PK24 / ECK24 by Poul Kjærholm 1965

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photographed at Designmuseum Danmark in 2015 in their exhibition 'Reclining'

 

 

This has to be one of the most elegant recliners and one of the most stripped down and spare. It is simply a frame in sprung steel covered with a taut skin of woven cane and supported on the thinnest possible steel frame. 

There is a separate frame of steel that folds under the centre section of the seat - running parallel to the cane work but separated from it by spacers. This forms what looks like a sledge or from the side runners that rest on a simple frame … a third rectangle in flat steel strip but with the ends bent upwards but at an angle to form a cradle.

The round table PK54 designed by Kjærholm in1963 - with square frames in steel slotted together to form a cube - or the glass table PK61 designed in 1956 - with four L-shaped pieces of steel together forming a frame and legs - play the same intellectual game to produce sophisticated three-dimensional forms out of minimal elements … almost like an artist marking an edge or a shadow with a slightly heavier weight of line, to define a volume, and then obliterating everything else to rely just on that emphasis of the edge.

Here the use of cane is equally unique. Not the material itself, of course, but on all other furniture with cane work you are aware of a frame first that is filled in with a lattice of cane - the cane does not exist without the frame. On the PK24 you see first a sheet of woven cane and it is only when you look again that you work out what holds the curved form because without the steel, keeping that shape would be impossible. All that is visible of the steel frame of the seat and back is a small square of exposed metal at each corner.

The chair comes also in leather and the same holds true … you see first a swoosh of leather and then have to work out how that shape is formed and held.  

There is a leather covered head rest with both chairs but where other recliners have pillows held in place by knots or belts with buckles this head rest is a simple roll with a counterweight of steel on two straps slung over the top of the back rest.

 

 

designed by Poul Kjærholm (1929-1980)
PK24 made first by E Kold Christensen and then from 1982 by Fritz Hansen Eftf

steel, cane, leather-covered head rest

height: 87 cm
width: 67 cm
length: 155 cm

exhibition Reclining at Designmuseum Danmark in 2015

Fritz Hansen

 

Den Lille Stålstol / The Little Steel Chair by Hans Wegner 1965

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chair in the collection of Designmuseum Danmark

 

 

Wegner first designed a steel framed chair with a version of the shaped back of the Cow Horn Chair in 1955 and that was shown in an exhibition for the new Bellahøjhusene housing development in Copenhagen and then shown at H55 in Helsingborg in Sweden in the same year. The design - with three prototypes showing different ways to join the wood for the back rest - were made with Fritz Hansen but were not put into production.

This version, The Little Steel Chair or Minimal Chair , PP 701, was designed for Wegner's own house in Gentofte in 1965 and the shaped back is a smaller version of the Bull Horn Chair - the chair with longer arm rests than the Cow Horn.

The curved back rest with arm rests are formed from four pieces of wood cut from planks 45mm thick and the right and left arm rest and the lower and upper sections are cut from the same plank and cut in line. As the grain runs in different directions and cannot match then a contrasting veneer is used between each joint and for the distinctive cross at the centre of the back.

The chair was shown by Johannes Hansen at the Cabinetmakers' Exhibition in 1965.

PP Møbler

 

chair photographed at Design Werck in Copenhagen

 

 

designed by Hans Wegner (1914-2007)
cabinetmakers Johannes Hansens, PP Møbler

oak, ash, maple, or cherry
detail/veneer in original chair was wenge
stainless steel
leather

height: 70 cm
width: 63 cm
depth: 46 cm
height of seat: 45 cm

Lilien / The Lily / FH3208 by Arne Jacobsen 1970

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Chair 3208 in the collection of Designmuseum Danmark

 

 

3108 - an early version of the chair - was designed by Arne Jacobsen in 1961 but The Lily - or at least a first version of The Lily without arms - was shown at the Scandinavian Furniture Fair in Copenhagen in 1969 and the final form with arms was shown at the furniture fair the following year. The chair was also known as Mågen or The Sea Gull.

Clearly the Lily is related to the other shell chairs in plywood that Jacobsen designed - including The Ant from 1952 and the Series 7 chairs from1955 - but the Lily has a more marked shape with a much narrower waist between the seat and the back that was there to make possible a more pronounced curve of the shell. Carsten Thau and Kjeld Vindum, in their book on the work of Jacobsen,* suggest that this created so much tension in the shell that up to 75% that were made had to be rejected.

One version of the Series 7 Chair had narrow arm rests on what are almost stalks extending up from the back leg - a curious reinterpretation of the back post of a traditional chair in wood - but on the Lily Chair, the arm rests are exaggerated - almost flamboyant for Jacobsen - and make the chair more sculptural and much more dramatic.

Unlike so many of the his contemporaries, Jacobsen was an architect who designed furniture outside the world of the cabinetmakers … even Poul Kjærholm, the designer who moved his work furthest from traditional cabinetmaking and closest to engineering had started his training as an apprentice to a cabinetmaker in Gronbech in 1948.

Jacobsen showed his furniture just once at Cabinetmakers' Exhibition - in 1933 in collaboration with Fleming Lassen - and that was not a success with the critics. Perhaps this chair is the one from this period that is closest to industrial or product design and it is certainly a very good example of how Danish designers in the post-war period broke with all conventions for what a chair should look like or how it should be made.

note:

 * Arne Jacobsen, Carsten Thau and Kjeld Vindum, The Danish Architectural Press (2001)

 

designed by Arne Jacobsen (1902-1971)
made by Fritz Hansen

height: 76 cm
width: 60 cm
depth: 52 cm
height of seat: 44 cm

 

pp63 by Hans Wegner 1975

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Chair pp52 designed by Hans Wegner in 1975 ... later called the Ferry Chair after the chair was purchased by DFDS for a ferry on the service across the North Sea

Chair pp63 is one of a series that were designed by Hans Wegener for the cabinetmakers PP Møbler in the 1970s. It dates from 1976 and remained in production until 2001. 

The frame is a wider, so slightly more open and generous version of the well-known Ferry Chair - pp52 and pp62 - but the most obvious difference is the pattern of the weave for the seat in paper cord. 

On the earlier Wishbone Chair from 1950, and for most chairs by Wegner with a paper cord seat, the rails of the seat are staggered - the side rails set higher than the front rail - and that determines the pattern of the weave with a distinct diagonal intersection where the cord is taken across the top, right over the rail and back on the underside.

On the pp63 the front rail of the seat is shaped, forming a slight hollow to the profile and curving forward at the front, and the mortices for the tenons of the front and side rails are at the same level forming a thinner profile. The cord is taken across the top in a single layer  - so not returning underneath - and the pattern is a basket weave with paired cords taken front to back but widely spaced with a line of knots at the front and back where the cords pass over the rail once, are turned back and round the rail with 6 or 7 strands to form a space and then taken back to the back rail passing over and under pairs of cords running left to right. These paired cords, running left right across the seat, go over the side rail and round underneath and round a metal tension bar, just inside the side rail, and then back and round the outside of the side rail before returning across the top of the seat.

Stretchers below the seat are straight - taller than thick - and rounded at the top and bottom and are set quite low on the sides and across the back strengthening the impression of a robust frame for the chair seat.

The legs are set vertically - rather than angled out as on The Round Chair and Wishbone Chair - round in cross section below the seat, so like a pole, but above they are flattened off on two sides … in part to make them look less hefty but also as the way to reduce the size of the tenon at the top where the leg is housed into the underside of a back rail.

This curved top rail, forming a back rest and arm rails in a single piece, is set horizontally … on the Wishbone Chair and for pp201, the first chair in this series, the curved back rail is set at an angle rising up from the front to the centre of the back as on a Chinese Chair. More comfortable and deeper support for the spine on the pp63 is provided by a flat face cut along the centre of the top rail and with a shaped crest added above, to make the back rest deeper. Made in two pieces there is an inlay of dark wood between the rail and the crest and a distinctive key pieces in dark wood between the two halves of the crest.

The back rest has a shaped profile so the back face is hollow rather than flat. 

By setting the legs vertical, cutting the mortice-and-tenon joints was simplified and by removing the taper on the legs turning was more straightforward and the stretchers are straight so curiously, although there are more parts to the chair, in many ways it appears simpler and more modern or less formal than The Round Chair and was certainly easier to make and wasted less wood so, presumably, was less expensive to make.

 
 

pp63

designed by Hans Wegner (1914-2007)
cabinetmakers PP Møbler

oak or ash
the seat of the models pp62 pp63 are paper cord and pp52 is upholstered

height: 71 cm
width : 58 cm ?
depth: 48 cm
height of seat: 43 cm

 

The Round Chair designed by Hans Wegner in 1949 

CH37 designed in 1962

pp208 from 1972 with the seat pad supported on the front and back stretchers that are set at a higher level than on the version with a seat in cord

the shaped front stretcher on a Chinese Chair designed by Wegner in 1945 - essentially the form of stretcher used to support the upholstered seat on the pp203, pp208, pp52 and pp58 - much less baulky than a traditional upholstered seat over a separate frame - the stretcher is rarely seen straight on and is much less obvious when seen from above ... and of course is completely hidden when there is someone sitting in the chair  

This series of chairs designed by Hans Wegner for the cabinetmakers PP Møbler - starting in 1969 and continuing through to one of the last commercial designs by Wegner in 1987 - is important because it shows a tight sequence of variations that are determined by technical developments in shaping and bending wood and by clear developments in understanding and applying ideas about ergonomics - what makes a chair comfortable - but also a strong sense of changing fashions. The designs are in pale wood rather than dark or exotic wood such as mahogany or teak and are less formal than the more expensive dining chairs produced through the 1940s and 1950s. Rationalisation of the design also makes them a more commercial proposition.

The starting point seems to have been to combine the best features of the Chinese-style chairs from the 1940s and The Round Chair from 1949 but the aim was also to produce a simpler chair that was less formal and more appropriate for contemporary taste. 

There appears to be an intermediate step for in 1962, Wegner had designed a chair - the CH37 - that had straight, vertical legs - so not tapered and not angled out - with stretchers to create a strong frame for the seat but the back rest was of the Shaker type with a thin curved piece of wood so, although it looks rather dated and too much like a country chair, it must have been relatively comfortable.

Then, designed in 1969, chair pp201 was the first chair specifically for the cabinetmaker PP Møbler. Wegner focused on making production more efficient but without compromising quality. It has the vertical legs that are straight and with straight rather than turned stretchers that are rectangular in section but rounded at the top and bottom and so similar to the stretchers on the Chinese Chair from 1945 and the Wishbone Chair from 1950. For this chair, however, the back rest is circular in section and bent round in a single curve, as on a Chinese Chair, flattened at the middle but with a deeper section added below the curve to form a deeper and more comfortable back rest and with a dark veneer separating the two parts and a single block of dark wood as a key at the centre. 

That chair has a paper cord seat but there is also a version - the pp203 - with an upholstered seat. This does not have a separate frame for the seat but simply an upholstered pad that is supported by moving up the stretchers across the front and back that are also shaped so that at each end they have a shoulder and step down before they are joined into the leg.

A version of this chair was produced in 1972 where the same shape of back rest was cut from a single piece of wood and then bent to shape to simplify the work. Model pp209 had a seat in paper cord and the pp209 had an upholstered seat.

The next stage, the third in the sequence, was the pp52 or Ferry Chair from 1975, also with a leather seat, and a version - the pp62 - with paper cord seat. The frame of the chair, with straight legs and stretchers, was similar but the curve of the back is set horizontal - moving the front end towards the table up and the centre of the back down slightly but enough to change the level where it cuts across the spine so the additional section of wood, added to make the back rest deeper, and therefore more comfortable, was moved from under the curve to on top of the curve.

It was this version that was ordered by DFDS ferries in 1978 …. and with over 800 chairs purchased that is still the largest single order won by PP Møbler.

Final stage came in 1987 with the pp68 that has a single piece of wood for the back that is steam bent and a cord seat.

That design was modified further in 1987 to create the pp58 that has a padded seat and the pp68 with a seat in paper cord but the front legs finish at the seat and the back rest or back rail is supported on the upper parts of the back legs and it curves round and extends to short arms like the Bull Chair. There was even a version, the pp58/3, that has three legs and stacks.

pp63 table.jpeg
 

showroom display by PP Møbler to show how the wood for the back rest of the PP68 is bent, shaped and finished

 
 
PP63.jpg

pp201 1969 onwards

pp209 1972-2004

pp62 1975 onwards

pp68 1987 onwards

 

PP112 by Hans Wegner 1978

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Windsorstole / Windsor chairs

chair photographed in Designmuseum Danmark

 
 

height: 76cm
width: 70cm
depth: 62cm
height of seat: 38cm

Hans Wegner, through his long career, continually returned to ideas or details of construction … not because he lacked new ideas but what you can see clearly is that as he developed a design he made a sequence of changes or refinements that almost form a route or map of rational consequences through the design process so make one part slightly thicker, and therefore stronger, and it might make it possible, for instance, to make another part thinner or even to remove a piece completely that would otherwise have been needed to strengthen the frame … such as a cross rail. Returning to an  idea, Wegner could then take the design through another route or sequence to create a very different chair.

PP Møbler, who make the 112 chair, describe it in their catalogue as a hybrid because here Wegner is combining the line and the single curve of the back of what is normally described as a Chinese style chair with the vertical rails of a Windsor chair … the common form for a Chinese chair is to have a broad curved splat at the centre of the back between the seat and the rail of the back. Here the front and the back legs are taken up to support the back rail and the space at the sides and the back are filled with vertical spindles. These are not straight dowels but turned so they are slightly thicker at the centre with a slight taper to the ends. 

The seat is relatively wide and slightly lower than on a side chair or dining chair so the 112 also has a slightly different sitting position closer to that of an easy chair.

There are stretchers to the sides and to the front and back and these are taller than they are wide - to give a tall but relatively narrow mortice into the legs - and are rounded across the top and the bottom. The side stretchers are deeper than those to the front and back, giving additional strength to the frame, with the front stretcher set up higher from the floor and closer to the seat - so the person sitting in the chair can tuck their feet back under without pressing against a stretcher. The shape and the arrangement of these stretchers is different to the traditional Windsor chair where,  generally, there are turned and tapered stretchers, similar in profile to but thicker than the spindles, and often the front and back stretchers are omitted and then there is a cross stretcher between the side stretchers to form an H shape of stretchers under the seat.

The back rail of the seat of the PP112 is rounded and the front and side rails of the seat gently curved with the back narrower than the front.

All four legs are thicker towards the centre and have a distinct elbow or angle at the thickest point to take the mortices for the frame of the seat. The legs taper to the foot and to the top where they are housed in the underside of the back rail.

The front rail of the seat is set below the side rails, in part to stagger the position of the mortice-and-tenon joints in the leg and partly to create the distinct scooped front line. As the seat is paper cord, this staggering of the rails creates a very distinct arrangement at the front corners and also the unusual combination of cord seat and Windsor rail means that there is a complicated arrangement with some cords being taken down in front of the spindle but most going on and around the rail before returning underneath the seat. This gives the distinct stripe effect on the outer faces of the side and back rails with bundles of cord alternating with exposed wood.

This complicated pattern in the weave of the seat must make the work itself much more difficult particularly in making sure that the tension in the cord is constant … if the cords are not tight they will shift around the frame and sag but if the tension is irregular then the cords will tend to bunch up to form ridges across the seat.

The back rail of the seat is set lower than the front of the seat so that there is a more pronounced backward lean … again appropriate for what is an armchair or easy chair rather than a side chair or dining chair.

The centre of the back rail is flattened off - so that it does not dig into the spine or shoulder blades - and the ends of the top back rail and the bottom ends of the legs are cut almost flat - rather than being rounded - adding to the character of the chair. It gives the chair a simpler and cleaner look making it more modern and more robust. This might seem like an insignificant detail but look at how Wegner rounded the ends of the arms and the foot of the legs on the Wishbone Chair or the Round Chair to create a different and rather more sophisticated character or feel to the finished chair. That is not to imply that the PP112 is unsophisticated … it is a very careful design that creates a strong honest country look … and after all, that is exactly what the original Windsor chairs were … strong, honest chairs that were the staple furniture in a good farmhouse or cottage kitchen. 

 

PK 15 Poul Kjærholm 1979

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chair in the collection of Designmuseum Danmark

 

Kinesiske stole og dampbøjede stole / Chinese chairs and steambent chairs

 

A chair in compressed beech that has a more traditional bentwood form and is interesting because it echoes and almost mimics the earlier chair in metal tube, the PK 12, that was designed by Kjærholm in 1962.

The basic form of the chair has one long curve forming the back and arms of the chair that is then turned straight down to form the front legs and an inner and lower curve, parallel but much narrower and turning down to the back legs. With less strength in the timber over any length, the PK 15 has two features that were not required in the steel chair … a small link piece at the centre of the back and an inner loop just below the seat and inside the legs to make the frame rigid and to stop the legs spreading outwards when someone sits down or moves in the seat.

In the first bentwood chairs from the Austrian company Thonet in the 19th century the seats were a circle but here the shape of the seat is broader and flatter across the front but not as pronounced as a Reuleaux triangle or even as distinct as the earlier metal chair but I don’t know if these follows a recognised mathematical form such as the super eclipse used by some designers but what is clear is that the success of the design depends on a very very careful graded use of various curves or quadrants in the bending of the chair frame.

The seat is in woven cane … a well-established and popular material in Denmark.

Made originally by Kold Christensen and more recently by PP Møbler.

 


designed by Poul Kjærholm
made originally by Kold Christensen and more recently by PP Møbler.

ash with cane seat

height: 70 cm
width: 50 cm
depth: 46 cm
height of seat: 44 cm

 

Series 8000 Chair by Thygesen and Sørensen 1981

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chair in the collection of Designmuseum Danmark

 

Kinesiske stole og dampbøjede stole / Chinese chairs and steambent chairs

 

The 8000 Series Chair by Rud Thygesen (born 1932) and Johnny Sørensen (born 1944) was designed in 1980 for Café Victor in Copenhagen. It is said to be a reworking of the famous bentwood cafe chairs that were produced by Thonet in Austria in the late 19th century but it also looks to the rather different use of wood and rather different developments in wood technology from Finland in the 1930s in the work of Alvar Aalto and his experiments with laminated wood and plywood.

The light, compact chair by Thygesen and Sørensen has a round seat that is formed with an outer ring or frame in wood that is rebated to take circles of plywood in the top and bottom and both are slightly concave or dished and held apart by an internal spacing piece at the centre. Sinking the plywood into a rebate gives the edge of the seat a thin and clean profile.  

There are four legs in wood that are bent at the top to form a knee or elbow and they are housed into the side of the seat. The upper end of the leg is tapered to form a tenon and the housing in the seat is also shaped. An aqueous glue is used to fix the leg in place so the parts swell to make a secure join. The designers patented this system of assembly for fixing the chair together without using screws or dowels. *

The back of the 8000 Chair has a gentle curve - wider than the seat itself - and the centre is flat on the face to provide a more comfortable support for the spine. The top of the vertical supports for the back and the bottom part of the legs are flared or curved slightly outwards to give a more sophisticated profile but also give the chairs more stability.

Light but strong for commercial use, the cafe chairs can be stacked neatly in a tight and vertical stack. One promotion drawing shows the chair with the back hooked over the edge of a table top to lift it up clear of the floor when cleaning the room.

 

designed by Rud Thygesen (1932-2019) and Johnny Sørensen (b 1944)
produced by Magnus Olesen
made in laminated and lacquered beech

height: 70 cm
width: 53 cm
depth: 40 cm
height of seat: 44 cm

note:

* In contrast, for Stool 60 - and the chair in the same series by Alvar Aalto - the top of the leg is bent over to form a knee with a short horizontal section and the seat is fixed on top of the legs with screws up through the legs into the underside of the seat.

Cirkelstolen / The Circle Chair by Hans Wegner 1986

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This chair is a testament to the imagination of Hans Wegner and to the technical skills of the cabinetmakers PP Møbler. 

Wegner first considered making a chair based on a large circle in 1965 but it took 20 years to put the design into production. Wegner thought that such a large circle could only be made in metal and it was Ejnar Pedersen, a founder of PP Møbler, who persuaded Wegner that it could be made in wood.

The circle is laminated with 11 layers of wood each 3.5 metres long, cut to shape and bent round and joined to form a circle. A specific machine to bend and link the circle was designed by Søren Holst Pedersen - the son of Ejnar Pedersen.

The circle is supported and held at an angle by an amazing combination of shaped struts and curved stretchers with the seat and back woven in halyard - the rope with a nylon core covered with jute that Wegner used for other chairs.

Despite its size, the chair is relatively light and, with wheels on the back struts, it can be moved into the right place quite easily.

Among the drawings for this design is an extraordinary sketch of a variation in metal like a giant loop that has been twisted back on itself. It takes some mental effort to work out which loop goes which way and how the rope mesh would work but you can track everything through quite rationally and it is at that point that you understand just what an amazing mental command Wegner had of such incredibly complex 3D shapes … he imagined this and then sketched what he imagined and it would have worked and that really is an outstanding skill.

 

designed by Hans Wegner (1914-2007)
cabinetmakers PP Møbler

ash or oak
halyard - core of nylon with sleeve of woven jute
clips steel or brass

height: 97 cm
width: 112 cm
depth: 94 cm
height to front edge of seat: 42 cm

 

 

Trinidadstol / Trinidad Chair by Nanna Ditzel 1993

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The Trinidad Chair is one of the most distinct and most unusual of modern Danish chairs made in plywood. It was designed by Nanna Ditzel and was given that name because the fretwork of facades in Trinidad, seen by her on trips to the island, had been the initial inspiration for the design.

It has a low, simple but elegant frame in metal tube and the seat and the back rest of the chair are cut from separate pieces of laminated wood that are both in a fan shape that is almost reminiscent of the shape of a segment of a citrus fruit. Both backrest and seat are cut through with precisely cut slits that are fanned out gently across the shape.

Both the seat and the back rest are fixed to the frame with large flat rivets but what is striking is that the metal frame of the back is not taken across the top of the back rest but is set low and holds the bottom edge of the back rest to give the chair a form of construction and a silhouette that has a lightness and elegance that is unique in Danish chairs.

There are versions of the Trinidad with arm rests and options for an upholstered pad for the seat.

Made by the Danish furniture company Fredericia, the chair came originally in a number of wood finishes including maple, cherry, beech, birch and walnut but there are now options for colours for both the wood and the metal frame and the chair has just been released in new colours - a palette of soft warm greys selected by the Swedish design blogger Pella Hedeby - to mark the 25th anniversary of its launch.

Fredericia

 

 

Trinidad Chair in the permanent collection of Designmuseum Danmark in Copenhagen

 

height: 85 cm
width: 48.5 cm
depth: 57 cm
height of seat: 45.5 cm
weight: 4kg

note:

a bar stool version - with smaller seat and back - has a seat height of 76.5 cm