Some objects feel right before one even knows why. A ring whose lines sit exactly where they should, a glass object whose colour catches the light in a way that is difficult to describe, a clasp that carries the traces of time and still feels timeless. This is the feeling Aegis Atreifs looks for, and it is around this feeling that the collection is built.
The store brings together jewellery, decorative objects, art glass, vases and design objects from European auctions, private collections and individual sources. The main focus is on jewellery and natural stones, but decorative glass, modernist design and vintage objects from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries also have a place, as long as they have something to say.
Nothing is brought in thoughtlessly. Every object is turned over and examined: the material, the stones, the construction, any marks, and the wear that tells its own story. Only then is it decided whether it meets the level the collection requires, and where it belongs among the other pieces.
This is where the curatorial work truly begins: the objects are placed in dialogue with one another. Material meets colour, form meets period, and a maker’s mark points toward another object from the same time or place. In this way, a whole takes shape, carried by the relationships between the parts. Aegis Look shows this in its most developed form, where selected pieces are brought together into compositions that can be worn, collected and owned.
Some objects are chosen for the craftsmanship behind them. Others for a stone, a form, a decorative force that is difficult to put into words, or simply for the presence they have in a room or on a hand. Whatever the reason, each piece is presented with the same care: clear information, a description worthy of the object, and honesty about both condition and context.
Behind Aegis Atreifs is Ulrik Hjartarhorn, Master of Arts, with a background in art history at Stockholm University and digital art history at Uppsala University. That background is not something that remains in a biography. It is visible in how the objects are analysed, attributed and finally presented.
Aegis Atreifs,
Ulrik Hjartarhorn