This “Pall” or “Palle” stool was designed and manufactured by K. J. Pettersson & Söner Storvreta in the second half of the 1970s. This model has long been misattributed to Axel Einar Hjorth.

This Pall tabouret is made of solid pine wood with several individual parts glued together and crafted into this sculptural and organic shape. Thanks to the individual blocks that comprise the stool, the pattern and grain differs on every model, giving each Pall a unique colour and pattern.

The seat is carved to accommodate the human body, while the edges are rounded out nicely, preventing the stool from looking blocky. This sturdy pine stool is one of the roughly two hundred that were manufactured in Sweden.

SOLD

Condition:

In good vintage condition. Wear consistent with age and use. Item has some small chips and marks. The wood has a nice patina.

Dimensions:

14.37 in W x 23.62 in D x 11.15 in H

36.5 cm W x 60 cm L x 36 cm H

About the designer:

The “Pall” or “Palle” tabouret has long been associated with Hjorth, however, many with knowledge in the field suspected it to be a misattribution both in terms of period and designer. Swedish auction house, Uppsala Auktionskammare finally put an end to the mystery surrounding this stool design in early January 2020, when in their Decorative Sale auction catalogue a model of the previously misattributed Pall stool was for the first time attributed to K.J. Pettersson & Söner.

The Swedish town of Storvreta was known for its many furniture manufacturers and the largest among them was Karl Julius Pettersson and Sons (Gösta, Nils, Karl-Erik and Birger respectively) furniture manufactory. Pettersson & Söner started as a small-scale manufacturing business in 1933 in a building at the address Fullerövägen 9. Production grew rapidly, resulting in a larger factory and furniture shop, now under the company’s name, AB K. J. Pettersson & Söner. In 1948 a separate furniture store / exhibition hall was started on the property next to the furniture factory, which a few years later was moved to more suitable premises. In 1953 the expansion continued with another, even larger factory building which still survives.

The furniture company specialised primarily in sofa beds with patented constructions. In low season the company employed around fifty to sixty people, while in high season, the number grew to around a hundred. As Karl-Erik Pettersson reminisced:

“A good thing was that we didn't have to ask any authority for permission to build during the first 10-12 years. It was just putting the shovel in the ground and building as we wished. And we really built. We expanded the factory and we built it privately. But, as the municipal bureaucracy expanded, more and more people wanted to be involved in deciding what we should do and how we would do it. We continued to specialize in sofa beds, corner beds and countertops. And it went well and time and time again we got our sofas jury-selected at the big furniture fairs.” K. J. Pettersson & Söner worked in Storvreta for 48 years until closing down in 1980. ~H.