Carl Hansen & Son celebrates Hans J. Wegner's 105th birthday with special edition Wishbone Chair

To mark the 105th anniversary of the birth of furniture designer Hans J. Wegner, Carl Hansen & Son has created a special edition of the iconic Wishbone Chair.

The legendary Wishbone Chair, one of the first models that Wegner designed exclusively for Carl Hansen & Son in 1949, is known for its sculptural wooden frame and woven seat. The unique special edition has a walnut frame with an oiled finish and a red goat-leather seat – and can be bought on the furniture designer’s birthday only – 2 April 2019.

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During the 1990s, Wegner worked with Carl Hansen & Son in an effort to develop a variant to go alongside the Wishbone Chair with its woven seat. They experimented in the workshop with saddle leather, which, according to the furniture designer, would preserve the inherent proportions between the seat, armrests and back, and which were important for the chair’s ergonomics.

However, it remained just an experiment, because they envisaged saddle leather stretching with use, and because the chair frames of the time were not always identical, preventing a perfect fit around the chair legs.

Since that time, it has become possible to revisit the 1990s workshop experiment because Carl Hansen & Son now uses machines and tools which can ensure that all the Wishbone Chair frames have exactly the same proportions, and because the company’s expert upholsterers have found a way of preparing the seat which prevents the goat leather from stretching.

The result is that the seat now fits every chair perfectly, and aesthetically harmonises with the elegant wooden frame. So, on the basis of Wegner’s deliberations in the 1990s, combined with today’s skills and technology, Carl Hansen & Son has now – in close cooperation with Hans J. Wegner’s Design Studio – developed a special edition with clear references to the original test chair.

‘By offering the Wishbone Chair in a combination of goat leather and walnut, we are paying special tribute to Hans J. Wegner, who experimented throughout his life with variations on the same theme and constantly strove to refine and further develop his designs,’ says Knud Erik Hansen, CEO at Carl Hansen & Son.

This one-off design will be offered only on the anniversary of the furniture designer’s birth, 2 April 2019, when he would have turned 105.

Taken from our sister site, Living Etc.