Monthly Archives: June 2020

The Angelic Conversation

Last week I was able to buy a very (and I mean VERY) nice glass model of the Ericofon. The glass is very pure and clear and there is not a single disturbance visible. Looks like this phone belongs to an angel 🙂

Actually I was very curious about the story behind this perfect phone and I ended up with some details on how and when it was made. This I can share with you thanks to Bert Kindåker, the creator of this piece of art, who helped me a lot.

Reijmyre Glasbruk in Sweden, creating handmade glass objects since 1810, produced this glass model in 1990. At that time Bert was one of the designers in this rather famous Swedish glassworks factory. This is how the Reijmyre Glasbruk factory looks today – copyright Bert KindÃ¥ker

In the conversation we had, Bert also elaborated on the production of the glass Ericofon.

The customer Televerket in Sweden requested a glass model of the Ericofon to be given away as a present. As the first step in the process Bert sanded a model out of a crystal block. This model of course needed to be approved by representatives of Televerket. Once approval was given a mold in graphite could be created. The mold as being used in the production process – copyright Bert KindÃ¥ker

In the left part of the mold you see a hole and a channel around the actual shape. This hole/channel was used to suck up the liquid glass of approximately 1100 degrees Celcius under vacuum into the mold, phone after phone… 1000 times. Impressing!!

Once the glass figure was ready, it was carefully polished and engraved with the Televerket logo at the front. Beautiful! By the way, I have also seen these glass Ericofons without this logo.

Televerket was a Swedish state owned telecom company. It was founded in 1853 with a complex and long name and finally named Televerket in 1953. The name Televerket was used from 1953 to 1993 when it became Telia. Now it is part of Telia Company, a large multinational operator.

Some details:

  • Client: Televerket
  • Year: 1990
  • Designed by Bert KindÃ¥ker for Reijmyre Glasbruk
  • Height: 14 cm
  • Weight: 444 gr
  • Edition: 1000

And if you think “Angels, phones….? What a crappy story!” You are wrong! Yes, angels make calls and have conversations as you can see here. On the St. Jan Cathedral in The Netherlands there is a statue of an angel with a phone you can actually call. 🙂