Description

Iconic Series 7 ‘Butterfly’ chairs designed by the Danish designer Arne Jacobsen for Fritz Hansen. These particular chairs are from the library of a Scottish university and are original Jacobsen chairs, produced by Fritz Hansen in 1997.

The very same chairs currently retail new on the Fritz Hansen website at £458 each. £110 is the price per chair. Discount available if 4 or more chairs purchased.

This world acclaimed Danish Design company, synonymous with quality and cutting edge furniture, is still as vibrant today as when it was started in 1872 by the enterprising cabinetmaker Fritz Hansen. From its humble start and early experimentation with steam bending beech in the thirties, Christian Hansen (Fritz’s son) and Fritz, pushed the designs forward from their Germanic functionalist roots to develop a lighter Scandinavian style. By collaborating with leading Danish designers of the day, the company created and produced what are now classic design icons.

Arne Jacobsen dominated the firm’s history with his breakthrough laminated ‘Ant’ Chair (1952) and the ‘Series 7’ chairs (1955). The inspiration for the Ant chair came from Hvidt & Molgaard’s AX-series, with it’s revolutionary lamination technique and flat pack design. Fritz Hansen the company and Jacobsen went on to design for the Royal Hotel in Copenhagen the world famous ‘Swan’ (1958), and ‘Egg'(1958) chairs.

Other influential designers to collaborate with Fritz Hansen were Kaare Klint, Hans J. Wegner (China Chair 1944) and Borge Mogensen (Spoke Back Sofa 1945). Piet Hein’s elliptical table (1968) was a resounding success and in the 1970’s Verner Panton came on board and challenged the status quo with his designs, moving things forward and keeping things fresh.

Born in Copenhagen in 1902, Arne Jacobsen apprenticed as a bricklayer before studying architecture at the Royal Danish Academy of the Arts. In 1925, he participated in the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, and subsequently travelled to Germany. During this formative trip, he came under the influence of Le Corbusier, Walter Gropius, and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe.

Prior to World War II, Jacobsen designed a number of private and public buildings in Denmark and, in the process, helped to formulate what would eventually be called the Danish Modern style. In 1943, he fled Denmark for Sweden, where he found work designing fabrics and wallpapers, but he returned home after the war. In the ensuing decades, Jacobsen became the most dominant figure in Danish architecture. Inspired greatly by Charles Eames, he began to design furniture for his interiors, such as the iconic Swan Chair and Egg Chair.