Carving a Traditional Norwegian Kubbestol
Carving a Traditional Norwegian Kubbestol
I first became aware of Kubbestols on a trip to Baronette, Wisconsin in May of 2008. I was taking a week long woodcarving seminar learning the Norwegian Dragenstil style of carving from Norwegian master carvers Phillip Odden and his wife Else Bigton of Norsk Woodworks at their farm. They had multiple examples of Kubbestols on display in their shop and in their home which is like a museum of Norwegian carvings. Together they have carved over 200 Kubbestols. I was so fascinated I bought a roughed out kubbestol that Phil shipped to my home. Phil also helped with the design, and I carved my first Kubbestol in 2008. I recently decided to carve a more elaborate second chair that I finished in May 2023.
The Kubbestol is a traditional Scandinavian chair formed from a single section of log, or ‘Kubbe’ that is first hollowed out and carved to shape the chairs back while still green. Then, after allowing the kubbe to cure for several months to a couple of years, the wood is cut and fitted into the hollow where the chair back begins to form the seat. The full circumference of the log is almost always left intact, with a trunk-like base rather than legs as the support for the chair seat. Traditionally, Kubbestols made in Norway were primarily made from birch, which is abundantly available in the forested regions where the craft was popular.
The Kubbestol was quite common in some districts of Norway from about 1750 to 1960. The chair form was also found in some homes in central Sweden, especially in the districts that border Norway. The Kubbestol form can even be found in Denmark, but there it was more often made with wooden staves like a barrel. Although there is a long history of Kubbestol carving in Norway, the specific origins of the chair’s design and purpose remain obscured. Kubbestols were most popular in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Norwegian peasant homes. However, there are examples that were elaborately carved for more conspicuous settings such as churches, and others from as early as the twelfth century. The peculiar form and custom of making Kubbestol is one of many folk traditions that migrated to Wisconsin/Minnesota along with the thousands of Norwegian immigrants who made their way to the primarily south-eastern part of this state in the Nineteenth Century.
In Norway, the Kubbestol was usually made from logs with significant girth and three to four feet in length. The log would be hollowed out so that the base (from the seat down) would be cylindrical while the back of the chair continued upward from the seat in a curved shield that made the chair both snug and comfortable.
Most, but not all, Kubbestols were decorated with carving, painting, or some combination of the two. Carved and painted decorations would differ from district to district and styles changed over time. Some chairs received multiple coats of paint over the years, reflecting the different fashion periods.
The Kubbestol was often placed next to the open-hearth fireplace or next to the bed. It was reserved for the head of the household. Large, impressive farmhouses might have several richly carved and painted Kubbestols as a display of wealth and status.
One of the most intriguing aspects of the Kubbestol is its remarkably close relationship to the raw material it is made from. The Kubbestol represents perhaps the least drastic example of a transformation from tree to furniture. Rooted by its wooden circumference, flush to the ground, the stools emerge from a floor almost exactly like the tree-stumps they were hewn from. The former life of the material is further emphasized by the Kubbestol’s cross-section seat, which reveals the rings and grain of the tree it was cut from.
The Kubbestol’s form, and the process required for its realization, contrasts with many other examples of this class of object. As a utilitarian object that most frequently populated the rustic peasant cottages of Norway, the Kubbestol is far too time-consuming a production, and too bulky a product, to represent a merely practical seating solution. On the other hand, the Kubbestol’s adamant tree-ness, its defiant resemblance to the raw material, contrasts noticeably with the decorative endeavors of many other folk furnishings, for which a high degree of transformation is desirable.