- 119
Alvar Aalto
Estimate
8,000 - 12,000 GBP
bidding is closed
Description
- Alvar Aalto
- Early 'Savoy' Vase, model no. 9750, from the 'Eskimoerindens Skinnbuxa' series
- glass, still-blown into wood mould
Literature
domus, no. 125, May 1938, p. 36
Jennifer Hawkins Opie, Scandinavia: Ceramics & Glass in the Twentieth Century, exh. cat., London, 1989, p. 23, cat. no. 189
Peter Reed, ed., Alvar Aalto: Between Humanism and Modernism, exh. cat., New York, 1998, pp. 193-197, figs 139-144
Pirkko Tuukkanen, ed., Alvar Aalto: Designer, Vammala, 2002, pp. 199-202
Thomas Kellein, ed., Alvar & Aino Aalto. Design: Collection Bischofberger, exh. cat., Ostfildern-Ruit, 2004, p. 214
Mateo Kries, Johen Eisenbrand, eds, Alvar Aalto: Second Nature, exh. cat., Weil am Rhein, 2014, pp. 224-225, 563-564, cat. nos 341-342
Kaisa Koivisto, Pekka Korvenmaa, eds, Glass From Finland: in the Bischofberger Collection, Milan, 2015, pp. 136, 316, cat. no. 56
Jennifer Hawkins Opie, Scandinavia: Ceramics & Glass in the Twentieth Century, exh. cat., London, 1989, p. 23, cat. no. 189
Peter Reed, ed., Alvar Aalto: Between Humanism and Modernism, exh. cat., New York, 1998, pp. 193-197, figs 139-144
Pirkko Tuukkanen, ed., Alvar Aalto: Designer, Vammala, 2002, pp. 199-202
Thomas Kellein, ed., Alvar & Aino Aalto. Design: Collection Bischofberger, exh. cat., Ostfildern-Ruit, 2004, p. 214
Mateo Kries, Johen Eisenbrand, eds, Alvar Aalto: Second Nature, exh. cat., Weil am Rhein, 2014, pp. 224-225, 563-564, cat. nos 341-342
Kaisa Koivisto, Pekka Korvenmaa, eds, Glass From Finland: in the Bischofberger Collection, Milan, 2015, pp. 136, 316, cat. no. 56
Catalogue Note
Designed in 1936 for the 1937 Paris Worlds' Fair, the timeless and iconic form of the 'Savoy' vase echoes the countless bodies of water within Aalto's native Finland. Nature and organic shapes were intrinsic to Aalto's designs in both material and form, the designer himself stating 'Form must have a content, and that content must be linked with nature.'
The process of creating the vase was challenging technically. The present lot, an early example produced by the Karahula workshops (later moved to Ittala in 1949) was created through blowing the molten glass into a hand-formed wooden mould, creating the textured glass surface lost on later examples due to the change from wooden to steel moulds. The top was then cut with a diamond blade and the edges precisely polished to complete the form.