Alvar Aalto / Otto Korhonen, Birch and Plywood Armchair Model 50101, 1929-30

This extremely rare solid birch and bent birch plywood armchair was designed by Finnish architect Alvar Aalto and Otto Korhonen, who was one of the best known Finnish cabinetmakers and factory owners. Otto founded Huonekalu- ja Rakennustyötehdas and his collaboration with architect Alvar Aalto paved the way for the use of bent wood in furniture making and revolutionized the industry.
This important chair is model 50101 and was designed and produced in 1929-1930. The model was first presented in the legendary 1929 Turku Fair. The model is also considered as the predecessor of the hallway chair designed later in the 1930s.
This chair has an excellent beautiful patina and retains the original black stained colour. It was painted white at some point, but we had the white paint removed professionally while keeping shades of it here and there so as to keep the history of the chair in sight.
We happen to have 2 of these in stock, in case the buyer wants a pair.

Alvar Aalto (1898-1976) is a world famous architect and designer. He was well known for designing his own line of furniture and lighting for the numerous buildings that he designed worldwide. His work includes architecture, furniture, textiles, glassware, sculptures and paintings. He never regarded himself as an artist, seeing painting and sculpture as branches of a tree that stem from architecture.

Aalto's career from the 1920s-1970s is reflected in the styles of his work, ranging from Classicism to Modernism and to an organic style from the 1940s onwards. Aalto and his wife Aino were famous for not only designing the buildings, but the interior surfaces, furniture, lamps and even the glassware for those buildings. Aalto's furniture designs are Scandinavian Modernism at its best, especially his technical innovations on the bent plywood furniture, which in turn had a great impact on Mid-Century Modernist furniture.

Aalto's works are highly sought after and some fetch record prices in auctions and the design world. Of course his works are also widely collected and can be found in numerous private collections and famous museums.