Vintage Iittala glasses & dishware

Iittalla is one of the most recognizable brand names among fans of Nordic vintage and for good reason. Since its inception, the company has produced some of the finest glasses and dishware and is still thriving today.

Browse our vast selection of the most prized and popular items by Iittala and order today to give your dining experience just that little bit of extra classiness. All items in our inventory were made in the Nordic countries. We offer shipping to many places around the world including the US and Canada.

A short history of Iittala

Iittala was founded in 1881 in a Finnish town with the same name by Swedish entrepreneur Peter Abrahamson. The goal at the time was to manufacture different glass wares, mostly for professional use cases. Back then, as there was not a real glass manufacturing tradition in Finland to speak of, all the designs and workers were imported from other countries, most importantly Sweden.

In 1917, Iittala was sold to the Ahlström company and quickly, the company philosophy changed. Instead of importing foreign designs, Iittala’s direction started to promote domestic designing talents and focused more on household glasswares.

The breakthrough of Iittala on the world stage then happened in the 1930s due to the design genius of Aino and Alvar Aalto and their revolutionary ideas of functionalism. It was Alvar Aalto who designed the now famous Aalto vase, one of the most iconic Nordic vintage items that is still in production almost 100 years later.

The rise of Iittala, briefly halted by the effects of the second World War, continued in the second half of the century. Many of the most famous Finnish glass and dishware designers worked for the company in one way or another, among them illustrious names like Kaj Franck, Tapio Wirkala, Timo Sarpaneva or Oiva Toikka.

Iittala also started incorporating different materials into their designs like ceramics. At the same time, the quality standards for finished products were drastically increased ensuring that only masterfully crafted items leave the production site.

The brand Iittala still exists, though many fans prefer the vintage tableware created in the 20th century that you can find here in our shop.