Bruno Mathsson

In the late 1920s and early 1930s, Mathsson began experimenting with laminated beechwood frames and woven hemp webbing as a seating surface, creating chairs that distributed the sitter's weight ergonomically without the need for conventional upholstery. His first major design, later called the Grasshopper Chair, was delivered to Värnamo Hospital in 1931 for use in patient waiting areas. This was followed by the Eva Chair (originally called the Working Chair), the Pernilla lounger (1934), and the Miranda chair. Mathsson named his chair models after women. The Eva Chair was selected by Edgar Kaufmann Jr., then director of the Industrial Design Department at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, for the museum's public spaces and several exhibitions during the 1940s. Kaufmann considered Mathsson's contribution to furniture design comparable to that of Alvar Aalto.

Mathsson exhibited his work at the 1937 Paris World Exhibition and gained further international visibility at the Golden Gate Exposition in San Francisco in 1939 and at the New York World's Fair. His designs were published widely in American magazines, establishing his reputation outside Scandinavia. In the 1960s he turned his attention to glass architecture, designing houses with expansive glass walls that merged interior and exterior space. He also collaborated with Danish mathematician Piet Hein and architect Arne Jacobsen on the Superellips table series (from 1964), which used the superellipse, a mathematical curve between an ellipse and a rectangle, as the basis for table tops. The tables were produced both by Fritz Hansen and by Bruno Mathsson International, the company formed in 1964 to manage his production. Later furniture designs include the Jetson swivel chair (1969) and the Karin chair.

Mathsson received the Gregor Paulsson Trophy in 1955, the Prince Eugen Medal in 1965, and the Nordic Craft and Design Award in 1974. He was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Göteborg. He died on 17 August 1988 in Värnamo.

With approximately 896 lots on Auctionist, Mathsson's furniture appears frequently across the Nordic auction market. The Pernilla lounger and Eva Chair are the most sought-after models, with early examples produced by Firma Karl Mathsson in Värnamo attracting the strongest interest. Superellips tables, particularly those with rare veneers such as palisander or root wood, and Jetson swivel chairs in leather are also consistently traded. His work is a staple at Bukowskis, Stockholms Auktionsverk, and across Auctionet houses throughout Sweden.