MCM Danish Furniture: Arne Jacobsen's Chairs
Recently the National Nordic Museum in Seattle held a talk about the iconic Danish Egg Chair, which happens to be featured on our new Mid-Century Modern Collection. Plus we can't forget to mention our MCM Chairs Notebook!
I learned that the Swan and the Egg Chair were originally designed in 1958 for what has been called the "world's first designer hotel" the SAS Hotel in Copenhagen by renowned Danish architect Arne Jacobsen. The Egg Chair quickly became a popular motif for Danish modern furniture and MCM overall.
Jacobsen designed essentially every aspect of the hotel, from the dinnerware and seating in the lobby and restaurant, to the architecture in the rooms.
His way into product design came through his interest in Gesamtkunst (total or ideal work of art) and most of his designs which later became famous in their own right were created for architectural projects. One of his first furniture designs was the Paris lounge chair from 1929 which was also displayed as a part of the interior design of his famous “House of the Future". Most of his furniture designs were the result of a cooperation with the furniture manufacturer Fritz Hansen with which he initiated a collaboration in 1934 while his lamps and light fixtures were developed with Louis Poulsen. In spite of his success with his chair at the Paris Exhibition in 1925, it was during the 1950s that his interest in furniture design peaked.
A major source of inspiration stemmed from the bent plywood designs of Charles and Ray Eames. He was also influenced by the Italian design historian Ernesto Rogers, who had proclaimed that the design of every element was equally important "from the spoon to the city" which harmonized well with his own ideals.
Arne Jacobsen is noted for his sense of proportion. He saw this as one of the main features of his work. In an interview he said; "The proportion is exactly what makes the beautiful ancient Egyptian temples [...] and if we look at some of the most admired buildings of the Renaissance and Baroque, we notice that they were all well-proportioned. Here is the basic thing".
Today the famous Egg Chair is still available for sale and produced by the same manufacturer in Denmark, Fritz Hansen. However, it costs a pretty penny!
If you'd like to learn more about Danish modern furniture and Fritze Hansen, you can check out this beautiful book from teNeues Publishing, "In Perfect Shape."
The Chair Inspiration
Our Mid-Century Modern Chairs pattern by Hail Tiger Studio is a fun and casual design paying homage to one of our favorite 20 century styles of home décor and furniture. This pattern comes on our popular A5 Notebook and Playing Cards (back in stock soon!).
One-of-a-kind collage artist Shelley Davies created this piece just for teNeues NYC Stationery. We love the burst of full technicolor cutouts and bits and pieces of paper put together to create an homage to Mid-Century Modern design and art. You can find this pattern on one of our 8-Pen Sets, 1000 Piece Puzzle, and our brand new format- Wrapping Paper!
Source: Wikipedia, Arne_Jacobsen and National Nordic Museum