The Round Chair

The Round Chair (Danish: Den Runde Stol, also known as The Chair in America, The Classic Chair in the Britain, and by the model numbers PP501, PP503, JH501, and JH503) is an armchair designed by Hans Wegner in 1949. The chair was a collaboration of Wegner and the now-defunct furniture maker Johannes Hansen. It is still in production today by the Danish furniture manufacturer PP Møbler.[1]

The Round Chair
The Round Chair with caned seat and backrest
DesignerHans Wegner
Date1949
Made inDenmark
Style / traditionDanish

The chair features back and armrests made from one continuous semicircle. The finger joints orient the wood grain as the back rail wraps around the body to maximize material strength. The chair is offered with a solid upholstered seat (PP503) or a seat of woven caning (PP501).

“Many foreigners have asked me, how we created the ‘Danish Modern’ style. And I have to say that it was nothing like that – creating …I suppose it was more an advanced process of purifying and for me simplification, cutting the elements down to the bare essentials: Four legs, a seat and a combined back and arm rest – The Chair.”[2]

— Hans J. Wegner on creating the chair

History and cultural impact

In 1949, Wegner planned to present 2 chairs to display at the annual exhibition of the Copenhagen Cabinetmakers' Guild (Danish: Snedkerlauget): the tripartite plywood shell chair and the Folding Chair (JH512).[3] His employer, Johannes Hansen, felt that there were too many plywood chairs on display and instructed Wegner to create a more traditional chair.[4] Wegner created the Round Chair in only 48 hours.[5]

The Danish press that attended the event initially paid attention to the tripartite chair. Plywood had become popularized as a furniture material by the Eames and Alvar Alto[6] and they were drawn to the dramatic designs of this new lamination technology.[3] Due to the high production cost, the tripartite chair prototype would never go into production but would remain in Wegner's home.[3]

While the tripartite chair had captured the attention of the Danish press, American journalists attended the event for the first time and were drawn to the traditional design of the Round Chair instead of the innovative design of the plywood chair.[4] The American journalists shared the news of this chair back home and it became was the subject of much attention internationally. The year that the chair was created, the American magazine Interiors featured the chair and christened it “most beautiful chair in the world.”[7][8][9] This was the first coverage of Danish Modern in the American press.[4] The article included the following caption, “In this oak desk chair Mr. Wegner uses a simple construction and devotes himself to perfecting the shape and scale of the parts. [...] The sturdy legs are tapered just enough to seem muscular rather than overfed and the seat dips slightly to look willing but not seductive.”[1]

Unlike the Wishbone Chair that was created later that year, the design of the Round Chair was not created with productionization in mind. As such, the chair took many hours to construct and Johannes Hansen struggled to fulfill the early orders. A Downtown Chicago club attempted to order 400 chairs but Johannes Hansen (with only a handful of workers at the time) struggled for two years before being able to complete this order.[4] In 1966, it was cited that Johannes Hansen employed around 30 workers and could only produce three Round Chairs per day.[10]

The Americans came to Denmark to inquire whether they could buy or make some of them. Johannes Hansen's workshop was small, with only five or six assistants. They were not used to producing large numbers. If they could just sell the four chairs we made for the show, we would be happy. The Americans were not satisfied with that. They asked if they could get 400 of them. I could certainly also ask Fritz Hansen — and I did — but Johannes Hansen certainly didn't like that. The Americans wanted to make the chair in the United States. And I didn't like that. It was designed for Danish craftsmen.[4]

— Hans Wegner

In the early models of the chair, Wegner used a mortise and tenon joint to connect the arms to the backrest. Wegner was dissatisfied with the way that this looked and wrapped the backrest in cane to hide what he considered to be an unsightly design and created the illusion that the arms and backrest were constructed from a single piece of wood. In 1950, Wegner updated the design to use a zigzag patterned finger joint to connect the three parts and did away with the cane wrapped backrest (but it continued to be available for special order).[11]

Due to the difference in humidity outside of Denmark, the canning seat would sag over time in the United States. To address this, Johannes Hansen released an upholstered version of the chair. Wegner disliked this compromise and was quoted saying, "If consumers use their head, they will specify leather; but if they use their heart, they will take their chances with the original caned seat." [12]

Form Nov 27, 1951 through Jan 27, 1952, the chair was featured in the 2nd Good Design exhibition at New York Museum of Modern Art and Chicago's Merchandise Mart.[13] It was added to MoMA's permanent collection a year later.[14]

On September 26, 1960, the chair was prominently on display in the first televised U.S. presidential debate between Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy.[15][16][17] Both presidential candidates sat in The Chair during the debate. This event drew more attention to the chair and the emerging Danish modern furniture trend.

in 1991, the chair was featured on a Danish postage stamp.[13]

Counterfeits and replicas

The high cost and limited availability of this piece of furniture has fueled many imitations and counterfeit replicas. To demonstrate the extent in which the chair was copied, Johannes Hansen presented 12 replicas of the chair at a company event in 1965.[6]

In 2015, a shipment of 100 imitation Round Chairs from China were seized and destroyed by Norwegian customs. The Norwegian restaurant that ordered the knockoffs were forced to pay for the cost of the destruction.[18]

Further reading

References
  1. "PP MØBLER / pp501/pp503 - THE CHAIR". www.pp.dk. Retrieved 2020-09-24.
  2. "The birth of Danish modern". PP Møbler. Retrieved 2020-09-26.
  3. Olesen, Christian Holmsted. Wegner : just one good chair. Wegner, Hans J., 1914-2007, Mussari, Mark, Gylling, Martin, Pedersen, Birgit Lyngbye, Designmuseum Danmark. Copenhagen. pp. 52–57. ISBN 978-3-7757-3809-5. OCLC 877852234.
  4. Rybczynski, Witold (2016-08-23). Now I Sit Me Down: From Klismos to Plastic Chair: A Natural History. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. pp. 146–148. ISBN 978-0-374-71335-5.
  5. "113 Chairs That Prove Danish Design Isn't Limited to Denmark". 1stDibs Introspective. 2019-05-03. Retrieved 2020-09-28.
  6. Richardson, Lucy Ryder (2016-12-08). 102 Midcentury Chairs: and their stories. Pavilion Books. ISBN 978-1-911216-80-3.
  7. Feldman, Melissa (2001-08-02). "CURRENTS: FURNITURE; Simple If Much Decorated Chairs From a Distinguished Designer". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-09-24.
  8. "The One & Only—Hans Wegner's "The Chair"". pamono.com. Retrieved 2020-09-24.
  9. Glancey, Jonathan. "The hot seats: Iconic chairs". www.bbc.com. Retrieved 2020-09-24.
  10. Moody, Ella (1966). Modern furniture. Internet Archive. London, Studio Vista. pp. 102–103.
  11. Fehrman, Cherie; Fehrman, Kenneth (October 2009). Interior Design Innovators 1910-1960. Fehrman Books. p. 91. ISBN 978-0-9842001-0-8.
  12. Gandy, Charles D. (1981). Contemporary classics : furniture of the masters. Internet Archive. New York : McGraw-Hill. ISBN 978-0-07-022760-6.
  13. "Famous Furniture: Hans J. Wegner's "The Chair"". www.woodcraft.com. Retrieved 2020-09-26.
  14. "Hans Wegner. Armchair. 1949 | MoMA". The Museum of Modern Art. Retrieved 2020-09-24.
  15. Patton, Phil (2008-10-11). "In Debates, the Furniture Is the Message". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-09-24.
  16. Colman, David (2007-02-06). "Hans Wegner Dies at 92; Danish Furniture Designer". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-09-24.
  17. Marcus, J. S. (2013-09-26). "Seats of Power, From Denmark". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2020-09-24.
  18. "Hans J Wegner fakes destroyed by Norwegian authorities". Dezeen. 2015-10-08. Retrieved 2020-09-24.
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