house or inside the rooms, there are new play areas on the roof, on
a deck in the middle section, on the stairs, and in a drawer which contains a patio and a pool
and can be pulled out!

                 It is important that the house is clearly a toy, sturdy enough to be used, and not
just a model for adults interested in it for the sake of design.  So it has become a toy which
presumably some adults will also long for, because the house is very good-looking. 
And who doesn’t want to have a pool to pull out!

                 When two interior-design architects create a dollhouse, there is well-thought-out
interior decoration, of course, and the classical dollhouse furniture doesn’t necessarily fit well.
Consequently, they took their own designs and re-drew them in mini-format.  As cute as can be,
and thus connects Lundby/Micki to the design collections of the 1960s, when this author,
among others, played pretend with Jacobsen’s sofa “Svanen” (The Swan) in red felt and his
turquoise swivel-chair.[iii]

www.boxdesign.se[iv]

Artist’s Inspiration Appeals to All Ages

                 
                             "Tre"                                       "Prinsessan"

By Patricia Harrington
with many thanks to Ms. Rinnevuo, Södra Galleriet in Stockholm,
and Micki Leksaker AB (Lundby).
Article originally printed in The Lundby Letter, June 2006, and used
by permission of the editor.

Lisa Rinnevuo, a renowned Scandinavian artist, currently works in Stockholm, Sweden.
Two of her paintings have been reproduced in miniature for the Lundby “Stockholm 2005” dollhouse. (1) (2)
Both paintings were produced with acrylic paint and spray paint and the texts were handwritten with a
felt-tip pen. Lisa says children are her greatest inspiration, both in her artistic work and how she functions
in her daily life. She was delighted when the Box Design architects (see the translated article NEW DESIGN
FOR THE CHILDREN´S PLAYROOM above) asked her if they could use her paintings for the new Lundby
“Stockholm 2005” dollhouse. After Lisa agreed, Lundby bought the rights to produce the paintings in miniature
format for the new dollhouse, according to Kristina Aronsson, Micki Leksaker AB.

The first painting is called “Tre,” meaning “three,” which the artist says is her lucky number. The original
was created in 2002 and is 80 x 80 cm (approximately 32” x 32”). The text around the border of the
painting is in English:

pretty girlie applecheek
sing a song
jump around
stay merry
have joy
be your honest you forever
sing if you want
stay pure and simple
be a friend
love your neighbor he is nice too
climb a tree
stay forever fine

“Prinsessan,” which means “The Princess” in English, is the title of the second painting. The original was
done in 2001 and is 60 x 70 cm (approximately 24” x 28”). The text around the border of the painting is in
Swedish. The artist approved Patricia Harrington’s translation into English as follows:

When I grow up, I am going to be a princess and live in the coolest castle, where you can eat
chocolate pudding for dinner, and if you begin to feel ill and throw up, there isn’t any strict old
know-it-all who says, “What did I tell you?!” Lovely! 

Meet the Artist: Lisa Rinnevuo

        

Born in Stockholm in 1972, Lisa Rinnevuo is represented by Södra Galleriet in Stockholm, where the
artist had her first exhibit in 2002. In 2003 and 2005, her work was part of the huge annual Stockholm
Art Exhibition. There have been several other exhibits, including two in New York City in 2004.

In a recent Södra Galleriet catalog about Rinnevuo, Ann Widerström wrote that “urban culture and art
[is] a big part of her inspiration.” Ann continues, “the pictures speak directly to the beholder and are
filled with messages that aim to honor and support the individual within each of us.” Examples of these
messages are shown in the text written on the miniature paintings.  The artist uses the theme of “stay
pure and simple,” for example, in several of her paintings (see her website: www.lisarinnevuo.com). (3)

If you would like to see more of Lisa’s paintings, do a “Google” search using her name. You may
purchase a print, at Södra Galleriet in Stockholm (www.sodragalleriet.se). The gallery will ship prints
worldwide at an advantageous price because you don’t have to pay Swedish sales tax. Patricia
(newswedepat@yahoo.com) would be happy to help anyone who needs assistance with Swedish text
on the paintings, on the websites, or in contacting Södra Galleriet.

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