Alvar Aalto "Chair of Our Times", a Collector's Gem

About the Item

This minimalist functionalist chair known as "The product of our time", is a rare gem and is the first chair born of the Alvar Aalto - Otto Korhonen collaboration that went on to influence and change how chairs were made. Very clean-lined, simplified stained and lacquered birch plywood designed in 1928-29 by Alvar Aalto and manufactured by Otto Korhonen - Huonekalu ja Rakennustyötehdas. The archive picture is from the 1932 "The homemaker's guide" and was the first time the young Alvar Aalto's name was mentioned as the designer of the chair. Before this date, more weight was given to the already established and much more experienced Otto Korhonen. The real width 47.5cm.

Creator:

Huonekalu-Ja Rakennustyötedas Oy (Cabinetmaker),Alvar Aalto (Designer)

Dimensions:

Height: 31.89 in (81 cm)Width: 18.9 in (48 cm)Depth: 19.69 in (50 cm)Seat Height: 16.93 in (43 cm)

Style:

Scandinavian Modern (Of the Period)

Materials and Techniques:

Birch,Lacquer

Place of Origin:

Finland

Period:

1920-1929

Date of Manufacture:

1929-1932

Condition:

Wear consistent with age and use. The overall impression is good.

Seller Location:

Helsinki, FI

Reference Number:

1stDibs: LU6346233518642

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Shop All Alvar Aalto

Alvar Aalto

An architect and designer, Alvar Aalto deserves an immense share of the credit for bringing Scandinavian modernism to a prominent place in the global arena. In both his buildings and in his vintage furniture — which ranges from chairs, tables and lighting to table- and glassware — Aalto’s sensitivity to the natural world and to organic forms and materials tempered the hardness of rationalist design.

Relatively few Aalto buildings exist outside Finland. (Just four exist in the United States, and only one — the sinuous 1945 Baker House dormitory at M.I.T. — is easily visited.) International attention came to Aalto, whose surname translates to English as “wave,” primarily through his furnishings.

Instead of the tubular metal framing favored by the Bauhaus designers and Le Corbusier, Aalto insisted on wood. His aesthetic is best represented by the Paimio armchair, developed in 1930 as part of his overall design of a Finnish tuberculosis sanatorium. Comfortable, yet light enough to be easily moved by patients, the chair’s frame is composed of two laminated birch loops; the seat and back are formed from a single sheet of plywood that scrolls under at the headrest and beneath the knees, creating a sort of pillow effect. Aalto’s use of plywood had enormous influence on Charles and Ray Eames, Arne Jacobsen, Marcel Breuer and others who later came to the material.

Concerned with keeping up standards of quality in the production of his designs, Aalto formed the still-extant company Artek in 1935, along with his wife, Aino Aalto, whose glass designs were made by the firm. In the latter medium, in 1936 the Aaltos together created the iconic, undulating Savoy vase, so-called for the luxe Helsinki restaurant for which the piece was designed.

Artek also produced Aalto pendants and other lighting designs, many of which — such as the Angel’s Wing floor lamp and the Beehive pendant — incorporate a signature Aalto detail: shades made of concentric enameled-metal rings graduated down in diameter. The effect of the technique is essential Alvar Aalto: at once precise, simple, and somehow poetic.

Find a collection of vintage Alvar Aalto stools, vases, dining tables and other furniture on 1stDibs.