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FRANCKLY FRIENDS, dedicated to friends of pre-owned design, is a column that visits the homes of interesting individuals and delves into stories behind their design treasures. This time we meet Aalto collector Pertti Männistö. His home in Kaarina, Finland, is full of rare and incredibly beautiful lamps and furniture designed by Aino and Alvar Aalto.
Hi, Pertti! Over the years, you have accumulated probably the world’s most comprehensive collection of pieces designed by Aino and Alvar Aalto. What made you get interested in the work of Finland’s best-known designer couple, and which item in your collection is your first find?
“I fell in love with the products designed by Aino and Alvar Aalto 30 years ago when I came across one of the most commonplace Aalto items, a three-legged stool, in the warehouse of an acquaintance selling old objects. I think I said something along the lines of “Oh, so you’re also selling design,” after which my acquaintance invited me to their home to have a look at a truly rare item. That piece became the first item in my collection. It was a 0 chair, a prototype of the A36 lounge chair from the 1920s–1930s.
After I had returned home with my new chair, I marched to the library and borrowed, more or less, all books available on the designs of Aino and Alvar Aalto. In addition to the modern design and sheer volume of the work, I was impressed by the innovations behind the products.
At first, accumulating my collection was easy, since the availability of products dating back to the designers’ early years was high in the Turku region. Back when I started, I kept calling the Alvar Aalto Museum and asking for help with dating or identifying the items. It’s funny how the tables have turned and I can now help the museum with the same matters.”
Your collection includes over 1,000 objects designed by Aino and Alvar Aalto. On what basis have you included items in your collection?
“I’m specifically interested in products designed between the 1920s and 1960s, since during that period, products were still mainly made by hand. At that time, surface treatments were traditional and even in mass production, the production technology was limited enough to give each object a unique look. My collection focuses on an era when nothing really evolved or changed in terms of production. That’s why the exact dating of individual chairs made in the same model is sometimes really difficult and takes some serious detective work.
The absolute period limit I have set for my collection is mid-60s when the Finnish furniture company Huonekalu- ja Rakennustyötehdas moved from Nummenmäki, Turku, to Littoinen, Kaarina. At that same time, the production of the bent wooden parts was automated and the inch system used for dimensioning the products was replaced with the metric system. Due to this reason, when measured in millimeters and compared with current products, the dimensions of the early products are “all over the place”. The surface treatments were also replaced and, all in all, the products got a much more mass-produced feel.”
“I’m specifically interested in products designed between the 1920s and 1960s, since during that period, products were still mainly made by hand.”
In the early days, in addition to beech, the furniture designed by Aino and Alvar Aalto was also made of mahogany and other types of dark hardwood. When was Finnish birch selected as the wood used in Artek’s furniture?
“Alvar Aalto developed the wood bending method together with carpenter Otto Korhonen in the 1920s. Beech was mainly chosen as the material for the pieces designed for Paimio Sanatorium, as well as the other early furniture models, because Korhonen had it in his factory. Korhonen had acted as a guarantor for a company that went bankrupt and been left with piles of hardwood.
After the furniture designed for Paimio Sanatorium, beech was used more sparingly, for example, in the top veneers of the armrests of lounge chairs. As a wood species, beech is easier to bend than birch, which is why it was excellently suited for the manufacture of Aalto’s furniture featuring bent wooden parts. However, when the factory ran out of beech, it was difficult to get more because beech does not grow in Finland.
During the first decades, dark types of hardwood were used in Artek’s products in addition to birch, and even birch furniture was usually stained dark. Many of the Aalto coffee tables we have in our home are made of mahogany, teak or elm veneer. Mixing and matching furniture made of different types of wood creates a completely different atmosphere when compared to only using furniture made of light-colored birch. When the factory moved to Kaarina in the 1960s, the use of dark wood also gradually ceased.”