Hans Wegner Peacock Chair, Made by Johannes Hansen, 1950s, Denmark
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Hans Wegner Peacock Chair, Made by Johannes Hansen, 1950s, Denmark
About the Item
- Creator:Hans J. Wegner (Designer),Johannes Andersen (Maker)
- Design:
- Dimensions:Height: 42.33 in (107.5 cm)Width: 30.32 in (77 cm)Depth: 29.34 in (74.5 cm)Seat Height: 14.18 in (36 cm)
- Style:Mid-Century Modern (Of the Period)
- Materials and Techniques:
- Place of Origin:
- Period:
- Date of Manufacture:1950s
- Condition:Wear consistent with age and use. Very good condition with only minimal signs of use and wear.
- Seller Location:London, GB
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU2259316415401
Peacock Chair
Not long before he debuted both “The Chair” — the ingeniously, appropriately named piece that exemplifies his dedication to purified form — and the revered and now oft-imitated Wishbone chair, Danish furniture designer Hans Wegner (1914–2007) released the Peacock chair, a gracefully arching, high-backed seat produced for manufacturer Johannes Hansen in 1947.
Although certain elements of this Wegner design — a woven seat, shapely wooden frame, graceful form — would go on to become nearly synonymous with Danish mid-century furniture, the Peacock (official name: PP550) has roots in another design tradition: the Windsor chair. Recognized by its arched frame and spindle back, the Windsor has long been associated with Amish woodworking communities in the United States, though its origin can be traced back to England and Wales. English settlers brought the seats stateside and they quickly gained popularity in North America, enduring through colonial times and into 20th-century American style.
But back to Denmark: While Wegner was a young student at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen (where he enrolled in 1936), he became involved with the Carpenters’ Guild Furniture Exhibits, which showed experimental designs by Danish architects and sparked Wegner’s own interest in playing with traditional notions of design in furniture. He became fascinated with a process of “stripping the old chairs of their outer style and letting them appear in their pure construction,” a method that would inform much of his most important work. Soon after experimenting with traditional Ming chairs in his China chair series, Wegner set his sights on the Windsor, which he adapted in subtle yet significant ways that exemplify his modernist ethos.
First, the flattening of the spindles in an arc to follow the posture of the sitter, a nod to the modern notion of designing around the human body. Then, the paper-cord seat, a precursor to the Wishbone in a material designed as a replacement for jute, which was in short supply following World War II. Finally, rendering the frame in ash, a common species in Denmark and a favorite wood among Scandinavian mid-century designers.
Legend has it that it was actually Wegner contemporary Finn Juhl — a celebrated designer and Copenhagen native — who saw the seat and proclaimed its resemblance to the showy bird, with the flattened spindles making up an arc of wood plumage. In any case, the name stuck, and PP Møbler continues to produce the Peacock chair under the moniker to this day.
Hans J. Wegner
Best known for his chairs and seating pieces — though a master of many furniture types like sofas and tables — Hans Wegner was a prolific designer whose elegant, often ebullient, forms and devotion to the finest methods in joinery made "Danish Modern" a popular byword for stylish, well-made furniture in the mid-20th century.
Wegner considered himself a carpenter first and a furniture designer second. Like his peers Arne Jacobsen and Finn Juhl, Wegner believed that striking aesthetics in furniture were based on a foundation of practicality: a chair must be comfortable and sturdy before it is chic.
In keeping with that tenet, several of Wegner’s best chair designs, seen in dealer listings below, have their roots in traditional seating forms. The Peacock chair (designed in 1947) is a throne-like adaptation of the Windsor chair; pieces from the China chair series (begun in 1944) as well as the 1949 Wishbone chair, with its distinctive Y-shaped back splat, are derived from 17th-century Ming seating pieces, as is the upholstered Ox chair (1960). Wegner’s comfy Papa Bear chair (1951) is an almost surreally re-scaled English wingback chair.
Wegner’s most representative piece, the Round chair (1949), gained a footnote in political history when it was used on the TV stage of the first Kennedy-Nixon debate of 1960. That chair, along with Wegner’s more bravura designs, for example the 1963 Shell chair, with its curved surfboard-shaped seat, bring a quietly sculptural presence to a room. Wegner was a designer who revered his primary material — wood — and it shows. His wood gathers patina and character with age; every Hans Wegner piece testifies to the life it has led.
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- Hans J. Wegner Peacock Chair for Johannes HansenBy Hans J. Wegner, Johannes HansenLocated in Los Angeles, CADesigned in 1947, this fully restored Hans Wegner peacock chair features Windsor chair styling and characteristic attention to detail. The solid oak and teak frame has a high, arched...Category
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$7,500 / item - Hans Wegner Peacock ChairBy Hans J. Wegner, Johannes HansenLocated in Fort Lauderdale, FLA mid-century modern PP550 ‘Peacock’ chair designed by Hans Wegner in 1947 for Johannes Hansen. Modeled after a traditional American Windsor chair, Hans Wegner’s Peacock chair strips the form to reveal its construction while retaining aesthetic, decorative impact. The chair reveals a modernist approach to designing around the human body and using natural materials, with one exception. The “rush” seat is actually made of paper cord: when the chair was first designed in 1947, shortages caused by World War II prevented Wegner from using jute. Fellow designer Finn Juhl gave the nickname of ‘Peacock,’ seeing the chair’s flattened spindles and magnificent arc resembling the bird’s plumage. Dimensions: 41 3/4 in. H × 27 1/2 in. W × 20 1/2 in. D Seat: 22 1/2 in. x 19 3/4 in. x 12 in. at back Floor to top of seat: 14 in. Top of seat to arm rest: 10 1/8 in. Seat to top head rest: 31 3/4 in. Condition: Excellent, with some minor wear throughout. Gap between arm and chair back measuring approximately 1/4 inch. Some light water staining on both arms. Wood split to one seat joint measuring 3/8 and 5/8 inches on either side. Four deeper scratches on back. Area of staining on bottom chair rung measuring 2 3/4 inches long. Chair back’s fifth spindle from right with wood chip measuring 1 inch long. Chair back’s sixth spindle from left loose. Literature: 40 years of Danish furniture design: 1947-1956, ed. Grete Jalk, vol. 3 (Copenhagen: Lindhardt og Ringhof, 1987), pp. 15-17. Arne Karlsen...Category
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- Hans Wegner Peacock ChairBy Hans J. Wegner, Johannes HansenLocated in Fort Lauderdale, FLA PP550 ‘Peacock’ chair designed by Hans Wegner in 1947 for Johannes Hansen. Modeled after a traditional American Windsor chair, Hans Wegner’s Peacock chair strips the form to reveal its construction while retaining aesthetic, decorative impact. The chair reveals a modernist approach to designing around the human body and using natural materials, with one exception. The “rush” seat is actually made of paper cord: when the chair was first designed in 1947, shortages caused by World War II prevented Wegner from using jute. Fellow designer Finn Juhl gave the nickname of ‘Peacock,’ seeing the chair’s flattened spindles and magnificent arc resembling the bird’s plumage. Dimensions: 41 3/4 in. H × 27 1/2 in. W × 20 1/2 in. D Seat: 22 1/2 in. x 19 3/4 in. x 12 in. at back Floor to top of seat: 14 in. Top of seat to arm rest: 10 1/8 in. Seat to top head rest: 31 3/4 in. Condition: Excellent, with some minor wear throughout. Wood splits to three of the seat joints measuring 1 inch, 1/2 and 1/4 inch on either side, and 1/4 inch. Area of discoloration to arm, possibly from sticker, measuring approximately 3/4 inch. Some nicks to side of one arm. On the other arm, a scratch measuring 1 1/8 inches on the side. Literature: 40 years of Danish furniture design: 1947-1956, ed. Grete Jalk, vol. 3 (Copenhagen: Lindhardt og Ringhof, 1987), pp. 15-17. Arne Karlsen, Danish Furniture Design: in the 20th Century, vol. 2 (Copenhagen: Christian Ejlers, 2007), p. 90. Christian Holmsted Olesen, Wegner: Just One Good Chair (Germany, Hatje Cantz Verlag GmbH & Company KG, 2014). Johan Møller Nielson, Wegner en Dansk Møbelkunstner (Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 1965), pp. 42, 98, 103, 106. Noritsugu Oda, Danish Chairs (San Francisco: Chronicle Books), 1996, pp. 106, 107. Svend Erik Møller and Viggo Sten Møller...Category
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- Danish Mid-Century Modern Design Hans Wegner Peacock ChairBy Hans J. Wegner, Johannes HansenLocated in Fort Lauderdale, FLA Mid-Century Modern PP550 ‘Peacock’ chair designed by Hans Wegner in 1947 for Johannes Hansen. Modeled after a traditional American Windsor chair, Hans Wegner’s Peacock chair str...Category
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