a stained pine "Lovö" table, Nordiska Kompaniet, Sweden 1930s.
Length 180 cm, width 75 cm, height 72.5 cm.
Wear, dry cracks.
Ordered for a villa interior in Stocksund, outside Stockholm, along with other NK furniture designed by Axel Einar Hjorth. The couple who furnished the house got married in 1933 and reportedly ordered the furniture around 1935, thence by descent.
See lots 286-288.
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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