Finland’s Tapio Wirkkala; Famed Ceramics Designer
Tapio Wirkkala, the glass and ceramics designer who was at the forefront of the postwar Scandinavian design craze, is dead at 69, the Finnish national news agency STT reported.
The agency said Wirkkala died Sunday at his home in Espoo, but it did not report a cause of death.
Best-known commercially for the frosty Finlandia Vodka bottle and a collection of drinking glasses resembling clumps of ice, Wirkkala began attracting attention in the late 1940s for a group of glass vases he called Chantarelle. He later designed flatware and coffee cups, some of which are in museums throughout the world.
Wirkkala, honored by his government after he won the Most Beautiful Object of the Year Award from House Beautiful magazine in the early 1950s, also designed some of Finland’s currency and four stamps for the 1952 Olympics.
Among his most popular creations was the Puukko knife, made of steel and black nylon.
A collection of his works is on exhibit in New York City after being shown in many other major cities around the world.
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