Axel Einar Hjorth, Carl-Axel Acking and Märta Måås-Fjetterström were some design stars whose work appeared at Bukowski's in Stockholm on Tuesday. The first day of Bukowski's live Modern Art + Design auction offered sensational sales, including a couple of new world records.
Among many sought-after design objects was Bengt Ruda's unusual armchair Cavelli. The armchair, which according to Ikea's archive was manufactured in only five copies, sold for the impressive sum of SEK 190,000 ($18,899). The final price broke the previous world record set when a copy sold for SEK 151,000 ($17,427) in the autumn of 2021.
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"It is fantastic to be part of breaking a new world record on Ikea's most iconic and mythical Cavelli armchair," said Jonatan Jahn, Specialist Design and 20th-21st Century Works of Art. "This very unusual model from popular Ikea has today become an exclusive collectable."
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After designing furniture for Nordiska Kompaniet's Triva series in the 1940s and 50s, Bengt Ruda started working at Ikea in 1957. He was the first trained designer to be hired, which meant that he got an important role at the Swedish furniture company. In 1958, Ruda designed the Cavelli model, which is one of the most progressive that Ikea presented in terms of groundbreaking aesthetics.
In Ikea's catalog from 1958, the description reads: “Here, a confident designer has put his hand to the bold construction. Cavelli is a very extreme armchair: why not dare to have the 1963 lines already in 1959? [...] No effort has been spared, no cost has been spared to make Cavelli an aristocrat in the world of the 60s ... "
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"This spring's design auction was Bukowski's largest and most comprehensive ever, which attracted the largest [number of] collectors worldwide [...]", says Eva Seeman, responsible specialist for design & modern crafts at Bukowskis.
It was not only Bengt Ruda's Cavelli that drew great interest, but also Josef Frank's unique cabinet Plan de Paris à vol d'oiseau, which set a new world record for both the designer and Bukowski's, when it sold for SEK 3,613,759 ($359,455.)
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"The Cavelli chair is today considered a collector's item and has become a hard currency at auction," said Pontus Silfverstolpe, co-founder of Barnebys. "It would not surprise me if in time it ends up in one of the world's major design museums."
