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About the Item
Pernilla Lounge Arm chair. The seating surface consists of woven webbing slung between a frame of steam-bent beech. This particular chair comes in original black canvas webbing, which is very rare.
In 1944 Mathsson created the first of what would later be called the Pernilla line of chairs. It was similar to the 1941 Miranda Chair, but here Mathsson discarded the waterfall-style front, instead having the chair terminate in the manner of a ramp. He also moved the sitter’s centre of gravity lower to the ground, as seen with this particular chair.
The early chairs were produced Karl Mathsson AB in Vrnamo, Sweden, Bruno Mathsson’s father.
In the 1950s Mathsson had shifted away from furniture to focus on architecture, however in the 1960s he returned to the furniture, collaborating with Swedish manufacturer DUX, who was interested in bringing the Pernilla back.
The frame is stamped with the makers mark Dux.
The head cushion in black suede leather has been newly made to the original specifications. Comes with a new sheepskin if desired.
Dimensions: H: 98 cm W: 65 cm D: 90 cm SH: 27 cm (Bottom of the seat).Creator: Bruno Mathsson (Designer),Dux of Sweden (Manufacturer)Design: Pernilla Chair and OttomanPernilla SeriesDimensions: Height: 38.98 in (99 cm)Width: 25.6 in (65 cm)Depth: 33.47 in (85 cm)Seat Height: 11.82 in (30 cm)Style: Scandinavian Modern (In the Style Of)Materials and Techniques: Beech,Canvas,SheepskinPlace of Origin: SwedenPeriod: Mid-20th CenturyDate of Manufacture: 1970-1980Condition: GoodReupholstered. Wear consistent with age and use. The head cushion in black suede leather has been newly made to the original specifications. The black canvas is original.Seller Location: Vorst, BEReference Number: 1stDibs: LU7441238918022Shop All Bruno Mathsson
Bruno Mathsson
As the descendant of four generations of Swedish master cabinetmakers, Bruno Mathsson was born to design furniture. Mathsson was known as a methodical perfectionist who made usefulness the fundamental attribute of his iconic lounge chairs, tables, armchairs and other works, yet he was also a ceaseless experimenter, who constantly searched for improvements in form, materials and methods of design.
Like the Finnish designer Alvar Aalto, Mathsson was one of the first Scandinavians to embrace undulating, biomorphic forms in furniture. His early pieces such as the Eva and Pernilla series of chairs incorporate dramatically flowing bent beechwood frames, making them some of the most instantly recognizable works of 20th-century design.
Mathsson was also a pioneer of ergonomics he is said to have based the contours of his chairs on the impression his body made when he sat in a snow bank and used supple, accommodating woven webbing for seats. His concern for practicality is shown by pieces such as the Maria table. An elegant design with gate legs and hinged leaves, the table measures more than nine feet long when fully extended, but folds down to just nine inches in thickness.
From the mid-1940s through the 1950s, Mathsson focused on architecture, designing and building houses with insulated, triple-glazed window walls and heated floors construction that flew in the face of traditional wood-clad Swedish residential design, and consequently met with some skepticism. He returned to furniture in the 1960s, employing an entirely new suite of materials: Stainless-steel framing and mesh seats feature in pieces like the Jetson chair; with the mathematician Piet Hein, Mathsson designed the Super-Elliptical table, which has a laminate top and four-part tubular steel legs that sprout like flower stems from a single base.
Bruno Mathssons stylistic flexibility as a designer made him a creator whose pieces meet all tastes and needs.
Find vintage Bruno Mathsson dining tables, seating and other furniture on 1stDibs.
Shop All Dux of Sweden
Dux of Sweden
Today, Swedish manufacturer DUXs most popular furniture lines as well as the furnishings created by its first president, Folke Ohlsson are synonymous with the work that vintage mid-century modern design obsessives love. Also important, the brand is known for some of the most commonplace means of furniture shipping and production in the modern era.
In Sweden, Studio Ljungs Industrier AB is the large family-owned parent company of Duxiana (in America, DUX). Initially a purveyor of bedding that is today celebrated for its ergonomically guided designs, Ljungs Industrier was founded by entrepreneur (and chocolate maker) Efraim Ljung in 1926. In 1950, Folke Ohlsson, then leading Ljungs Industriers design team, decamped to the States to explore how he could expand DUXs business, which at that point included a wide range of furniture. Ohlsson established a DUX office not long after he arrived in California, first in San Francisco and later in Burlingame.
On the West Coast, the booming postwar American market was eager to embrace DUXs affordable and practical bedroom furnishings, tables, armchairs and other seating. Characterized by sleek walnut and teak frames and low-slung silhouettes, the brands designs were emblematic of a generation of Scandinavian modernism that had gained popularity owing to visionaries such as product designer and architect Greta Magnusson-Grossman, who arrived in California from Sweden a decade prior to Ohlsson, and Finn Juhl, who created a Danish modern line for Michigans Baker Furniture Company in 1951.
DUX frequently collaborated with top-tier furniture design talent among them Bruno Mathsson, Edward Wormley and Alf Svensson, a chief designer in the Malm, Sweden, office of Ljungs Industrier expanding the brands portfolio and establishing credibility as a design source. Ohlssons own designs, such as his comfortable leather lounges and wool-upholstered reclining rocking chairs, continue to be among the brands most desirable and most imitated however.
In 1949, DUX put into practice an idea that Ohlsson patented for the so-called knock-down, or KD, chair, a term referencing easy, flat-pack assembly. It saved DUX space in warehouses and money on transportation and was a concept that would provide inspiration to hundreds of subsequent companies most notably fellow Swedish brand IKEA.
Today, vintage DUX sofas and dining chairs are valuable collectors items. Find this coveted seating and other authentic DUX furniture on 1stDibs.
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