Axel Larsson, 1898-1975, studied at Tekniska skolan (Konstfack University of Arts, Crafts and Design) in Stockholm and served an internship as a draftsman at the studio of Carl Malmsten from 1916-20.
In Stockholm Larsson began working for Svenska Möbelfabrikerna i Bodafors’, for which he made his debut as a furniture designer with a collection of “rational everyday furniture” at the Stockholm Exhibition in 1930. In 1936 Larsson designed chairs with a bent seat curve for Bodafors called the 1200 collection, of these the recliner No. 1207 is the most well-known. For Bodafors, Larsson also got several major interior commissions, such as the Concert hall in Gothenburg 1936 where he worked together with architect Nils Einar Eriksson on the furniture design. Larsson and Eriksson also worked on the Hotel Park Avenue in the same city (1950) and the insurance company Folksam’s office in Stockholm (1960). In the 30’s and 50’s Larsson also worked in the interior for the Swedish America Line’s ship Kungsholm and Stockholm. He also designed the secretary general’s office at the UN building in New York.
While working on the Folksam house in Stockholm, Larsson left Bodafors in 1956 to create his own design studio, but continued to design for them as well as for the company Baltzar Beskow, for whom he designed the chair S-312 in 1960 that was bought by the Westminster Cathedral, London during the 1980’s. For Verkstad AB Lindqvist, Larsson designed the stackable steel pipe chair Bankett in 1961 that became one of the company’s bestsellers. His original chairs are now highly collectable