Pair of Commissioned Ilmari Tapiovaara Lounge Chairs, Sheepskin, Merivaara 1950s

A pair of chairs by Tapiovaara that are quite rare and were designed for a private residence. Tapiovaara had quite a lot of those commisions through his interior design office. The chairs are of a metal frame with brass details and cushons upholstered in natural sheepskin.
Included is a picture of 2 similar chairs at the Design Museom exhibition in Helsinki in 2014, which marked the 100 anniversary (he was born in 1914) of Tapiovaara´s birth.

Yrjö Ilmari Tapiovaara(1914-1999) was an internationally renowned Finnish designer best known for his furnishings and textiles.
In WW2, Tapiovaara designed dugouts and field furniture for the Finnish Army, a challenging task given that only local wood could be used, and no nails or screws were available. Tapiovaara furniture was always a part of the whole, were architecture and interior design went hand in hand.
Tapiovaara worked in his early years as a designer for Asko and designed a number of classical chairs as Domus, Aslak, Kiki and Nana.
Tapiovaara won a number of gold medals at the Triennals in 1951,1954(2 golds),1957, and 1960. In the 1950s Tapiovaara worked internationally, for example as an assistant professor at the Illinois Institute of Technology. At the same time he worked with Mies van der Rohen in Chicago.
In an article entitled `A chair is not just a seat` it is the key to the interior decoration scheme, Tapiovaara emphasizes the importance and attention he paid to chairs. To him a chair was the beginning of a chain reaction, if one is on the right track, this reaction helps the other phases of the interior decoration.