Sensational pine 'Uto' stool attributed to both Axel-Einar Hjorth and K. J. Pettersson & Soner; also known as a 'Palle' stool. Unsigned. Produced by AB Nordiska Kompaniet, Stockholm, Sweden. Axel Einar Hjorth is commonly regarded as the most significant furniture designer of Sweden in the era between the great wars, though his life was afflicted with dramatic changes. Born poor and raised by a single mother in the small village of Krokek, they spent his first years under very modest circumstances. At five, the two moved to the burgeoning industrial town of Norrköping where they lived under economic pressure. Hjorth’s mother’s financial state diminished and at the age of twelve, the young boy was adopted-away to a well-off family. The young Axel learned new social codes, increased his education and became a skillful actor in the bourgeois life in a developing city.