Hans Wegner Upholstered Peacock Easy Chair Model JH521, Denmark, 1953
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Hans Wegner Upholstered Peacock Easy Chair Model JH521, Denmark, 1953
$85,000List Price
About the Item
- Creator:Hans J. Wegner (Designer)
- Dimensions:Height: 39 in (99.06 cm)Width: 34.5 in (87.63 cm)Depth: 35 in (88.9 cm)Seat Height: 14.5 in (36.83 cm)
- Style:Scandinavian Modern (Of the Period)
- Materials and Techniques:
- Place of Origin:
- Period:
- Date of Manufacture:1953
- Condition:Wear consistent with age and use.
- Seller Location:New York, NY
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU804825248412
Hans J. Wegner
Best known for his chairs and other 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 Hans Wegner’s best chair designs 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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41 3/4 in. H × 27 1/2 in. W × 20 1/2 in. D
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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.
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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.
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