Pair of Vintage "Swan" Chairs by Arne Jacobsen for Fritz Hansen

This Swan chair was designed by Arne Jacobsen in 1958 for the lobby and lounge areas of the SAS Royal Hotel in Copenhagen. The design contains no straight lines, making it look organic and soft despite its simplicity and strong architectural appeal. Arne Jacobsen was a notoriously difficult man to work with, sarcastic and demanding, and even requiring his own staff to work around the clock rather than tend to their families. At home, he lined his cups and glasses in neat rows and ensured the children’s toys were stored out of sight. While redecorating, he had his family hold up picture frames for hours on end to make sure the final composition was just right. Yet despite his peculiarities, Jacobsen was a well-rounded individual who enjoyed painting, studying nature and tending to saplings. He had a warm, self-depreciating sense of humour evident in his hand-drawn Christmas cards to close friends or his carefully considered statements on subjects close to his heart. As a child, he liked to play the clown and throughout adulthood he continued his boyhood antics – once donning a hollowed-out melon as a hat. Oftentimes Jacobsen looked to escape the very thing he had helped to create: “I am choking on aesthetics,” he would say in private, where even the pastries he ate...

Arne Jacobsen for Fritz Hansen, pair of 'Oxford' chairs, metal, fabric, Denmark, design 1965. These classic executive office chairs feature a medium high back (as opposed to the mod...