Artist Lisa Congdon just can’t stop buying this vintage Norweigan kitchenware:
“I remember spotting a green bowl with a lotus leaf pattern in an antique store and literally running to it. I didn’t know it was a Cathrineholm—I just knew it looked cool. That was 18 years ago, when I was just getting into art. As it turned out, my own style wound up being heavily influenced by mid-century Scandinavian pieces like this.
“From that day on, every time I saw a similar piece at a thrift store or flea market I would buy it. I didn’t learn how much they were worth until much later. The Cathrineholm brand was made for only a few years in the late 1950s and ’60s, out of enameled stainless steel, at a Norwegian ironworks factory. Some colors, like red, are especially hard to find. That thrill of finding those rarest pieces is part of what makes collecting them so fun.” —As told to Sarah Purkrabek
Pick up some ‘Holm of your own
To score vintage Cathrineholm on your next trip to Oslo, take a deep dive into Vestkanttorvet, a massive Saturday flea market in the borough of Frogner in the West End of the city. The city’s vintage shops—try Maritabutikken in Grünerløkka— are also good places to stumble on rare pieces you would never find sold on Etsy.
