Gustaf Tenggren's World
 
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Gustaf Tenggren
awarded member of
Society of Illustrators'
Hall of Fame 1917


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The large collection of Swedish antiques


Gustaf Tenggren in front of his self-masoned fireplace and some of his antiques

After the house was re-built, Gustaf and Mollie needed to get it decorated, as it was totally empty. A life of moving back and fourth had forced them to leave most of their furniture behind. Going for a furnishing trip to Portland, Maine, they happened to see some pewter tankards and painted wooden objects in an antiques shop window. Didn’t they look Swedish, they asked themselves. Upon their inquiry, the owner replied that he had a large collection of Swedish antiques that were to be sold by the beneficiaries of an estate. They were collected in Sweden some years after the turn of the century and shipped over to Portland, where they had been stored until just recently. Gustaf and Mollie made an offer and bought the whole lot. There was more than enough peasant furniture to fill the house and the garage and outhouses as well. The genuine American house was now furnished with genuine Swedish antiques, and those two cultural centers of gravity anchored them steadily in their new life on the cape of Dogfish Head where they were to spend the rest of their lives.


Dalecarlian wallpainting from Rattvik painted 1848:
The Cananeic wedding

Mollie Tenggren stated in her last will that after her death the total collection of Swedish antiques should be given to Dalarnas Museum, where it can be seen today. Some of the items, including ten unique Dalecarlian paintings, had already in the fifties been donated to the Swedish-American Society in Minnesota, Minneapolis.
   
Dalecarlian painting, 1843: Wälkommen Mina Bröllopsgäster.
Gustaf Tenggren with some of the folk art objects from his collection, totally exceeding a thousand.
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