Humppila

Humppila glass began in a converted farm barn. In 1952 a small group of local men, among them the Helander brothers and a former technician from the Nuutajärvi glassworks, founded Humppilan Lasi in the village of Humppila in southern Finland, two years after a fire had badly damaged Nuutajärvi nearby. The factory went on to become one of Finland's notable producers of art glass and household glass, and the pieces collectors look for today come mostly from its busy 1970s.

The early works were modest in size, with around two dozen employees blowing glass by hand. Restaurant glassware paid the bills at first, alongside decorative pieces made for the Christmas trade. When cheaper machine-pressed imports reached the market in the 1960s, the company shifted towards art glass, and in the late 1960s it launched the Fantasia series designed by Henrik Koivula. The change did not save the original firm: its stock was auctioned in 1970.

A new chapter started almost at once. The shipping owner Rolf Alander bought the equipment, set up Humppilan Uusi Lasitehdas, and in 1971 opened a modern factory beside the main road between Helsinki and Pori, complete with a shop for passing travellers. The 1970s were Humppila's strongest decade, when the factory produced a significant share of Finland's household and art glass. Its designers in this period included Tauno Wirkkala, whose work for the factory includes the Revontulet (Northern Lights) and Suomi designs, Kaija Aarikka, Börje Rajalin with the Cosmos series, and Pertti Santalahti, artistic director from 1974 to 1981, whose Kivi-Set and Kasvimaalla series remain among the most sought-after Humppila designs.

Much Humppila glass from this era is thick and weighty, in clear, amber, brown or green glass, often with textured or irregular surfaces that suggest ice, stone or natural growth. Over the years the factory also made pressed glass in runs too short for full automation, including pieces for Marimekko in the late 1980s and 1990s. Many art pieces are signed on the base with the designer's name and the word Humppila, and some still carry the factory's paper label, which helps with identification.

In 1986 the Wärtsilä group, owner of Nuutajärvi, bought the factory, and from 1988 it became part of Iittala-Nuutajärvi. Under later owners, including Hackman and Designor, Humppila turned to rustic everyday glassware, and from 1994 its products were sold under the Iittala brand. Industrial glass production in Humppila ended in 2008, when the furnaces were dismantled. The former factory site now operates as a shopping centre, while vintage Humppila glass continues to circulate among collectors of Finnish design.