SWEDISH FURNITURE DESIGNER AND ARCHITECT · 1907–1988
Bruno Mathsson
Bruno Mathsson is Swedish, but his lounge chairs in bent beech and woven hessian belong in every Danish design collection. We reweave and reupholster Mathsson’s chairs, and the Superellipse table he designed with Piet Hein often stands with Series 7 chairs in Danish homes.
The cabinetmaker’s son from Värnamo
Mathsson was born in Värnamo in Småland in 1907 and learned the cabinetmaker’s trade from his father. He studied how the body sits and in 1931 designed the Grasshopper, a lounge chair in laminated beech with a seat of woven hessian webbing. It was followed by Eva in 1934 and Pernilla in 1944, which are still produced by Mathsson International.
Mathsson was also an architect and built glass houses with underfloor heating in the 1950s, long before it became common.
The Superellipse and the Danish years
In 1964 Mathsson designed the Superellipse table together with the Danish poet and mathematician Piet Hein: a shape between circle and rectangle that Piet Hein had found for Sergels Torg in Stockholm. The table was produced by Fritz Hansen and is still in production, with legs that clip on without tools.
Mathsson’s lounge chairs are covered with woven hessian or sheepskin. We reweave them with original webbing and upholster Pernilla and Jetson in leather and wool.