Good Sport

A humble pine dining chair made for Swedish country houses is today's hottest design trophy

- HANNAH MARTIN

When Swedish Social Democrats began drafting plans for a welfare state at the end of the 1920s, it included an idea that still feels quite radical: Every Swede would have five weeks of vacation a year, and they could even apply for a government-supplied allotment, a.k.a., a vacation cottage. For the department store Nordiska Kompaniet, where Axel Einar Hjorth served as chief architect, this signaled opportunity. People would be needing new furniture.