The Swedish ceramicist CARL-HARRY STÅLHANE (born 1920 in Mariestad, Sweden, died 1990) was trained as a sculptor under Ossip Zadkine at the Académie Colarossi in Paris. In 1939, he began working at the Rörstrand ceramics factory. By 1948 he was designing his own ceramics, which were inspired by Oriental art and which explored the ultimate in "classical" pottery forms. His soft-edged vessels with mottled matt glazes marked an important stylistic departure for Rörstrand and typified the new understated style of ceramics that began to emerge in Scandinavia during the immediate post-war years. In 1951 he was awarded a gold medal at the Milan Triennale for his highly influential work.

Apart from his studio pieces, Stålhane designed functional domestic tableware for mass production, such as his SB, Blanca and Vieta dinner services. During the 1960's, his work became increasingly sculptural and larger in scale, often functioning more as ceramic sculpture than as domestic pottery. 

In 1973, having designed ceramics for Rörstrand for forty years, he established his own studio, Designhuset, in Lidköping. Like so many other Scandinavian designers, Stålhane skilfully straddled the worlds of both craft manufacture and industrial mass production in pursuit of "ideal" forms.

Source: Scandinavian Design by Charlotte & Peter Fiell - published by TASCHEN GmbH, 2002