Finland has had a centuries-long history of glass manufacturing, yet the designs produced early in the twentieth century were the ones that first brought international renown to the country. During the 1920s and 1930s, the two leading Finnish factories, Karhula and Riihimäki, primarily made container, etched, and other industrial glass. To broaden their capabilities and increase their market share, they began to solicit designers to create new modern forms, primarily recruiting through design competitions.¹

In October 1936, Karhula and Riihimäki announced a competition for the design of innovative glass to be shown in the Finnish pavilion at the upcoming 1937 World Exposition in Paris. The architect Alvar Aalto won first prize in the Karhula contest for a series of vases, each a version of an abstract, organic form. Competition drawings held in the collection of the Iittala Glass Museum in Finland depict a variety of heights, organic shapes, and combinations of forms. Perhaps the most famous of the vase designs is one in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, as it is the most popular today. A period image from the Finnish pavilion depicts the vases in various colors of glass on a plinth in front of a window in the architecture section of the pavilion. The natural light and the Aalto-designed hanging lamps over the pedestal highlight the organic form and handmade quality of the mold-blown glass.

The architecture, interiors, and displays of the Finnish pavilion were celebrated in the press, with complimentary remarks ranging from “Of all the nations . . . Finland without doubt possesses the pavilion which best responds to its functions of instruction and charm” to Le Corbusier’s assessment: “In the Finnish pavilion the visitor is delighted by its deep-rooted authenticity.”² During the lead-up to the fair, the Karhula factory decided to make the vases, a decision that was reinforced by the positive reception they received there. The designs were mold-blown in the firm’s bottle factory beginning in 1937 and were available in clear, green, red, light blue, and smoke colors.

On September 22, 1937, a group of journalists was invited to the Karhula factory to see its new designs. Special models of Aalto’s vase, including this example, were made for the occasion and engraved with the date of the visit on the underside. According to a report in a Finnish newspaper, on the train back from the factory to Helsinki many of the journalists tossed their vases out the window, as they did not value the new design.³ It is unknown how many survived.

In June 1937, Aalto’s design for the Savoy restaurant in Helsinki opened to the public. In addition to the interior architecture that he designed with his wife, Aino, Aalto placed his furniture, lighting, and objects, including a series of these vases, in the restaurant. The association with this project led the vase to be called the Savoy, though that was never a term that the factory adopted. The popularity of the vase has ensured that it has been in continuous production since 1937. Additional colors, such as opal, cobalt blue, and ruby red, were added to the production, and, after 1954, the vases were made in cast-iron molds rather than wood ones. This change and subsequent variations to the production have given the vase a different character. The flowing, soft organic form of the early examples has been replaced by a more rigid shape and aesthetic, making the Museum’s example that much more desirable. —Cindi Strauss