Finally the bloody lamp is up!

My first post in years. I'm so busy putting up lamps that I never manage to blog... ;-) /Mattias

The Edler family - part 2

Last week, after one year (what expectations are built in one year) of planning this meeting, other 2/3 of the Edler family have come back to Bellevue. In this occasion, we have met Lars and Eva Edler (with Lars' wife, Åsa), while about two years ago, we met the oldest son, Anders (read about his visit here).

As usual, during this meetings, there was so much to say and ask from both parts and in my enthusiasm, I forgot (as always) to take a picture with them.
They were kind enough to bring some pictures with them and I did managed to find some answers I had been searching.

First, it is confirmed that the roof tiles were red at the time. Considering though that the metal sheet has been green on the lower layers of paint, I still think that the tiles have been changed to the normal "red" ones at a certain point. The question is not to understand when. I suspect that since that Svenssons did a roof renovation 1976, another renovation must have been taking place during the 40s. The metal sheet though must have been kept up to the 70s, since the downpipes have still the sharp "angles" typical for the old ones.

The house front back then, red tiles and the sundial shining in a pretty flowerbed. Picture courtesy of Lars Edler

The facade looks newly painted in this picture (see the stains on the downpipe) and there is a difference in some ornament on it. The windows have been sadly changed now to a 2-glass one without mullion. The culprits are not the Svenssons has I had been thinking all along, but the Edlers! This was a shocking news, also because it is now clear that these windows have been standing on the house longer than the original ones! :-) (I still have to recover after this shock and knowing that in our dining room there was a dado as in the staircase).

The tower and the veranda. Downpipes are original, windows have been luckily kept here. Nice flowers in the flowerbed, and not a pion 100 year old as somebody told us... Picture courtesy of Lars Edler

Another side of the tower. Picture courtesy of Lars Edler

The big beech is not that big in this picture and the grass gives a different sensation to the surrounding. The dado is grey here, while today we have it white (and I don't think it should be).
I can see that the metal sheet of the cornish is very rusty and also very light green. I think at least we are doing a proper guessing on what color it should have.

The hanging birch. Our neighbour's house is not yet built and we can see the high grass behind the tree. Picture courtesy of Lars Edler

Among the amount of information we got and the anecdotes we listened to, there is also some connection with the Freebergs. Eva remembered that when they came in the house when Kathleen Cook-Freeberg was still living here (maybe during a viewing?) there was a big armor (one of those that were at Tre Musketörer) in the staircase room and the lamp hanging from the niche was very peculiar shaped as a head. What a vision that must have been!
The floor in the dining room at the time was an elaborated red linoleum floor, which got removed during the renovation done by the Edlers (thanks for this),

The small toilet near the entrance is original from their time. Eva remembered the tiles and in one pictures she shown us from the kitchen, the same tiles were covering the wall nearby the sink.
This is also a bit of information that is new, since, when talking instead with Anders Edler, the thought was that the tiling was all white and we then conclueded that the current toilet was from the 70s. Those were also the same tiles we did find under the first layer of tiles, when renovating the bathroom (that bathroom had 55 years!!!).

More small details:

• Beautiful wallpaper was in the different rooms, typical from the time. We saw some traces of them during our first renovation before we moved in in the house. 
• The studio was having a nice bookshelf along the wall, as we would like to have. The room was used by Karin Edler for her medical practice.
• Lars was enjoying scaring some of his mother patients, using the "secret room" under the stairs which had an hatch under the couch!
• Lars had Oscar's room, but moved into Isabellas later on. He built a bookshelf in one of the wardrobes and removed the door. Eva had instead the guestroom. 
• There were Ölandstenar in the path from the gate to the kitchen door. I wonder if those are the same that are now on our outdoor "place" outside the veranda. 
• The kitchen stairs railing was black and simple. 
• The original tool shed had an oval window on the side, facing the street. That window we have found in the tool shed. That tool shed had a small door on the side also. There was a nice picture of that, unfortunately, I forgot to ask if I could photograph it...
• The lower stained glass windows in the staircase room were normal window. I thought they were at least from the 40s! 
• There was no swinging door at the time - detail that instead Anders Edler remember differently.
• The garden did decline on the north side as it is doing on the west side.

I think this is the summary of the main details that I can remember from the visit. I got so many questions after this and I still need to process everything up. 

I suppose soon we will have to wait for the last member of the Edler's family to come here? :)

Old wallpaper and new improvements

It has been due time after almost three years that we are here, to clean the so called "tower room". This allowed me also to go through some of the old wallpapers that we have found in the attic. There are more up there, but I leave that for the next coming weeks, when I will try to clean instead the attic.
The wallpapers age span from the 30s to few years ago. Not that I am sure about the age of all of them...

Sanderson "Hedera"

This is the oldest one, or at least, the one I know it is from the 30s. Today, reprinted in a replica (without the fancy cracked wall details and slightly modified) like this.

Unknown wallpaper

"Svenska vara nr 162"

Harmonitapet

The three wallpapers above are, I believe, from the 50-60 time frame. The first one has no information on it, while for the other two there is written "Svenska vara nr162" and "Harmonitapet". Despite this, I haven't found information on them. I think they are pretty cool, but a bit odd to think to have in a jugend house?

The 70s

The green elaborated wallpaper was instead from the 70s and it was allover the staircase room. With a nice green fitted carpet. :-)

A plain "fruity" wallpaper

A shiny green wallpaper

Was this border associated to the shiny wallpaper above?

A very modern glitter wallpaper

These are the most recent wallpapers from the previous owners.

The first one was, if I have spotted it right in some old pictures, in the kitchen before the current renovation. So, it is most likely from the 90s. 

The green one was in our studio, which was the tv room for the previous owner. I do not remember though seeing the leaf border there, but maybe that is older than I think and it is just a casualty that the green match?

Finally, the last one, was in what today is Isabella's room, which was the "study room" of the previous owner's daughter. This must be from 2011 since it is not even in the pictures that were out when the house was on sale.

A green, almost textile similar, wallpaper

Still on green tones

These last two I have no idea when they are from since they do not have any recognizable pattern in my eyes. 

However, in the first one there is written "Kalmar nya tapet", while the second one is unmarked. 

Now, I just think I will spare some bits of all the different wallpapers, but the big rolls quantity will be on the market. Hopefully, that doing like this I do not brake any byggnadsvård (building ward) rule. We have already done plenty when we first moved in in the house...

I have also finally found a place for one carpet that we got from an old couple friend of ours, which is most likely in allmoge style. 

The carpet

Maybe it is not supposed to be put like that, but I think it makes that modern armchair working better in the environment. The armchair was purchased before Oscar's birth to make the nights bearable when he was small :)

The latest entry is though a very beautiful "Strindberg style" lamp, which I found at Erikshjälpen.

The lamp has a nice "art deco" stand and nice decorations on the glass

Much better than the IKEA lamp coming from Mattias early study days...or not? :)

Mattias' beautiful lamp

The Nilsson family

When it was 1914 (the year of the Baltic Exhibition and start of the First World War - is that a coincidence?), the Ingemansson sold Villa Bellevue. I haven't yet found out why, after only more and less seven years, they would decide to sell such a house (and in about four they would paint all the windows from red to white!)

The new family was constituted by four family members.
Anders Nilsson, a manager (disponent), was born 1868 and was married to Agnes Maria Björklund (1872).
They had two children. Sten Erik, who was just two, when they moved into Bellevue, and Sonja Ingeborg, who was born instead 1909.

The parish book from 1915

I have been having big troubles finding information about them. Nilsson is such a common surname! So far, I haven't found if there are any descendant or where they are. The research has been quite unfruitful also for what concerns where was he working.
However, I know why they sold the house already in 1919. Unfortunately, Anders got sick and died 1918 of empyema at Malmö Hospital. I suppose this was a sad degeneration of getting pneumonia, back then.

There is though some interesting revelation that I found while digging around them (and yet, I know, I will continue doing so).
During their time here they had three maids.

• Signe Elizabeth Björklund, moved in with them  and left the 25th of September 1915. She came back the 3rd of November 1916 and remained there until they moved away
• Ester Svensson, lived in Bellevue with two kids. Tage Assar and Bror Valdemar. The house must have been crowded and especially their room! Tage though left the 26th of February 1915, whie Bror and Ester left the 5th of November of the same year.
• Anna Jönsson was instead defined as a cleaner and moved in when Signe left the first time, the 25th of September 1915 and with her, she moved out with the whole family in march 1919.

Now, the interesting detail is the following. 

Signe Björklund was the daughter of a famous painter at the time, Emil Björklund, who was from Limhamn, Malmö (the suspect that also Agnes, the house lady, was related to them is also very strong, but I haven't found yet any confirmation to this theory). 

I have always wondered why the painting we have under the stairs was done 1917 and why on the planet a young Richard Björklund would leave a trace in Åkarp, but after I saw the note above everything turned out clear (see this old post).

Richard was Signe's brother (and maybe related to Agnes?), so the young artist left an early paint while he was possibly studying art in Lund.

That raises also another question. If behind the grates that we have under the stairs there was heat coming out, it is not possible that the whole construction was made in wood. The heat would have been too much. Could it be that the whole construction is to be dated 1916-1917 and that hence, the Nilsson, modified the heating system and added the beautiful dado that is in the big staircase?

Unfortunately, I am not sure I will ever get this question but maybe this could be a lead thought...

The staircase (2011)