Ilmari Tapiovaara, the Finnish schoolroom chair

Ilmari Tapiovaara (1914-1999) belongs to that generation of Finnish designers who, in Alvar Aalto's wake, founded the identity of modern Nordic furniture. Trained in Helsinki and briefly with Le Corbusier in Paris, he signed for five decades a sober, stackable, democratic furniture. His Mademoiselle chair (1956) and Domus chair (1946), originally designed for the Domus Academica university city in Helsinki, have become classics of Scandinavian school design, produced in millions.

The Domus chair and Mademoiselle chair remain Ilmari Tapiovaara's most recognisable pieces. Vintage Scandinavian solid wood chairs to find to dress a dining room or office with a discreet but identifiable Finnish signature.