Alvar Aalto “Beehive” Pendant Model A331 In Red, Valaistustyö 1950s

This is one of Alvar Aalto’s most iconic lighting designs. It was first designed in 1953. The design is incredibly simple and takes from nature as it mimics the hanging beehives on a tree. This lamp almost feels like its weightless. The design was also way ahead of its time and almost 70 years later, it still has a futuristic feel and will most certainly suit interiors for decades to come.

This example is repainted in the same original red tone, and the brass rings are unpolished. The lamp is stamped with the manufacturers stamp, Valaistustyö and model number. The height in the listing is that of the shade. The lamp has a wire of approximately 2m and can be adjusted to hang at any height.

Alvar Aalto (1898-1976) is a world famous architect and designer. He was well known for designing his own line of furniture and lighting for the numerous buildings that he designed worldwide. His work includes architecture, furniture, textiles, glassware, sculptures and paintings. He never regarded himself as an artist, seeing painting and sculpture as branches of a tree that stem from architecture.

Aalto’s career from the 1920s-1970s is reflected in the styles of his work, ranging from Classicism to Modernism and to an organic style from the 1940s onwards. Aalto and his wife Aino were famous for not only designing the buildings, but the interior surfaces, furniture, lamps and even the glassware for those buildings. Aalto’s furniture designs are Scandinavian Modernism at its best, especially his technical innovations on the bent plywood furniture, which in turn had a great impact on Mid-Century Modernist furniture.

Aalto’s works are highly sought after and some fetch record prices in auctions and the design world. Of course his works are also widely collected and can be found in numerous private collections and famous museums.