Wärmdö Table in Pine by Axel Einar Hjorth with Tile Top by Anna-Lisa Thomson

Wärmdö side or coffee table by Axel Einar Hjorth (1888-1959) for Nordiska Kompaniet, featuring a tile top hand-painted by Anna-Lisa Thomson with Upsala-Ekeby, depicting a cheerful Amazon fishing with a spear, the table itself having a square top with chamfered sides and rounded corners on four legs, with a shelf positioned one third of height below top, in solid pine, Sweden, 1937

Hjorth's iconic pine furniture designs from the 1930s, with their distinctive combination of vernacular Swedish furniture types with the designer's lyrical take on Modern/ Functionalist designed are today the most coveted examples of his work. Conceived as furniture for upscale vacation homes, the pine collections were named after islands near Stockholm where Swedes might have summer homes, such as Utö and Lovö. Wärmdö is an island just east of Stockholm in the archipelago.

In the 1930s, Anna-Lisa Thomson (1905-1952), along with Sven Erik Skawonius and Vicke Lindstrand, changed the direction of production at the Upsala-Ekeby pottery to a clever and modern sensibility that garnered awards at world fairs in Paris 1937 and New York 1939.