Aalto 611

Choose from an assortment of styles, material and more with respect to the aalto 611 you’re looking for at 1stDibs. Each aalto 611 for sale was constructed with extraordinary care, often using wood, birch and fabric. Find 8 options for an antique or vintage aalto 611 now, or shop our selection of 2 modern versions for a more contemporary example of this long-cherished piece. Whether you’re looking for an older or newer aalto 611, there are earlier versions available from the 20th Century and newer variations made as recently as the 21st Century. A aalto 611 is a generally popular piece of furniture, but those created in Scandinavian Modern and Mid-Century Modern styles are sought with frequency. Many designers have produced at least one well-made aalto 611 over the years, but those crafted by Alvar Aalto, Artek and Huonekalu-Ja Rakennustyötedas Oy are often thought to be among the most beautiful.

Prices for a aalto 611 start at $600 and top out at $13,665 with the average selling for $1,611.

An architect and designer, Alvar Aalto deserves an immense share of the credit for bringing Scandinavian modernism and Nordic design to a prominent place in the global arena. In both his buildings and his vintage furniture — which ranges from chairs, stools, 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 with his wife, Aino Aalto, in 1930 as part of the overall design of a Finnish tuberculosis sanatorium.

Comfortable, yet light enough to be easily moved by patients, the Paimio 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 the headrest and beneath the knees, creating a sort of pillow effect. Aalto’s use of plywood had an 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 Aino, 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.