Hans Wegner (1914-!!)

We made a little faux pas the other day when we discussed the great furniture designer Hans Wegner in the past tense.

In honor of his long and present and distinguished life, we thought we’d show a few of the chairs that made him
a star in the world of mid century design.

A brief history lesson:
Hans J. Wegner trained as a cabinet-maker before attending the Copenhagen School of Arts and Crafts. He worked as a furniture designer in Arne Jacobsen and Erik Moller´s architectural practice.

In 1943, he set up his own office where he began to create some of the most stripped down and for us, lovely chairs of the 20th century.

In 1950, Interiors magazine put Wegner’s "Round" chair on their cover and called it "the world's most beautiful chair." (it even showed up in the televised 1961 presidential debates between Nixon and Kennedy!)

Hans Wegner went on to create a slew of classics including the Wishbone chair (inspired by classical portraits of Danish merchants sitting in Ming chairs) and the PaPa chair (which was litterally our Papa's chair), to name a few. His chairs are as cool today as they were when they were first produced.

The accolades: "the Triennial" 1951, 1954 and 1957; "Royal Society of Arts" London 1959; "Citations of Merit" Pratt Institute, New York 1959 and the "International Design award", New York, 1957. In June 1997 Wegner was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by The Royal College of Art in London.

Mr. Wegner turned 90 years young on April 2nd 2004.