At Home with Curator & Sourcing Director Daniel Larsson
Daniel followed his passion for 18th- and 19th-century treasures, and brings the cool factor to Emerson Bailey antiques.
In the thirteen years since he founded D. Larsson Interior & Antikhandel, Emerson Bailey’s Curator & Sourcing Director Daniel Larsson has become one of the world’s leading purveyors of 18th- and 19th-century Swedish antiques.
Today, Daniel lives with his children in a century-old brick house in the countryside outside Helsingborg, on the southern Swedish coast, about an hour north of Copenhagen. There are eagles and reindeer roaming the land every day, and the location is excellent for sourcing antiques. It is an ideal – and idyllic – homestead.
The following interview is based on a conversation between Daniel and 1stdibs’ Introspective Magazine. Step inside his home, and get to know D. Larsson, his vision, and his expertise below.
Daniel’s living room mixes a 1970s coffee table with a ca. 1750 Swedish Baroque cabinet, featuring Chinese motifs in gold and silver leaf.
The 1970s coffee table is topped with a root bowl, a Swedish folk piece carved, as the name implies, from the root of a tree. EXPLORE MORE ANTIQUE OBJECTS BY D. LARSSON
Q: You’ve deftly combined modern and antique pieces. Can you tell us about this choice of furnishings? For example, that chinoiserie corner cabinet?
DL: I always like a mix of antiques with contemporary furnishings, that’s part of what Susan and I connected about, the elegant integration of styles and eras. On one hand we have the coffee table from the 70s, and then in the corner, that’s a very rare mid-eighteenth-century cabinet that was made in Stockholm.
I suspect it’s also from a castle. It looks very much like the one in the Chinese Pavilion at the royal residence at Drottningholm, a World Heritage site near Stockholm. The piece was restored and relacquered around 1830, a common practice back then. It’s outstanding in terms of its craftsmanship and the decorative painting in gold and silver leaf.
The dining area features a set of CHAIRS BY CARL JOHAN WADSTROM and a GUSTAVIAN DROP-LEAF TABLE. The cabinet is a Swedish Rococo piece.
It was made around 1790 and has its original paint, which is now gray with a touch of blue, with only a few minor retouches. Blue was used in painted Gustavian furniture, reserved for slightly finer pieces because it was more expensive.
The bedroom features a 19th-century Gustavian Barrel-Back Armchair.
These dining chairs are simple, yet so elegant.
The dining chairs are really quite special. They were made by the master chairmaker Carl Johan Wadstrom, who was based in Stockholm. It’s all about the proportions. If you get those right, you don’t need a lot of carving. And that’s typical of furniture made in the capital city, where many of the carpenters were appointed by the king. They were true artisan makers.
You have a fantastic-looking commode in the hallway that appears almost English.
That’s a fantastic piece. And yes, it was inspired by the English — it’s in the Georgian style, but it’s Swedish Baroque, with an alder root veneer. It’s gorgeous.
In the hallway is an 18th-century baroque commode, and among the artworks along the stairway is a signed 18th-century oil painting signed by A. Eklund.
In the kitchen, you have a more rustic-looking storage cabinet. Is that a country piece?
Yes, that’s an early 19th-century folk piece with a great patinated surface. It’s charming. The stool is also a folk piece, probably dating from 1790, with good transitional Rococo and Gustavian carvings. And across from it is a Swedish Baroque buffet with nine numbered drawers inside — this is a very rare, fine piece.
