Norrsken Armchair by Mats Theselius

Mats Theselius continues to design unique armchairs produced in only a single edition.

The series of “national armchairs” now presents the “Swedish armchair”. The armchair is named Norrsken and will be placed in Crown Princess Victoria’s reception room at the Royal Palace in Stockholm.

Photo: Robert Eldrim, Medljus

The armchair was presented on December 1st at a ceremony at Designinfo in Kulturhuset in Stockholm. Designinfo is the information center for Design Year. Crown Princess Victoria attended the ceremony, which was led by Design Year project manager Anna Rygård and Svensk Form’s CEO Eva Kumlin. Designer Mats Theselius, Christian Bolin from W A Bolin, Anne Johansson from Elmo Leather, and Nenne Palme from Väveriet also participated.

Photo: Robert Eldrim, Medljus

Norrsken

Norrsken tells the story of a bright and nature-inspired Sweden. The theme is snow and birch. The materials are leather, silver, weaving, and burr birch. The colors are white, black, and silver. The armchair’s exterior features a specially made weaving from Uddebo Väveriet. On the exterior’s white fabric, black streaks give the viewer an image of birch bark. On top of the birch bark, silver snowflakes fall, as in a Swedish winter landscape. Around the armchair’s edges, beautifully ornamented silver fittings from court jeweler W A Bolin follow. The armchair’s interior is white in fresh-snow-soft leather from Elmo Leather. The armrests are smoothly shaped in burr birch. The armchair is entirely built from pure natural materials, and the manufacturers promise a lifetime guarantee.

“That the ‘Swedish armchair’ Norrsken will be at the Royal Palace feels completely right. The Palace is one of the country’s most important representative buildings. Crown Princess Victoria works very committedly to support Swedish design, especially in joint design initiatives in export markets,” says Anna Rygård, project manager for Design Year 2005.

Photo: Robert Eldrim, Medljus

Background

In autumn 2000, Mats traveled around the American South studying American craft, so-called western style. Mats designed, among other things, a pair of boots made by leather and silver craftsmen in Texas. During late autumn, Mats began drawing his first unique armchair to be manufactured in collaboration with American craftsmen. At the same time, Gothenburg began preparing for the first historic American presidential visit. Rumors that Mats Theselius (former Gothenburg resident) was working on a Swedish-American cultural collaboration (the armchair) reached some major western Swedish companies. The armchair, named Txs, was purchased by the companies who, in connection with the presidential visit in June 2001, donated Txs to the White House in Washington. The year after Txs, Mats received an invitation to produce a Russian armchair together with court jeweler W A Bolin. The Russian armchair, named Kreml, was shown when W A Bolin celebrated its 200th anniversary through an exhibition at the Kremlin Museum in Moscow. W A Bolin was Russian court jeweler during four tsars’ reigns until 1917.

After the two national armchairs (the American Txs and the Russian Kreml), Mats has continued to design unique armchairs, now for companies and private individuals.

“That the Swedish national armchair comes this year is partly connected to our celebration of Design Year, but also to my desire to continue making national armchairs. When I work in other countries, I collaborate with national craftsmen. I am very interested in preserving craftsmanship. Craft exists in all cultures and has been ordinary people’s way of beautifying their everyday lives – an embroidered cloth on the wall or a pattern carved into a spade handle testifies to people’s will and ability to make life a little more beautiful for themselves and their surroundings. Ever since industrialism and large-scale production gained momentum, it has meant that craft traditions are no longer in demand and knowledge falls into oblivion. My idea with these armchairs is a way to try to transform some of these qualities into our time. This is part of our cultural treasure that should be in our highest representative context,” says Mats Theselius.