Swedish Kakelugnar at the American Swedish Institute by Marilyn
Smith One of the great treasures of the American Swedish
Institute is its collection of 19th Century Kakelugnar—the
Swedish word for a glazed tile (kakel) stove (ugn). The stoves
were purchased by Swan J. Turnblad and his wife Christina, for
the mansion they built on Park Avenue in Minneapolis from 1904
to 1908. Ordered from Swedish catalogs, the kakelugnar were
shipped to the United States and assembled in the mansion, where
they remain today. One of the kakelugnar is located in the
mansion’s lower level lounge area. It was manufactured by B.H.
Lundgrens Kakelfabrik in Sweden at the turn of the century, and
is one of two that has a scene on its chimney. Done in ceramic
relief, the overall imagery on the Kakelugn is Nordic/Celtic and
includes an almost exact replica of an 1872 painting by Mårton
Eskil Winge entitled, “Thor Slaying the Giants”. In Norse
mythology the god Thor drives a goat-drawn carriage across the
sky, defeating a wicked band of