Early stool with cognac leather and birch by Bruno Mathsson, Karl Mathsson 1941

View Similar Items

Bruno Mathsson Eva chair, Karl Mathsson 1941 Sweden modernist original collector

Bruno Mathsson "Eva" High Back Armchair in Birch & Hemp by Karl Mathsson, 1940s

Early Edition ‘Eva’ Side Chair by Bruno Mathsson for Karl Mathsson, Sweden 1960s

Early Bruno Mathsson Lounge Chair Model Pernilla 3, Karl Mathsson, Sweden

"Eva" arm chair with reading table by Bruno Mathsson, Karl Mathsson, 1959

'Berlin 57' Daybed by Bruno Mathsson for Firma Karl Mathsson

Bruno Mathsson Scandinavian Modern Chaiselongue Model 36 by Karl Mathsson, 1964

Bruno Mathsson Lounge Chair "Pernilla 2" w. Ottoman, Karl Mathsson, 1972

Rare ‘Berlin’ daybed by Bruno Mathsson for Firma Karl Mathsson, Sweden 1969

Early model 36 chaise longue by Bruno Mathsson, Leather and beech, 1940s

Model 36 chaise longues by Bruno Mathsson for Firma Karl Mathsson 1940s Sweden

Bruno Mathsson model 36, Karl Mathsson 1938 Sweden modernist original collector

Want more images or videos?

Request additional images or videos from the seller

1 of 12

Early stool with cognac leather and birch by Bruno Mathsson, Karl Mathsson 1941

About the Item

Early stool designed by Bruno Mathsson. Produced by Firma Karl Mathsson in 1941. Very early example with paper label, hand signed BM -41 for the manufacturing year, 1941. Made from birch and upholstered in cognac leather. Very good vintage condition with age related wear and patina to the leather. Bruno Mathsson (13 January 1907 – 17 August 1988) was a Swedish furniture designer and architect whose ideas aligned with functionalism, modernism, as well as old Swedish crafts tradition. Mathsson was raised in the town of Värnamo in the Småland region of Sweden, the son of a master cabinet maker.[2] After a short time of education in school, he started to work in his father's gallery. H e soon found a great interest in furniture and especially chairs, their function and design. In the 1920s and 30s he developed a techniques for building bentwood chairs with hemp webbing. The first model, called the Grasshopper, was used at Värnamo Hospital in 1931.[3] Edgar Kaufmann Jr., director of the Industrial Design Department at the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA), collected Mathsson's chairs and included them in several exhibitions in the 1940s.[4] Kaufmann considered Mathsson's importance in furniture design on par with that of Alvar Aalto.[5] Kaufmann and his family also had a Mathsson chair at their house Fallingwater.[6] Mathsson was also an accomplished architect; he completed about 100 structures in the 1940s and 50s.[7] He was the first architect in Sweden to build all-glass structures with heated floors. His furniture showroom in Värnamo (1950) was a significant example; it is well-preserved and open to the public today. For his glass houses, he developed double- and triple-pane insulated glass units called "Bruno-Pane".[8] He traveled extensively in the United States and was strongly influenced by the solar houses of George Fred Keck. Mathsson's architecture was also influenced by a visit to the Eames House by Charles and Ray Eames in March 1949 just as it was being completed. Designer: Bruno Mathsson Manufacturer: Firma Karl Mathsson Year: 1941 Condition: Very good Dimensions: W. 52 D.33 H.42/40 cm

Creator:
Firma Karl Mathsson (Maker),Bruno Mathsson (Designer)
Dimensions:
Height: 16.54 in (42 cm)Width: 20.48 in (52 cm)Depth: 13 in (33 cm)Seat Height: 15.75 in (40 cm)
Style:
Scandinavian Modern (Of the Period)
Materials and Techniques:
Birch,Leather
Place of Origin:
Sweden
Period:
1940-1949
Date of Manufacture:
1941
Condition:
Wear consistent with age and use.
Seller Location:
Hägersten, SE
Reference Number:
1stDibs: LU2121338091812

Shop All Bruno Mathsson

Bruno Mathsson

As the descendant of four generations of Swedish master cabinetmakers, Bruno Mathsson was born to design furniture. Mathsson was known as a methodical perfectionist who made usefulness the fundamental attribute of his iconic lounge chairs, tables, armchairs and other works, yet he was also a ceaseless experimenter, who constantly searched for improvements in form, materials and methods of design.

Like the Finnish designer Alvar Aalto, Mathsson was one of the first Scandinavians to embrace undulating, biomorphic forms in furniture. His early pieces such as the Eva and Pernilla series of chairs incorporate dramatically flowing bent beechwood frames, making them some of the most instantly recognizable works of 20th-century design.

Mathsson was also a pioneer of ergonomics — he is said to have based the contours of his chairs on the impression his body made when he sat in a snow bank — and used supple, accommodating woven webbing for seats. His concern for practicality is shown by pieces such as the Maria table. An elegant design with gate legs and hinged leaves, the table measures more than nine feet long when fully extended, but folds down to just nine inches in thickness.

From the mid-1940s through the 1950s, Mathsson focused on architecture, designing and building houses with insulated, triple-glazed window walls and heated floors — construction that flew in the face of traditional wood-clad Swedish residential design, and consequently met with some skepticism. He returned to furniture in the 1960s, employing an entirely new suite of materials: Stainless-steel framing and mesh seats feature in pieces like the Jetson chair; with the mathematician Piet Hein, Mathsson designed the Super-Elliptical table, which has a laminate top and four-part tubular steel legs that sprout like flower stems from a single base.

Bruno Mathsson’s stylistic flexibility as a designer made him a creator whose pieces meet all tastes and needs.

Find vintage Bruno Mathsson dining tables, seating and other furniture on 1stDibs.