Poul Kjaerlohm

When the Copenhagen-based furniture maker Fritz Hansen opened for business more than 140 years ago, the company — which today styles itself The Republic of Fritz Hansen — adhered to the traditional, time-honored Danish values of craftsmanship in woodworking and joinery. Yet thanks to the postwar innovations of Arne Jacobsen and others, Fritz Hansen would become the country’s leader in Scandinavian modern design using new, forward-looking materials and methods.

Fritz Hansen started his company in 1872, specializing in the manufacture of small furniture parts. In 1915, the firm became the first in Denmark to make chairs using steam-bent wood (a technique most familiar from birch used in the ubiquitous café chairs by Austrian maker Thonet). At the time, Fritz Hansen was best known for seating that featured curved legs and curlicue splats and referenced 18th-century Chippendale designs.

In the next few decades, the company promoted simple, plain chairs with slatted backs and cane or rush seats designed by such proto-modernist masters as Kaare Klint and Søren Hansen. Still, the most aesthetically striking piece Fritz Hansen produced in the first half of the 20th century was arguably the China chair of 1944 by Hans Wegner — and that piece, with its yoke-shaped bentwood back- and armrest, was based on seating manufactured in China during the Ming dynasty. (Wegner was moved by portraits he’d seen of Danish merchants in the Chinese chairs.) 

Everything changed in 1952 with Arne Jacobsen’s Ant chair. The collaboration between the architect and Fritz Hansen officially originated in 1934 — that year, Jacobsen created his inaugural piece for the manufacturer, the solid beechwood Bellevue chair for a restaurant commission. The Ant chair, however, was the breakthrough.

With assistance from his then-apprentice Verner Panton, Jacobsen designed the Ant chair for the cafeteria of a Danish healthcare company called Novo Nordisk. The chair was composed of a seat and backrest formed from a single piece of molded plywood attached, in its original iteration, to three tubular metal legs. Its silhouette suggests the shape of the insect’s body, and the lightweight, stackable chair and its biomorphic form became an international hit.

Jacobsen followed with more plywood successes, such as the Grand Prix chair of 1957. The following year he designed the SAS Royal Hotel in Copenhagen and its furnishings, including the Egg chair and the Swan chair. Those two upholstered pieces, with their lush, organic frames made of fiberglass-reinforced polyurethane, have become the two chairs most emblematic of mid-20th-century cool. Moreover, the Egg and Swan led Fritz Hansen to fully embrace new man-made materials, like foam, plastic and steel wire used to realize the avant-garde creations of later generations of designers with whom the firm collaborated, such as Piet Hein, Jørn Utzon (the architect of the Sydney Opera House) and Verner Panton. If the Fritz Hansen of 1872 would not now recognize his company, today’s connoisseurs certainly do.

Find a collection of vintage Fritz Hansen tables, lounge chairs, sofas and other 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.