Svenskt Tenn’s founder Estrid Ericson travelled a lot to different places around the world. She always looked for beautiful items and textiles that she could take home and sell in the store on Strandvägen in Stockholm. The Japanese Magnolia textile is from the English textile company GP & J Baker, whose designs were often based on traditional historical prints. Estrid Ericson began buying textiles from them as early as the 1930s.

Japanese Magnolia, with its naturalistic depictions of magnolia blossoms inhabited by birds and butterflies, was designed by William Turner in 1917 and was first-hand block printed onto a fine linen.  No trace can be found of it being printed after this date so it subsequently became a hidden gem in the renowned GP & J Baker archive. It is over 100 years old, but as relevant today as when it was first created.

GP & J Baker is a family-run company founded in 1884 by brothers George Percival and James Baker. Together with their father they travelled around the Far East and Asia purchasing designs, textiles, sketches and thousands of pattern books that are today in the Baker’s sizeable textile archives. Svenskt Tenn became one of Baker’s first customers in Sweden when Josef Frank, inspired by Baker’s designs, introduced the company to Estrid Ericson in the 1930s.