Aino Aalto Glass

Iittala Glassware, Skandium, 72 Wigmore St, London, W1 9. Tel: +44 (0)20 7935 2077.
Skandium in Selfridges, Oxford St, London, W1. Tel: +44 (0)20 7629 1234.

Firmly in the Museum of Modern Art, New York, it is nonetheless still possible to obtain the masterly glassware designed by the architects Alvar and Aino Aalto. Aalto means ‘wave’ in Finnish. Aino Aalto, who died in l949, first joined Aalto at work, in l924. Aino’s work became known later than that of Alvar. But in l932 she became established on winning the Gold Medal at the Milan Trennale. For both Aalto’s, the Finnish company Iittala proved a major supporter. Aino’s lesser known works, drinking glasses, bowls and dishes, maximised the advantage of pressed-glass mass production techniques to develop universally available and affordable masterpieces.