Bertil Vallien

Bertil Vallien was born in Stockholm in 1938 and trained at Konstfack, the Swedish university of arts, crafts and design, graduating in 1961. In 1963 he began designing for the glassworks that became Kosta Boda, and he has worked for them ever since, on everyday production glass and on art glass alike.

He is best known for sculpture in sand-cast glass, above all his glass boats, which Kosta Boda describes as world famous. His production designs include the Château and Picnic ranges.

Reading the marks

Vallien's work is signed on the glass. A 1964 bottle in the V&A is incised with a model number, B VALLIEN and BODA ÅFORS, the factory it came from; a 1982 jug in the same collection reads KOSTA BODA B VALLIEN ATELJE 82. The small iridescent vase we found in September 2026 is signed as a piece from Boda's Artist Collection, and it still has its original Boda label.

His work is in the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm and the V&A in London, and the Corning Museum of Glass has shown it.