a pine stool "Utö", Nordiska Kompaniet, 1930's.
Height 45 cm, diameter 40 cm.
Minor wear, surface restored and with lacquer. The legs have a straighter angle than usually seen on these.
A summerhouse on an island "Kalkholmen" in lake Mälaren, outside Mariefred. The house was built in the early 1930's. In the same furnishing there was besides these two stools, an Utö table (sold at Bukowski's auction #628, lot #292), a Lovö table, a set of " chairs and a sofa Utö".
Axel Einar Hjorth is considered one of Sweden's most significant furniture designers during the 1920s and 30s. Hjorth's early employers included Svenska Möbelfabrikerna in Bodafors and the Stockholm Crafts Association. The big breakthrough came as chief architect for Nordiska Kompaniet, a position he took up in 1927 and held until 1938. Hjorth's first major assignment was the Nordiska Kompaniet's lavish stand at the World Exhibition in Barcelona in 1929, to then participate in several major international exhibitions during the following decade. In 1929, Hjorth also breaks new ground and designs the first series of rustic furniture in stained pine, the so-called sports cabin furniture that was named "Lovö", "Utö" and "Sandhamn" after the islands in the Stockholm archipelago.
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