Scandinavian Peel Armchair Leather

Danish master cabinetmaker Johannes Hansen is best known for a celebrated partnership with legendary Scandinavian modernist designer Hans Wegner that lasted half a century. The sophisticated and sculptural chairs, tables and cabinets that Wegner designed and Hansen built earned Wegner worldwide acclaim, and brought meaningful business opportunities to Hansen and his modest workshop.

Hansen was born in 1886 and apprenticed as a cabinetmaker in his early years, opening a workshop and showroom in Copenhagen. In 1927, he helped establish the annual Copenhagen Cabinetmakers’ Guild Exhibition. Later, at the age of 55, Hansen began working with Danish furniture designer Hans J. Wegner, then only 26. With Wegner creating and Hansen executing on his partner’s complex designs, they developed furniture to sell in Hansen's showroom. A business relationship of this type was common in 20th-century Danish furniture making, and Hansen and Wegner enjoyed a prolific and renowned collaboration.

Wegner’s career began in cabinetry before he transitioned to furniture design in the 1940s. He is among the most celebrated figures for collectors of mid-century modern and Scandinavian works of the era. One of the first well-known entries for the Cabinetmakers’ Guild Exhibitions authored by Wegner and built by Hansen was the 1942 Lattice chair, a red Cuban mahogany dining room chair with an upholstered leather seat. The Peacock chair, an iconic design that followed in 1947, was the pair's take on a traditional English Windsor chair. It featured flattened spindles along the back resembling the feathers of a peacock tail — it wasn’t exactly an emblem of the pared-back functionality prioritized by Kaare Klint, Wegner’s former instructor at Copenhagen’s Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts.

Wegner would go on to design nearly 500 chairs over the course of his life — among them are the Wishbone chair, the Papa Bear chair and the Round chair. The latter, which is often simply called “The Chair,” was manufactured by Hansen and made its debut at the Guild Exhibition in 1949. It was declared “the most beautiful chair in the world” by Interiors magazine a year later, and a pair of the iconic seats appeared on the first nationally televised presidential debate in the United States in 1960.

After Hansen died in 1961, his son, Poul Hansen, took over the business and continued working with Wegner. The company closed in the 1990s, but today, Hansen and Wegner's collaborative legacy endures in collections around the world.

Find vintage Johannes Hansen furniture on 1stDibs.

Scandinavian modernism is perhaps the warmest and most organic iteration of modernist design. The work of the designers associated with vintage Scandinavian modern furniture was founded on centuries-old beliefs in both quality craftsmanship and the ideal that beauty should enhance even the humblest accessories of daily life.

ORIGINS OF SCANDINAVIAN MODERN FURNITURE DESIGN 

• Emerged in the 1930s 
• Originated primarily in Denmark, Sweden and Finland
• Introduced in the United States in mid-20th century
• Informed by the Bauhaus and modernism; influenced American mid-century modernism  

CHARACTERISTICS OF SCANDINAVIAN MODERN FURNITURE DESIGN

• Bold, clean lines and simple, sturdy symmetries
• Use of natural materials — native woods such as pine, ash and beech
• Open, airy spaces
• Promotion of functionality
• Emphasis on craftsmanship; rooted in cabinetry profession and traditional construction techniques
• Minimal ornamentation (little to no embellishment)
• A neutral or light color palette owing to prominence of light woods

SCANDINAVIAN MODERN FURNITURE DESIGNERS TO KNOW

• Alvar Aalto
• Hans Wegner
• Kaare Klint
• Arne Jacobsen
• Greta Magnusson Grossman 
• Finn Juhl
• Arne Vodder
• Verner Panton

ICONIC SCANDINAVIAN MODERN FURNITURE DESIGNS

• Ant chair
• Grasshopper table lamp
• Wishbone chair
• Stool 60
• Artichoke lamp

VINTAGE SCANDINAVIAN MODERN FURNITURE ON 1STDIBS

The gentle, organic contours that are typical of Scandinavian design appear in the furnishings and decor created by Danish, Finnish and Swedish designers not as a stylistic gesture, but rather as a practical, ergonomic — and, as importantly, elegant — response to the human form.

Each nation produced exceptional talents in all areas of the applied arts, yet each had its forté. Sweden was home to Greta Magnusson Grossman and Bruno Mathsson — creators of the classic Grasshopper lighting series and Berlin daybed, respectively — but the country excelled most notably at ceramics. In the 1920s at the great Gustavsberg porcelain manufactory, Wilhelm Kåge introduced pieces in the Scandinavian style based on influences from folklore to Cubism; his skills were passed on to his versatile and inspired pupils Berndt Friberg and Stig Lindberg.

Likewise, Finland produced a truly ingenious Scandinavian modern furniture designer in the architect Alvar Aalto, a master at melding function and artistic form in works like the Paimio chair, created in collaboration with his first wife, Aino. Yet Finnish glassware was pre-eminent, crafted in expressive, sculptural designs by Tapio Wirkkala and Timo Sarpaneva.

The Danes excelled at chairs. Hans Wegner and Arne Jacobsen were exemplars of the country’s facility with wood, particularly teak. 

Wegner created such iconic pieces as the Round chair and the Wishbone chair; Jacobsen — while the revolutionary architect and furniture innovator produced the best-selling plywood Ant chair — designed two classic upholstered pieces of the 1950s: the Swan chair and Egg chair. The list of great Danes could go on and on, including Finn Juhl, a stylistic maverick and maker of the bold Chieftain chair; Poul Kjaerholm, with his lean metal-and-rattan aesthetic; and Verner Panton, who introduced a vibrant Pop note into international design.

Today, decades after their heyday, the prolific, ever-evolving Scandinavian modernists continue to amaze and delight, and interior designers all over the world use their pieces to bring warmth to any given space.

On 1stDibs, you will note both instantly recognizable vintage Scandinavian modern chairs, sofas, rugs and tables — those that have earned iconic status over time — and many new discoveries. 

Armchairs have run the gamut from prestige to ease and everything in between, and everyone has an antique or vintage armchair that they love.

Long before industrial mass production democratized seating, armchairs conveyed status and power.

In ancient Egypt, the commoners took stools, while in early Greece, ceremonial chairs of carved marble were designated for nobility. But the high-backed early thrones of yore, elevated and ornate, were merely grandiose iterations of today’s armchairs.

Modern-day armchairs, built with functionality and comfort in mind, are now central to tasks throughout your home. Formal dining armchairs support your guests at a table for a cheery feast, a good drafting chair with a deep seat is parked in front of an easel where you create art and, elsewhere, an ergonomic wonder of sorts positions you at the desk for your 9 to 5.

When placed under just the right lamp where you can lounge comfortably, both elbows resting on the padded supports on each side of you, an upholstered armchair — or a rattan armchair for your light-suffused sunroom — can be the sanctuary where you’ll read for hours.

If you’re in the mood for company, your velvet chesterfield armchair is a place to relax and be part of the conversation that swirls around you. Maybe the dialogue is about the beloved Papa Bear chair, a mid-century modern masterpiece from Danish carpenter and furniture maker Hans Wegner, and the wingback’s strong association with the concept of cozying up by the fireplace, which we can trace back to its origins in 1600s-era England, when the seat’s distinctive arm protrusions protected the sitter from the heat of the period’s large fireplaces.

If the fireside armchair chat involves spirited comparisons, your companions will likely probe the merits of antique and vintage armchairs such as Queen Anne armchairs, Victorian armchairs or even Louis XVI armchairs, as well as the pros and cons of restoration versus conservation.

Everyone seems to have a favorite armchair and most people will be all too willing to talk about their beloved design. Whether that’s the unique Favela chair by Brazilian sibling furniture designers Fernando and Humberto Campana, who repurposed everyday objects to provocative effect; or Marcel Breuer’s futuristic tubular metal Wassily lounge chair; the functionality-first LC series from Charlotte Perriand, Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret; or the Eames lounge chair of the mid-1950s created by Charles and Ray Eames, there is an iconic armchair for everyone and every purpose. Find yours on 1stDibs right now.