Chairs by Josef Frank exhibition opens – with the launch of three new chairs from the historical archive

This year’s first exhibition at Svenskt Tenn highlights Josef Frank’s philosophy for chair design and comfort. The full breadth of Josef Frank’s chair design will be shown, along with three new Josef Frank chairs launched from the historical archive.

“The planning for this exhibition began already a couple of years ago. We wanted to highlight the genuine and what is truly Svenskt Tenn, namely Josef Frank’s furniture making that he has become so renown for. Josef Frank had his own philosophy about this everyday piece of furniture and how to design a chair in the best way. This is an important and sustainable knowledge that we want to share,” says Thommy Bindefeld, marketing and creative director at Svenskt Tenn.

The exhibition shows the full breadth of Josef Frank’s chair design. In addition, three new chairs with different functions and expressions will be presented, taken from Svenskt Tenn’s historical archive, and all designed by Josef Frank.

Armchair P4
Josef Frank designed a number of bentwood chairs in the late 1920s, some of which were produced for Thonet-Mundus. The P4 bentwood chair’s original sketch has been preserved in Svenskt Tenn’s archive and probably never been produced before. The chair is manufactured at Gemla, the only factory in Sweden today that manufactures bentwood furniture. Between 8-10 people are involved in the advanced process.
Price: Chair 12 000 SEK, Cushion 6 800 SEK

Chair 1179
Chair 1179 was designed by Josef Frank in 1947. At this time he had just come home after his stay in America and had begun working with Larsson Korgmakare in Stockholm. The chair’s form was inspired by historical Egyptian design and made by hand in leather, mahogany and rattan. The frame for Chair 1179 is made of mahogany at Gärsnäs, a family-owned factory in Österlen. After the chair pieces are joined together the seat, made of natural tanned leather from the Tärnsjö tannery, is nailed to the frame by hand. The chair is then sent to Larsson Korgmakare in Stockholm, which takes over with crafting the back of the chair.
Price: 16 000 SEK

Armchair 930
Josef Frank designed Armchair 930 in the 1940s, with the idea of creating a piece of furniture that would accompany a makeup table in the bedroom. It’s a smaller club chair on high legs. Today it is manufactured at O.H. Sjögren’s furniture factory in Tranås, which has been manufacturing upholstered furniture for Svenskt Tenn since 1982. Making Svenskt Tenn’s upholstered furniture is a time-consuming process requiring great craftsmanship. A team of exceptional furniture makers, seamstresses and upholsterers lies behind this production, led by the fourth generation of the Sjögren family.
Price: 27 000 SEK

“The value of solid craft tradition becomes so apparent when we now launch these three diverse chairs from the archive. When good design and know-how of the craft meet, it results in a quality product that lasts a long time,” says Bindefeld.

About the exhibiton and the live webcast
The exhibition runs from February 9 at Strandvägen 5 in Stockholm, but will be inaugurated on the evening of February 8 through a live webcast on svenskttenn.se at 6:30 pm in Swedish and 7:30 pm in English.
No pre-registration is necessary.

For more information
Contact: Elin Lervik, press manager, Svenskt Tenn: +46 760 12 88 00, elin.lervik@svenskttenn.se
Thommy Bindefeld, marketing manager, Svenskt Tenn: +46 8 670 16 02, thommy.bindefeld@svenskttenn.se