Hans Wegner - Key Furniture Designs

Key Furniture Designs

Wegner's designs were manufactured by several manufacturers, including Getama, AP Stolen, Johannes Hansen, Andreas Tuck, Ry Mobler, Fredericia Stolefabrik, Carl Hansen & Sons, Fritz Hansen, PP Mobler and Erik Jorgensen.

Many of Wegner's wooden chairs are characterized by traditional joinery techniques including mortise and tenons, finger joints, and sculpted elements such as armrests and seat supports. Wegner also utilized traditional construction for upholstered pieces, and often mixed materials such as solid wood, plywood, metal, upholstery, caning, and papercord.

Wegner said of his work "I have always wanted to make unexceptional things of an exceptionally high quality..." The key designs featured here are known for taking traditional elements and pushing them to extreme tolerances and distillations.

• J16 Rocking Chair, 1944

• Chinese Chair (no.1), 1944. The China Chair series was inspired by a portrait of Danish merchants sitting in traditional Ming chairs. The first, produced by Fritz Hansen, is the closest to its source material: the back splat is sculpted into the arm rail, which terminates in a decorative curved finial.

• Chinese Chair (no.4), 1945. The 4th China chair is a cleaner distillation of the original form. It incorporates many distinctly Danish elements such as the floating seat support (on the upholstered model). Also present is the arched and planed back rail that appears on many subsequent Wegner chairs, including the Wishbone chair below.

• Peacock Chair, 1947. The Peacock chair was inspired by a traditional Windsor chair. Wegner exaggerated the arched back, creating a high backed, yet airy chair. The back spindles are flattened in the approximate area of a person's shoulder blades, the visual result of which evokes a birds tail plumage.

• "The Chair", 1949. The Chair best represents Wegner's design philosophy of "continuous purification...to cut down to the simplest possible elements of four legs, a seat, and a combined top rail and armrest" The Chair was a collaboration of Wegner and furniture maker Johannes Hansen (now made by PP Mobler as models PP501/PP503). The construction features 11 pieces of wood joined by 12 mortise and tenons and two large finger joints. The finger joints orient the wood grain as the back rail wraps around the body to maximize material strength. The Chair was offered with a solid upholstered seat, or a seat of airy woven caning. It rose to prominence in the 1961 televised debate between Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy. Both presidential candidates sat in The Chair during the debate.

• Folding Chair, 1949. Lightweight with a cane seat, drawing on historic folding chairs. Wegner created a hook so the chair could be hung on the wall to save space.

• Wishbone Chair, 1949. The Wishbone chair was the first collaboration between Wegner and maker Carl Hansen, who has produced it since 1950. In 1944 Wegner began a series of chairs inspired by a portrait of Danish merchants sitting in traditional Ming chairs. The Wishbone chair is the last and most distinct of the series. The inspiration is clearly visible, but the chair is an original form. The back legs are steam-bent into a curve that tapers to join a circular steam-bent back rail. The joinery was difficult but resulted in a strong, lightweight chair.

• Flag Halyard Chair, 1950. While Wegner often drew from historical forms he also created forms without precedent. The Flag Halyard was inspired by a trip to the beach, during which Wegner carved out the form in the sand. The metal, rope, and sheepskin chair is an unusual, but not unprecedented, break from Wegners prolific use of wood.

• Valet chair,1953. This chair has elements for hanging up or storing each piece of a man's suit. The backrest is carved to be used as a coat hanger, pants can be hung on a rail at the edge of the seat and everything else can be stowed in a storage space underneath the seat.

• Ox Chair,1960. which came with or without horns, showed the less serious side of Wegner's designs. "We must take care," he once said, "that everything doesn't get so dreadfully serious. We must play--but we must play seriously." The Ox was Wegner's favorite chair and occupied a space in his livingroom until he died.

• Shell Chair, 1963. In 1938 Wegner had entered the Organic Home Furnishings competition at the Museum of Modern Art in NYC.