a "Savoy" mould blown glass vase, model 9750, Karhula, Finland 1937-49.
Clear glass, engraved signature Alvar Aalto - Karhula, height 14,2 cm.
Rim chip, wear.
The model was exhibited at the Paris World's Fair in 1937.
Pirkko Tuukkanen (ed), "Alvar Aalto Designer", Alvar Aalto Museum 2002, see pp 200-201.
The model was designed in 1936 as part of "Eskimoeriondens skinnbuxa" series which won first prize in a design competition organized by Karhula - iittala Glassworks in 1936.
Produced at the Karhula Glassworks from 1937 onwards with product number 9750 in clear glass, Rio brown, azure, green and smoky grey versions for the 1937 Paris World's Fair and other exhibitions. The model was moved to Iittala in 1949 and since then it has appeared in product catalogues as model 3030 in different versions.
Alvar Aalto is one of Finland's most prominent architects and designers and one of Scandinavia's biggest proponents of modern architecture and design. Several of the furniture and vases he designed are today considered iconic design classics, including the Savoy vases, the Beehive lamp, and Armchair, model '31'.Alvar Aalto is the most internationally famous Finnish architect and designer. Aalto was a great ambassador for Finnish design at a time when the Finnish people were thinking about how to present themselves to the rest of the world. He gave equal weight to form and function, and was inspired by the Finnish landscape. Aalto is one of the most important representatives of modern architecture and has created its own architecture direction, whose aesthetic effect is based on careful planning of the buildings in relation to the environment, a human dimension and good sense of material.
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