Peter Hvidt Coffee Table
About the Item
- Creator:Fritz Hansen (Maker),Peter Hvidt (Designer)
- Dimensions:Height: 17.13 in (43.5 cm)Diameter: 36.23 in (92 cm)
- Style:Scandinavian Modern (Of the Period)
- Materials and Techniques:
- Place of Origin:
- Period:
- Date of Manufacture:1956
- Condition:
- Seller Location:Santa Gertrudis, ES
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU4513133602492
Peter Hvidt
One half of the influential Danish furniture duo Hvidt and Mølgaard, architect and designer Peter Hvidt created shapely works in teak and rosewood that could be mass-produced and transported at a scale rarely seen before his time. Alongside his business partner, Aalborg-born designer Orla Mølgaard-Nielsen, the pair crafted furniture which stands today as a masterclass in the combination of elegance and practicality that is typical of Scandinavian modernism.
Hvidt was born in Copenhagen in 1916. He studied architecture and cabinetry, and graduated from the School of Arts and Crafts in Copenhagen. Hvidt established his own design firm in 1940 and taught for three years at his former school, during which he designed the teak Portex chair — Denmark’s first stacking chair (this design has alternatively been attributed to Hvidt’s partnership with Mølgaard-Nielsen over the years).
The exceptional collaboration between Hvidt and Mølgaard-Nielsen took shape in 1944. A student of pioneering Danish modernist designer and architect Kaare Klint and fellow graduate of the School of Arts and Crafts, Mølgaard brought his technical prowess and eye for practical design to the partnership. Together, for more than three decades, Hvidt and Mølgaard would produce over 250 furniture designs, a legacy that included the iconic AX chair.
A masterpiece of technical expertise and innovative woodworking, the sculptural AX armchair was designed in collaboration with manufacturer Fritz Hansen during the late 1940s. It features double-curved laminated wood in the seat and back, and is an early example of knock-down furniture. This meant that it could be easily dismantled and assembled at its destination, which rendered the chair economical for transport on cargo ships and therefore could reach a worldwide audience. The AX went into production in 1950 and eventually gave way to a series that featured tables and other seating.
Hvidt’s proclivity for forward-looking design was typical of the venturesome furniture makers of the mid-century modern era. This extended to textures and materials, too — he believed that a tasteful combination of materials could add character and visual intrigue. With Mølgaard-Nielsen, Hvidt designed streamlined coffee tables, rosewood chairs upholstered with sumptuous black leather and teak side tables with cane shelves (teak was a sought-after material for designers at the time).
The duo’s work with celebrated manufacturers Fritz Hansen, France & Søn and Søborg Møbelfabrik has been a part of exhibitions at New York’s Museum of Modern Art, Copenhagen’s Design Museum and the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne.
On 1stDibs, find vintage Peter Hvidt seating, tables and case pieces.
Fritz Hansen
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.
- ShippingRetrieving quote...Ships From: Santa Gertrudis, Spain
- Return PolicyA return for this item may be initiated within 14 days of delivery.
- Iconic Peter Hvidt Boomerang Chair for France & SonBy France & Søn, Peter HvidtLocated in Santa Gertrudis, BalearesDesigned by Peter Hvidt (1916-1986) and Orla Mølgaard Nielsen (1907-1993) were Danish architects and furniture designers, true pioneers of Danish mid-century design and the founders ...Category
Vintage 1950s Danish Scandinavian Modern Lounge Chairs
MaterialsSteel
- Brutalist Coffee Table Set, Mobichalet, 1950By MobichaletLocated in Santa Gertrudis, BalearesSculptural Brutalist coffee table and chairs set has been handmade from solid pine slabs by Mobichalet in Belgium in the 1950s, Made from soldi...Category
Vintage 1950s Belgian Brutalist Chairs
MaterialsPine
- Georges Candilis & Anja Blomstedt Coffee TableBy Robert Sentou, Anja Blomstedt, Georges CandilisLocated in Santa Gertrudis, BalearesIconic coffee table by Georges Candilis and Anja Blomstedt. Furnishings for the vacation village Les Carrats in Port-Leucate. Designed and manufactured in 1969, then produced by Se...Category
Vintage 1960s French Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
MaterialsAluminum
- Roger Capron Suns ceramic coffee Table, 1950'sBy Roger CapronLocated in Santa Gertrudis, BalearesVery rare ceramic coffee table by designer Roger Capron, 1960s. The structure is in black metal and the top in white variation with 26 differents small suns engraved on enamelled cer...Category
Vintage 1950s French Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
MaterialsMetal
- Italian Vintage Coffee Table by Isa Bergamo, 1950sBy ISA BergamoLocated in Santa Gertrudis, BalearesPure and simple lines for this 1950s coffee table by ISA Bergamo in Italy in rosewood and black steel.Category
Vintage 1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
MaterialsSteel
- Cloutier Brothers Red enameled Lava Tile Coffee TableBy Robert and Jean Cloutier, Cloutier FreresLocated in Santa Gertrudis, BalearesRare red enameled lava tile low table by Robert and Jean Cloutier dating from the 1950s. This mid-century Lava Tile Coffee Table by the Cloutier Brothers...Category
Vintage 1950s European Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
MaterialsLava
- Peter Hvidt "Pinwheel" Coffee TableBy France & Daverkosen, Peter HvidtLocated in Highland, INA brilliantly inventive design by Peter Hvidt the model #523 coffee table by France & Son is comprised of 6 individual tables made of solid teak with brass legs. When arranged as sh...Category
Vintage 1950s Danish Scandinavian Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
MaterialsBrass
- Peter Hvidt "Pinwheel" TablesBy Peter Hvidt, John StuartLocated in Brooklyn, NYComplete set of six teak Model 523 tables, designed by Peter Hvidt and Orla Mølgaard-Nielsen, imported by John Stuart. The clever design allows for the tables to be used as singular side tables or configured into multiple arrangements. Configured all together, the tables form an impressive pinwheel coffee...Category
Vintage 1960s Danish Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
MaterialsBrass
- Peter Hvidt "Pinwheel" TablesBy Peter Hvidt, John StuartLocated in Brooklyn, NYComplete set of six teak Model 523 tables, designed by Peter Hvidt and Orla Mølgaard-Nielsen, imported by John Stuart. The clever design allows for the tables to be used as singular ...Category
Vintage 1960s Danish Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
MaterialsBrass
- Peter Hvidt & Orla Mølgaard-Nielsen Coffee Table 6743 / X-Table by Fritz HansenBy Orla Mølgaard-Nielsen, Peter HvidtLocated in Limhamn, Skåne länVery rare coffee table model 6743 / X-table designed by Peter Hvidt & Orla Mølgaard-Nielsen. Produced by Fritz Hansen in Denmark.Category
Vintage 1960s Danish Scandinavian Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
MaterialsBrass
- Peter Hvidt Coffee Table Model Silverline by France & Søn in DenmarkBy Peter HvidtLocated in Limhamn, Skåne länVery rare coffee table model Silverline designed by Peter Hvidt. Produced by France & Søn in Denmark.Category
Vintage 1960s Danish Scandinavian Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
MaterialsAluminum
- Peter Hvidt & Orla Mølgaard-Nielsen Coffee Table Produced by France & DaverkosenBy Orla Mølgaard-Nielsen, Peter HvidtLocated in Limhamn, Skåne länCoffee table model FD-516 designed by Peter Hvidt & Orla Mølgaard-Nielsen. Produced by France & Daverkosen in Denmark.Category
Vintage 1950s Danish Scandinavian Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
MaterialsBrass