Glad Midsommar a Swedish-themed Artist Stamp

When the San Francisco Correspondence Co-Op meets to talk, demo, do and plan all things mail art, we also have an artist stamp for each meeting.  Different artists take turns designing and preparing a stamp to share. This month was my turn and we were commemorating our sixth anniversary.  Because the Swedish Midsommar (midsummer/solstice) holiday was also coming up, I went for a Swedish theme and created a pair of summery stamps celebrating both the holiday and our group’s anniversary.

Paul Nordlund

About 30 years ago I was with friends at a country auction in Sweden. One of the things they bought was a folio with four woodcuts on vellum. They were all similar to the one shown above. All four were portraits of well-dressed men in typical attire for the 1920’s. They gave me this one, which I misplaced years ago. It turned it up this week.

The artist was Paul Nordlund and is a bit of a mystery. He was active in the 1920’s and the only information I can find online was that he did woodcut, illustrations for some books at the time. The print I have is signed and dated in pencil. But considering the poor quality of the paper and lack of numbering, I am wondering if these were done solely for the purpose of being reproduced in print.

Another art mystery where I need more information…