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Price category: 7,500 - 10,000 usd / eur

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This “Krister” armchair is among Swedish design icon Arne Norell’s cosiest works. This high-back armchair’s comfort is equalled by its stylishness and elegance.  

The chair is raised on a stained wood frame covered by beautiful, light coloured bouclé upholstery. A standout feature of this model is the adjustable and removable headrest, a sign of the Scandinavian design principle of functionality. The sitter of this chair is “hugged” by the ear flaps or wings on both sides of the backrest, and by the loose seat cushion on the raised bottom. Norell had a unique design idiom, which is clearly visible in this model: function, durability, timeless design, and perhaps above all, comfort. This traditional yet playful “Krister” armchair combines all of these attributes, which makes it one of the most sought after works of Norell.

This chair is marked with ‘Möbel AB Arne Norell’ and has been reupholstered in a premium bouclé fabric to complement and enhance its elegance and comfort. The factory in Aneby, Sweden has been famous for its furniture manufactured by hand. Norell Furniture still operates to this day, keeping the legacy of the great Swedish designer alive.

Condition:

In good vintage condition. Wear consistent with age and use. The armchair has recently been reupholstered in a premium bouclé fabric.

Dimensions:

27.95 in W x 30.31 in D x 41.53 in H; Seat height 14.96 in

71 cm W x 77 cm D x 105.5 cm H; Seat height 38 cm

About the designer:

The Swedish designer, Arne Norell was born in 1917 in Åsele, Sweden, and was active in the post-war era, at the height of international fascination with Scandinavian design.

While little biographical information is available about his formative years, it is known that he opened a furniture workshop in Stockholm in 1954. In 1958, he launched his eponymous manufacturing company, “Møbel AB Arne Norell”, on a two-acre farm in Småland. Through the course of his prolific career, this idyllic setting remained Norell’s central source of inspiration and the site where he designed and produced all of his furniture until he passed away in 1971.

Norell is often praised for pioneering “conceptual” furniture, because he employed traditional materials - leather, turned wood, bentwood, and metal, for example - in unexpected forms, often with lyrical results. His designs have an affinity with those of Danish designer Kaare Klint (1888-1954), who, a generation before, brought time-honoured, vernacular forms into modernist expression. In fact, Klint’s iconic Safari Chair (1933) inspired Norell to create the Sirocco Safari Chair (1964), which is lightweight, collapsible, and held together by leather support straps instead of glue or screws. Norell’s wood-framed InkaArmchair, Indra Sofa, and IlonaSofa (design dates unverified) are likewise held together by leather.

While Norell’s designs found a solid market within his lifetime, his greatest recognition came posthumously: The British Furniture Manufacturers Association awarded Norell’s low-slung, steel-framed, leather-clad Ari Chair (1966) “Show Piece of the Year” in 1973. Norell’s pieces have become increasingly collectible in the 2010s.

Today, Norell’s daughter and son-in-law, Marie Norell-Möller and Thomas Möller, carry on his work, operating under the name Norell Møbel AB. In 2014, the company celebrated its 60th anniversary. It is the only Swedish company that has continuously manufactured the entirety of Norell’s catalogue since the 1950s. ~H.