My great grandfather brought this chair from Norway around 1930. I’m trying to find out more about it.

27 comments
  1. It’s made from wood, carved by the looks of it, except for the legs and seat, which looks to be turned for the legs and planed for the seat. By the looks of it, it is made from several pieces. /s

  2. This is a juleblot-stol we usually place them outside our houses on lussi-langnatt, and place food items on the side, usually waffles, brunost, and rice pudding, to attract gnomes (nisser) to protect us from Åsgardsreia.

  3. I would e-mail the Museum in Bergen. at; ” samling@bymuseet.no
    They have a big furniture collection (or at least had one). And so if anything they can at least give you a name for the style and an aproximate style era.

    I tried looking through their archives now, but I couldn’t find this type. I am sure I saw something similar some years ago when we visited with a school tour. It could be valuable, and it could be not. Basically it is probably a replicate, and very intricate wood carvings whre common for a while, but fell out of fashion pretty quick too. so it’s more of a novely item.

    try looking for a stamp or name/text. anything that can help whoever gets the email 🙂

  4. It was born in Oslo. Grew up with only it’s mother Table and other chair siblings. Father Cabinet was killed during World War 1.

  5. Mimicks a dragon chair (norsk dragestol, google it) . The sort of chair you can nowadays expect to find in every folk museum, mountain cabin and/or resort. The style was very popular from the late 1800s and until it was replaced by the Jugend style around 1910. It could still be made later than this.

    Judging from other furniture from the same era, I suspect its mass produced, but it could also just be that someone refined a mass produced chair with ornate back and arms.

    Do you know where in Norway your grandfather is from?

  6. I cant tell you anything about it, but its a really beautiful chair! I understand why he thought it was worth it to bring it all the way there.

    What part of Norway did your great grandfather come from?

  7. Its probably from the late 1800s- early 1900s and was handcrafted for the quite rich. The handles are very unique. If this piece has any great value idk but its a nice chair.

  8. It’s an interesting object, I wish my grandfather was still alive as he could probably have dated it and perhaps even recognized the style of one particular craftsman. He used to do wood carvings in a very similar style but wasn’t quite old enough to have made your chair.

    Now, the basic style was popular for a very long time but I don’t think this is truly ancient. I’m guessing no earlier than about 1880, probably later up to about 1920 although it could theoretically have been made after the style was revived again post WWII if he actually got it sent over at some later date. I base this estimate on the quality and style of carving, it is very symmetrical with finely shaped involute curves where older stuff I’ve seen tends to be more uneven and slightly amateurish looking.

    Also the turned parts look unusually identical and symmetric for a handmade item, especially if it should be from pre-industrial times. We have some carved chairs from the 1700’s in our family, where turned legs are all slightly different as one expects from that period. I suspect the turned parts on your chair were either made on a relatively modern copying lathe in a furniture factory or by a craftsman who took particular care in measuring things out. Definitely done on an engine driven lathe of some sort (although the “engine” could be a waterwheel though this would be uncommon on a small farm workshop). Again, this points to it being no older than about the very late 19th, early 20th century.

    That style of wood carving was especially popular in parts of Telemark county, where they had several famous wood carvers, though it could really be from anywhere. Still, it might be a good idea to contact Tinn Håndverkssenter at post@tinnsenter.no

    They’re a place in Telemark where local craftspeople sell their traditional products, grandpa used to sell his carvings through them, but the reason for contacting them is they will know a number of local wood carvers. Many of them will have studied the style of historic carvers in that area, and might be able to recognize your chair. Or they might be able to point you towards someone else that is knowledgeable.

  9. It’s a very cool piece, seen a lot of similar around old farmhouses. Probably made in the 1800s, amateur but skilled woodworker, probably a farmer making them as a side business / hobby.

  10. Probably russian, bought in Preussia. One of the first polar expeditions lost their ship to ice, and then starved because they choose to save furniture, instead of the brand new invention; canned food

  11. I would just recommend either searching up something like “20th century Norwegian rocking chairs”, or just putting an image of it into an online reverse image search. Hopefully those options could help, because I don’t think this kind of thing would be a one of it’s kind. If your great grandfather decided to buy it then is must have been at least mildly popular in some way, and that there was some demand for it, meaning other products of it’s kind could be scattered around Norway or even internationally depending on the level and reach of the carving style’s popularity.

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