Fritz Hansen Furniture
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-honoured 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, specialising 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 moulded 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 fibreglass-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 realise 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 recognise his company, today’s connoisseurs certainly do.
Find a collection of vintage Fritz Hansen tables, lounge chairs, sofas and other furniture on 1stDibs.
1930s Danish Scandinavian Modern Vintage Fritz Hansen Furniture
Seagrass, Beech
1930s Danish Scandinavian Modern Vintage Fritz Hansen Furniture
Rope, Beech
1950s Danish Scandinavian Modern Vintage Fritz Hansen Furniture
Fabric, Oak
Mid-20th Century Danish Scandinavian Modern Fritz Hansen Furniture
Rope, Oak
19th Century Danish Mid-Century Modern Antique Fritz Hansen Furniture
Mahogany
1930s Danish Scandinavian Modern Vintage Fritz Hansen Furniture
Sheepskin
Mid-20th Century Danish Scandinavian Modern Fritz Hansen Furniture
Teak
1930s Danish Scandinavian Modern Vintage Fritz Hansen Furniture
Lambskin, Beech
1960s Danish Scandinavian Modern Vintage Fritz Hansen Furniture
Chrome
1960s Danish Mid-Century Modern Vintage Fritz Hansen Furniture
Stainless Steel
1960s Danish Scandinavian Modern Vintage Fritz Hansen Furniture
Chrome
1960s Danish Scandinavian Modern Vintage Fritz Hansen Furniture
Chrome
1980s Danish Mid-Century Modern Vintage Fritz Hansen Furniture
Metal, Chrome
1950s Danish Scandinavian Modern Vintage Fritz Hansen Furniture
Metal
1950s Danish Mid-Century Modern Vintage Fritz Hansen Furniture
Chrome
Early 2000s Danish Mid-Century Modern Fritz Hansen Furniture
Cast Stone, Metal
1950s Danish Mid-Century Modern Vintage Fritz Hansen Furniture
Aluminium
21st Century and Contemporary Polish Scandinavian Modern Fritz Hansen Furniture
Wood
1940s Danish Scandinavian Modern Vintage Fritz Hansen Furniture
Fabric, Wood
Mid-20th Century Danish Art Deco Fritz Hansen Furniture
Papercord, Oak
1950s Mid-Century Modern Vintage Fritz Hansen Furniture
Teak
1980s Danish Mid-Century Modern Vintage Fritz Hansen Furniture
Chrome
21st Century and Contemporary Mid-Century Modern Fritz Hansen Furniture
Steel
1990s Danish Mid-Century Modern Fritz Hansen Furniture
Aluminium
Early 2000s Danish Mid-Century Modern Fritz Hansen Furniture
Metal
Early 2000s Danish Mid-Century Modern Fritz Hansen Furniture
Metal
Mid-20th Century Danish Mid-Century Modern Fritz Hansen Furniture
Lambskin, Wool, Oak
2010s Danish Fritz Hansen Furniture
Steel
1940s Danish Scandinavian Modern Vintage Fritz Hansen Furniture
Sheepskin, Oak
1950s Danish Mid-Century Modern Vintage Fritz Hansen Furniture
Wood, Teak
1970s Danish Vintage Fritz Hansen Furniture
Aluminium
1940s Danish Mid-Century Modern Vintage Fritz Hansen Furniture
Wool, Beech
21st Century and Contemporary Danish Fritz Hansen Furniture
Steel, Chrome
1960s Danish Scandinavian Modern Vintage Fritz Hansen Furniture
Leather
1960s Danish Scandinavian Modern Vintage Fritz Hansen Furniture
Leather
1940s Danish Scandinavian Modern Vintage Fritz Hansen Furniture
Seagrass, Beech
21st Century and Contemporary Swedish Scandinavian Modern Fritz Hansen Furniture
Leather
Early 2000s Danish Scandinavian Modern Fritz Hansen Furniture
Steel
1950s Danish Scandinavian Modern Vintage Fritz Hansen Furniture
Wood, Teak
1950s Danish Vintage Fritz Hansen Furniture
Metal
Mid-20th Century Danish Scandinavian Modern Fritz Hansen Furniture
Metal
Mid-20th Century Fritz Hansen Furniture
Bouclé
1960s Danish Scandinavian Modern Vintage Fritz Hansen Furniture
Leather, Oak
Mid-20th Century Danish Scandinavian Modern Fritz Hansen Furniture
Aluminium, Steel
1950s Danish Mid-Century Modern Vintage Fritz Hansen Furniture
Aluminium
Mid-20th Century Danish Scandinavian Modern Fritz Hansen Furniture
Metal, Aluminium
1940s European Scandinavian Modern Vintage Fritz Hansen Furniture
Brass
1960s Danish Modern Vintage Fritz Hansen Furniture
Plywood, Teak
1940s Danish Scandinavian Modern Vintage Fritz Hansen Furniture
Beech
1940s Danish Vintage Fritz Hansen Furniture
Fabric, Wood
Mid-20th Century Danish Scandinavian Modern Fritz Hansen Furniture
Sheepskin
Mid-20th Century Danish Mid-Century Modern Fritz Hansen Furniture
Fabric, Beech
1960s Danish Modern Vintage Fritz Hansen Furniture
Steel
Early 2000s Danish Modern Fritz Hansen Furniture
Aluminium
1940s Danish Scandinavian Modern Vintage Fritz Hansen Furniture
Faux Leather, Beech
1970s Danish Modern Vintage Fritz Hansen Furniture
Aluminium
1970s Danish Modern Vintage Fritz Hansen Furniture
Steel
1960s Danish Modern Vintage Fritz Hansen Furniture
Metal