Alvar Aalto

Reportedly a gift from the glass artist and designer Simon Gate (1883-1945) to Axel Nordgren (born around 1908), as a wedding present around 1934-35. Nordgren worked as an engraver at Orrefors glassworks from 1927-30. Later as the head of the engraving workshop from the 1930s onwards. Nordgren's wife Nanny Nordgren worked at Simon Gate's home both before and after their wedding around 1934-35.
Thence by descent within the family.

The armchair is depicted in the family's living room when they recently had moved into the villa at Frösekevägen in Orrefors in the 1930s.

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.