Phillips: "Nordic Design" London Sept 26 2013
LOT 273 AXEL EINAR HJORTH
High-backed 'Caesar' chair, circa 1928
Estimate £10,000 - 15,000
LOT 258 AXEL EINAR HJORTH
'Grand' chest of drawers, circa 1930
Estimate £15,000 - 20,000
How would you describe the aesthetic expression of Hjorth's works?
Aesthetic Hjorth's furniture followed national and international trends. While his furniture for Stockholms Stads Hantverks Förening and early furniture for NK were Neo-Classical or Swedish grace, they shifted to modernism in the late 1920´s. The really interesting is the furniture in pine, created from 1929 and onwards, which mixes aesthetic from peasant handicraft with international modernism in a deep personal way. The “tastemakers” or the Swedish Society of Crafts and Design ignored him totally both at the time and later.