Alvar Aalto
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a burled birch 'model 75' side table, Aalto Design, Hedemora, Sweden 1946-56.
Frame of beech. 60 x 50, height 60 cm.
Stains, wear.
More information
Artek in Hedemora, Dalecarlia Sweden 1946-1956.
On 12th April 1946, the Swedish offshoot of the company Artek, opened their first factory at Callerholsgatan in Hedemora. Alvar Aalto’s new factory was a collaboration with Ernst Sundh Byggnad’s company and the goal was to be able to secure deliveries of Aalto’s various furniture designs to the rest of Europe and, above all, to the USA.
The local entrepreneur Ernst Sundh had a good relationship with Aino and Alvar Aalto, quickly received large purchase orders from the USA. Due to long waits for payments from creditors, however, profitability was low and Aalto decided to close production after ten years. In 1957 the factory switched to producing kitchen equipment.
Designer
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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