Alvar Aalto - The Collector: Icons of Design New York Tuesday, December 16, 2014 | Phillips
  • Provenance

    Dansk Møbelkunst, Copenhagen
    Acquired from the above by the present owner, 2006

  • Literature

    "Karhula," Domus, no. 125, May 1938, p. 36
    Aarno Ruusuvuori, ed., Alvar Aalto: 1898-1976, exh. cat., The Museum of Finnish Architecture, Helsinki, 1978, p. 89, fig. 125
    Alvar and Aino Aalto as Glass Designers, exh. cat., Iittala Glass Museum, Sävypaino, 1988, cat. no. 45
    Pikko Tukkanen, Alvar Aalto Designer, Vammala, 2002, pp. 145, 200

  • Artist Biography

    Alvar Aalto

    Finnish • 1898 - 1976

    In contrast with the functionalism of the International Style (as well the neoclassicism put forward by the Nazi and Soviet regimes), Alvar Aalto brought a refreshing breath of humanism to modern design: "True architecture exists only where man stands in the center," he wrote. Aalto designed furniture in stack-laminated plywood composed of Finnish birch, which was cost-effective and lent warmth to his interiors. Aalto also revived Finnish glass design with his entries in the various Karhula-Iitala glassworks competitions throughout the 1930s.

    In 1936 he won first place for a collection of colorful, wavy vases in various sizes titled Eskimoerindens skinnbuxa (The Eskimo Woman’s Leather Breeches). The vases were an immediate success and the most popular size, now known as the "Savoy" vase, is still in production today. Aalto's freeform designs, in harmony with human needs and nature, anticipated the organic modernism of the 1950s and 1960s; in particular, his innovations in bent plywood had a major impact on designers such as Charles and Ray Eames.

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11

Vase, model no. 9749, from the "Eskimoerindens skinnbuxa" sketch series

designed 1936, produced circa 1949
Clear mold-blown glass.
5 3/4 in. (14.5 cm) high
Produced by Karhula-Iittala, Finland.

Estimate
$18,000 - 24,000 

Sold for $6,250

Contact Specialist
Alexander Payne
Worldwide Head of Design
London
+44 20 7318 4052

Alex Heminway
Director of Design
New York
+1 212 940 1268

The Collector: Icons of Design

New York Auction 16 December 2014 5pm