200. AXEL EINAR HJORTH. Bar cabinet, own company, manufactured by Nordiska Kompaniet circa 1940, Swedish Modern.

Veneer in fiery myrtle with leg stand and contrasting bands in light jacaranda. Doors with intarsia decor in the form of flower urns and festoons, the leg stand with fields and stylized flowers, folding flap with wavy line decor. Upper part with shelf and drawer interior veneered in ash behind door pairs, lower part with illuminated mirror and copper clad bar interior behind folding flap. Branded AE HJORTH. Height 165, 98 x 41 cm

HISTORY
Few Swedish furniture architects have such a good international reputation or are so strongly associated with an era as Axel Einar Hjorth. As chief architect of Nordiska Kompaniet between 1927 and 1938, Hjorth was one of the most influential furniture designers of the interwar period. For NK's furniture department, he designed everything from simple furniture for serial production, to luxuriously flattering luxury furniture for Burgundy clients or world exhibitions. Perhaps it is precisely this breadth that makes Hjorth such an inimitable and impressive designer. In magnificent pieces such as the “Louis” cabinet for the 1929 Barcelona World's Fair, he perfected the luxurious classicism of the twentieth century, in order to adapt and rationalise his design language after the breakthrough of functionalism in 1930, and thus successfully manoeuvre the changes to the more austere and function-oriented ideals of the new age. For many today, Hjorth is perhaps best known for his stylish rustic pine furniture, which were once developed to furnish Swedish sports cabins — and which today gladly adorn celebrity homes on the other side of the Atlantic.

Hjorth deftly handled the transition from Swedish Grace to functionalism, and as the 1930s progressed, a new style emerged that has come to be known as Swedish Modern. Unlike stripped-down, undecorated functionalism, this softer form of modernism resumed traditional features and materials, and was more permissive of decorative elements, but without sacrificing either quality or innovative design language. Even this new style mastered the versatile Hjort. His magnificent cabinet “Paris”, sold in 2014 at Stockholms Auktionsverk, represented a milestone in the style's successful international launch, when it was shown at the 1937 Paris World's Fair. At the same time, the cabinet marked the architect's grand finale as NK's chief architect.

In 1938, Hjorth left his post at NK's furniture department, and set up shop at Kungsgatan 30. The shop became short-lived, but from the same address Hjorth ran his own architectural office for a number of years, from which he continued to supply much the same circle of well-ordered customers with splendid furniture. His contacts with Nordiska Kompaniet also continued, as between the years 1939-1943 he used the workshops of the department store in Nyköping for manufacturing. The auction's bar cabinet has been brought in during this time, and if you look closely at the burn mark on the back, you can see screw holes where the NK washer once sat. Probably this was removed, and instead stamped with AH Hjorth, to underline that the cabinet was created under its own firm. In many ways, this cabinet picks up where he left off with “Paris”; for once again, as many times before, Nordiska Kompaniet has produced a piece of furniture of masterful craftsmanship, whose excellent design language is signed Axel Einar Hjorth.

LITERATURE

The cabinet is documented in that the original drawing is preserved in the collections of Sörmlands Museum. For photography on the drawing, see “SLM D2022-0555 - Bar cabinet, drawing by Axel Einar Hjorth” available online via https://sokisamlingar.sormlandsmuseum.se/

For Hjorth's own company and shop, see Björk, Christian, Ekström, Thomas & Ericson, Eric, Axel Einar Hjorth: furniture architect, Signum, Stockholm, 2009, pp. 134-137.

See also Kristoffersson, Sara, NK's furniture: the craft, the design, the workshops and the department store, Sörmlands museum, Nyköping, 2023, p. 24.