In 1917, the painter Edward Hald (1883-1980) joined the design department of Orrefors Glasbruk, which was directed by the illustrator Simon Gate (1883-1945) and the master glassblower Knut Bergqvist (1873-1953). Since 1913, this Swedish glasshouse had focused on art glass, and by the time of Hald’s arrival, it had already developed its famous ruby-tinted Graal glass. Gate and Hald, who discussed their proposals at length with the firm’s engravers and blowers, made their first designs for engraving on colorless glass in 1917. By 1929, Orrefors employed at least 36 engravers, a fact that attests to the popularity of its engraved glass during the 1920s. While Gate’s designs tended to be conservative and classical, Hald, who had studied with Henri Matisse, was a modernist. "Negerhyddan (African Hut)" was the first of Hald’s designs in which the engraved illustration was perfectly adapted to the form of the covered vase.