Iconic Designs
Panton ChairBy Verner Panton
About the Design
Appearing as if it were a three-dimensional brushstroke of paint, the S-shaped Panton chair is just one curved piece of plastic that cantilevers over itself to form a seat. Prior to its development by experimental Danish designer Verner Panton (1926–98), no chair had ever been crafted from a single piece of molded plastic.
“I want to design furniture that grows up out of the floor,” Panton said of his work. “To turn the furniture into something organic, which never has four legs.” The designer, who studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen before working for Arne Jacobsen’s architecture firm, started experimenting with the concept of single-piece plastic chairs in the late 1950s, drafting sketches of what eventually became his signature eponymous work before creating a full-scale polystyrene model. But he ran into production trouble — no manufacturer would tackle the chair’s challenging engineering problems. Plastic was still a relatively new invention at the time, having been introduced to mass markets in the postwar era when most furniture makers still preferred to work in wood.
Enter Swiss furniture company Vitra, which agreed to take on the project in 1963.
It took four years — and ten prototypes — but Vitra and Panton were ultimately successful, creating a Panton chair made from fiberglass-reinforced polyester. It debuted in Danish design magazine Mobilia in 1967 and then at the 1968 Cologne Furniture Fair. The chair embodied a seductive combination of the era’s popular Space Age and Pop art aesthetics through its undulating form, futuristic material and punchy colors, resulting in mass demand for the relatively affordable piece of furniture. While it was discontinued in 1979 due to durability issues, the chair was reintroduced years later and Vitra has continued to manufacture it, experimenting with materials ranging from polyurethane foam to polypropylene in conjunction with Panton throughout the course of his lifetime. For the chair’s 50th anniversary, Vitra produced limited-edition chrome and glow-in-the-dark models.
The chair has become a celebrity in itself: It was featured on the cover of British Vogue in 1995 — with a nude Kate Moss atop it — and in 2006, it was inducted into the Danish Culture Canon. Numerous design museums hold the chair in their collections, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Design Museum in London and more. As far as chairs go, particularly those designed during the 1960s and 1970s, there are few better known and more beloved than the Panton.
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MCM Panton Junior PAIR of Kids Chairs by Verner Panton Vitra, Turquoise + Orange
By Vitra, Verner Panton
Located in Basel, BS
FREE fast shipping.
Panton Junior Chairs, Pair-- in Turquoise and Orange-- Rare colors, no longer produced.
Verner Panton, 1959/2006
The Panton J...
Category
Early 2000s Swiss Mid-Century Modern Chairs
Materials
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$1,053 Sale Price
20% Off
Purple Panton Chairs by Verner Panton for Herman Miller / Felhbaum , 1976, Set o
By Herman Miller, Verner Panton
Located in KUTNO, PL
The Panton chairs on display were produced by Verner Panton for Herman Miller / Felhbaum in 1976 .
Panton designed the first ever chair consisting of a single piece of plastic avail...
Category
Vintage 1970s Dining Room Chairs
Materials
Plastic
$4,104 Sale Price / set
20% Off
Panton Chair by Verner Panton for Herman Miller / Fehlbaum, in white 1976
By Verner Panton, Herman Miller
Located in Halle, DE
Panton S-Chair, designed by Verner Panton for Hermann Miller / Fehlbaum. Color: white. The chair is from the 2nd production run from 1970 onwards in thermoplastic luran-s with reinfo...
Category
Vintage 1970s German Space Age Chairs
Materials
Plastic
Verner Panton for Vitra Glow Panton Chair, Luminescent, White, Blue, Limited Ed
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Verner Panton for Vitra Glow Panton chair, Luminescent, white, limited edition, on occasion of 50th anniversary. 1000 luminescent produced.
After several years of joint development by Verner Panton and Vitra, the Panton chair was finally ready for production in 1967 – as the first all-plastic cantilever chair to be manufactured in one piece. Created with a revolutionary production technique, the chair’s unique sculptural design was presented to the public for the first time at the imm Furniture Fair in Cologne in 1968. It rapidly came to symbolise an entire era. In 2018, 50 years after its launch, Vitra is issuing two limited editions of this iconic classic: Panton Chrome and Panton Glow. Vitra limited production of the “Glow” to 333 chairs which were sold in June 2018, the 50th anniversary of the first presentation of the chair to the public.
Verner Panton showed an ardent interest in innovative technologies, techniques and materials over the course of his lifetime. He worked with lighting, colour and luminous elements in many of his futuristic interiors.
For his legendary 1970 installation ‘Visiona 2...
Category
Mid-20th Century European Mid-Century Modern Dining Room Chairs
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$5,740 Sale Price / item
30% Off
Panton Chair
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The Panton chair is an important icon of modern design and has a fascinating history as Verner Panton experimented with a variety of materials to best realize the design. The most co...
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Late 20th Century German Mid-Century Modern Chairs
Materials
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Side Chair by Verner Panton for Herman Miller - Felhbaum, 1971
By Herman Miller, Verner Panton
Located in Barcelona, ES
Side chair designed by Verner Panton in 1967 for Herman Miller - Fehlbaum production, Germany. This one is stamped in 1971 in black glossy thermoplastic.
Category
Vintage 1970s German Mid-Century Modern Chairs
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Verner Panton "Panton Chair" Original Edition Herman Miller circa 1960
By Herman Miller, Verner Panton
Located in Saint-Ouen, FR
Verner Panton "Panton chair" original edition Herman Miller in enamelled fiberglass circa 1960
wear and minor losses.
Category
Vintage 1960s North American Mid-Century Modern Chairs
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Verner Panton "Panton Chair" 6 Original Chairs Edition Herman Miller circa 1960
By Verner Panton, Herman Miller
Located in Saint-Ouen, FR
Verner Panton "Panton chair" 6 original chairs edition Herman Miller in enamelled fiberglass circa 1960
repainted a few years ago.
original color: white
wear and minor losses.
Category
Vintage 1960s North American Mid-Century Modern Chairs
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Set of 6 stackable Panton chairs in white lacquered molded ABS
By Verner Panton
Located in London, GB
Set of 6 stackable Panton chairs in white lacquered molded ABS. Publisher's imprint under the seat. Herman Miller edition for Fehlbaum 1971 (except one from 1973). Bibliography: Pete...
Category
Vintage 1970s Danish Mid-Century Modern Chairs
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White Panton Chair by Verner Panton for Vitra with Side Stool
By Verner Panton, Vitra
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Captivated by the potential of plastic, Danish designer Verner Panton created the fir...
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By Verner Panton, Herman Miller
Located in Praha, CZ
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- marked
- S chair or Panton chair
- very confortable
- stackable
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Vintage 1970s American Mid-Century Modern Chairs
Materials
Plastic
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About the Designer and Chair Model:
From the early 1950s, Panton had dreamt of making a stackable, cantilevered chair all in one piece. In 1956, he designed the S chair which can be considered a forerunner of the Panton chair. He saw it as an item of furniture in which the back, seat and legs were made of the same material and in one continuous piece. It was first produced in 1965.
Panton made a series of sketches and design drawings for the Panton chair in the 1950s. In 1960, he created his first model, a plaster-cast, in collaboration with Dansk Akrylteknik. In the mid-1960s, he met Willi Fehlbaum, who, unlike many other producers, was fascinated with the drawings of his legless chair in plastic rather than wood, the favoured material of the times. Working closely with Fehlbaum, Panton produced a cold-pressed model using polyester strengthened with fibreglass. For the first time, an entire chair had been designed in one piece, without any legs. It became known as a free-swinger. The first rather heavy model, which required substantial finishing work, was subsequently improved and adapted to industrial production using thermoplastic polystyrene which led to a marked reduction in cost.
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Appearing as if it were a three-dimensional brushstroke of paint, the S-shaped Panton chair is just one curved piece of plastic that cantilevers over itself to form a seat. Prior to its development by experimental Danish designer Verner Panton (1926–98), no chair had ever been crafted from a single piece of molded plastic.
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