Swedish painter, graphic artist and glass artist Niels Tove Edvard Hald (1883-1980) was born in Stockholm. He studied economics in Leipzig and then received his art education in Dresden where he studied architecture. In 1907 he decided to become an artist, attending art schools in Copenhagen, Stockholm and Paris, such as studying with Henri Matisse (1869-1954). In 1910 and 1911 he traveled to the Lofoten Islands and Italy. He began to paint landscapes, portraits and still lifes under the influence of Matisse, but after 1915 he concentrated on design.

His working career began at the Rörstrand porcelain manufactory, where he worked as a tableware designer and was instrumental in the company’s success at the 1917 Stockholm Fair. In the same year, he moved to the Orrefors glassworks, where he developed both artistic and domestic glass. In the early 1920s, Edward Hald was designing engraved glass. And in these developments, the influence of his artistic mentor, Henri Matisse, is visible. His best-known designs are the graceful, elegant “Ballspielende Mädchen” (Girls Playing Ball) and the “Bowl of Fireworks” from 1919-1921.

Edward Hald with Simon Gate and the Orrefors glassworks made an international breakthrough in Paris in 1925 at the International Exhibition of Decorative Arts and Modern Industry. Many of the delicate and graceful works of the Swedish artists of the time gave rise to the term “Swedish Grace”, the Swedish version of Art Déco. Perhaps Edvard Hald’s most famous work was the Celestial Globes, a 53 cm high glass ball engraved with constellations created for the Stockholm Exhibition in 1930 and can be seen today in the National Museum in Stockholm.

Together with his colleague and peer Simon Gate and glassblower Knut Bergqvist, he developed the so-called Graalglas (grail from the Latin gradalis, bowl). The manufacturing technology includes layer-by-layer application of glass of different colors with intermediate cooling, drawing drawings using engraving, grinding, sandblasting. The resulting color drawings and reliefs are then covered with the next layer of transparent glass and given the final shape. Graal Technology is a registered trademark of Orrefors.

During the global economic crisis in the early 1930s, Hald took over the management of Orrefors (1933–1944). He managed to find a balance between the interests of business and art. He worked for the company until 1971.