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Price category: 2,500 - 5,000 usd / eur

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This “kubbstol” or “kubbestol” is a traditional Scandinavian chair made from a log. The kubbestol was quite common in some districts of Norway from about 1750 to 1960, where it was usually made from logs with significant girth and three to four feet in length.

The tree trunk was hollowed out so that the base (from the seat down) would be cylindrical while the back of the chair continues upward from the seat in a curved shield that makes the chair both snug and comfortable. Most, but not all, kubbestols were decorated with carving, painting, or some combination of the two. This chair has beautiful folk patterns hand carved into it, with visible, raw craftsmanship. Carved and painted decorations would differ from district to district and styles changed over time. While the log is seemingly roughly shaped, this chair is surprisingly comfortable, as functionality has been historically important for Scandinavian furniture makers. The kubbestol was often placed next to the open-hearth fireplace or next to the bed, and it was reserved for the head of the household. Large, impressive farmhouses might have had several richly carved and painted kubbestols as a display of wealth and status.

These days the log chair has become a symbol of Scandinavian roots for many families with ties to Norway, Sweden, or Denmark. The kubbestol is a reminder of our rural heritage and a time when most things in and around the home were made by hand from materials found in nature. Essentially a chair hewn from a tree trunk, this chair is as closely associated with Norway as Peer Gynt, and may have led just as many lives and have just as many tales to tell.

Condition:

In good vintage condition. Wear consistent with age and use. The chair has cracks and marks and discolouration. The hand carved patterns remain in good condition.

Dimensions:

17.32 in W x 21.06 in D x 25 in H; Seat height 14.17 in

44 cm W x 53.5 cm D x 63.5 cm H; Seat height 36 cm

About the Design:

The earliest records of the kubbestol/kubbstol in Scandinavia are in the form of small silver amulets: one from a burial site on the island of Björkö to the west of Stockholm, which dates to the 9th century, and two found amongst a collection of money and jewellery unearthed at Fölhagen on the Swedish island of Gotland and dated to the 10th century.

The three small silver amulets which bear an uncanny similarity, and alongside several other amulets depict the so-called kubbstolar. They are kept today by the Statens Historiska Museum (The Swedish History Museum) in Stockholm. In addition to silver amulets the Statens Historiska Museum also has two amulets in amber, one each from Björkö and Gotland.

Whereby it is important to remember that a representation of a kubbstol created in 9th and/or 10th century Sweden shouldn’t be confused with the physical existence of the kubbstol in 9th and/or 10th century Sweden. That while it strongly implies, they almost certainly were physically in existence in Sweden; they alone confirm that kubbstolar were known in Sweden, and presumably had an importance and significance. Why else use them as amulets, and as amulets crafted from precious, valuable, materials? In 1916 Bernhard Salin noted that “due to lack of time and space, I have to refrain from considering the interesting question of why the kubbstol during the Viking Age was made in the form of a pendant.”

The kubbstol can also be found on a carving originating from the Sanda churchyard according to Hugo Junger, who argues that the enclosed space in which the three figures in the top part of the carving find themselves, is Valhalla, that famed residence where slain, and favoured, Nordic warriors enjoyed the afterlife. While Odin’s chair is only decipherable with an excellent and biased imagination, Frigg’s chair is very clearly a kubbstol. And if Frigg and Odin furnished Valhalla, or perhaps just their private rooms and/or the public reception rooms, with kubbstolar, then that not only makes the kubbstol one of the original seats of power, but bequeaths the kubbstol an importance and significance that justifies amulets crafted from precious, valuable, materials.

Exactly what that significance is and was, other than, potentially, a simple symbol of the power of Odin and/or Frigg, we know not. As with all items of vernacular furniture the search for origins invariably leads one to supposition and fantasy, rather than your actual facts. However, the kubbstol became a symbol of Scandinavian history and culture, with a unique appearance and craftsmanship that contains history just like a book. ~H.