# Bruno Mathsson artist context and auction value notes

Canonical page: https://appraisily.com/artist/bruno-mathsson/
Profile generated: 2026-08-19T15:40:56.523Z
Quality: high confidence, strong sources

## Artist identity

- Birth date: 1907-01-13
- Death date: 1988-08-17
- Nationality: Swedish
- Movements: Functionalism, Modernism
- Common media: Furniture design

## Portrait

![Bruno Mathsson](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d6/Bruno_Mathsson%2C_1960-tal.jpg)
Unknown author Unknown author · Public domain
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bruno_Mathsson,_1960-tal.jpg

## About Bruno Mathsson

Bruno Mathsson (1907-1988) was a Swedish furniture designer and architect. Library-authority records establish his dates, nationality, and architectural occupation, while Wikidata and the official Mathsson site identify furniture design as a central part of his work. In design-history context, the collected sources associate Mathsson with functionalism, modernism, and the Swedish craft tradition. The Museum of Modern Art also maintains an institutional artist record for him. Collectors are therefore most likely to encounter Mathsson through twentieth-century furniture and decorative-design listings rather than through conventional painting categories. The available evidence securely establishes his identity and broad professional context, but it does not provide enough detail to make confident page-level claims about every model, manufacturer, material, or production period. Those object-specific details should be checked against labels, documentation, reliable catalogues, and comparable examples. For entity matching, his Swedish nationality, dual designer-and-architect roles, life dates, and authority identifiers are the strongest distinguishing attributes.

## Common works and media

Furniture is the most securely documented work type associated with Bruno Mathsson in this source pack. His official site includes dedicated furniture and materials-and-technique sections, and authority data identifies him as a furniture designer. The current Appraisily index also uses broad fine-art and decorative-art category labels, but those generic labels are not sufficient evidence that paintings, prints, or sculptures were characteristic Mathsson outputs. Object-level appraisal should begin by identifying the exact furniture type, dimensions, materials, construction, condition, marks or inscriptions, date, provenance, and attribution basis.

## Market and appraisal context

The collected Appraisily snapshot reports auction coverage from 2002 through 2026, with 655 matched records and 442 priced records, although another summary on the same page refers to 300 tracked lots. Coverage totals should therefore be reconciled before publication. For appraisal, compare objects of the same type and similar size, date, condition, restoration history, provenance, and attribution status. Signatures, inscriptions, edition information, exhibition history, catalogue references, and recent comparable public sales can also affect interpretation. An overall median should not be treated as a universal benchmark across unlike objects. Reported auction totals may handle buyer premiums differently, while private transactions and incomplete feeds can leave important gaps in the visible market record.

## Appraisily data basis

Appraisily artist pages combine researched artist identity and authority records with matched auction records, auction-house context, sale dates, realized prices, and comparable lots when those records are available. Public auction data is evidence for comparison, not a substitute for object-specific authentication, condition review, or professional appraisal.

## Sources

- IdRef: https://www.idref.fr/033703930
- Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q321453
- The Museum of Modern Art: https://www.moma.org/artists/3830
- Bruno Mathsson: https://mathsson.se
- Getty Vocabulary Program: https://vocab.getty.edu/page/ulan/500333302
- VIAF: https://viaf.org/viaf/8191322/
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruno_Mathsson
- Appraisily: https://appraisily.com/artist/bruno-mathsson/