KRYSS

In 1975, Björn Hultén was commissioned to decorate the Swedish Embassy in Cairo. For the Embassy’s terrace, he designed and set out several foldable chairs. The same type of chair was a favorite of the British, a hundred years earlier, who took them to Egypt, which was then part of the Empire. To decorate an embassy with a former occupying power’s furniture might seem rather ill advised diplomatically. But Björn had already visited Cairo as early as 1960 to see the National Museum’s collection of furniture from Tutankhamon’s tomb. And there it was – the chair. Albeit in ebony, decorated with ivory and gold. Björn saw a wood and fabric chair that could be folded and carried. So the chair on the terrace was a subtle but distinct reference to an Egyptian legacy, roughly three thousand years older than the British safari chair. This year, we’re launching a new dining version of it, that’s a bit higher, as well as a new table to match it. As its predecessor, the new chair is a fantastically comfortable chair to sit in, even if you’re not a diplomat.