Vintage cantilever model 31 armchair by Alvar Aalto, Finland 1930s

Rare armchair by Alvar Aalto, model 31 in birch, upholstered in cowskin. The general impression is really good. This armchair is one of several designed by the celebrated architect Alvar Aalto during the period in which he was building a tuberculosis sanitarium at Paimio, Finland (1929-33). Built as a free cantilever, a principle previously applied only to metal furniture, this armchair carried the use of curved plywood beyond the closed frame of his earlier "Paimio" model as the plywood seat and back are suspended between two U-shaped loops constructed of thick plywood laminate.