Hans Wegner, Early Flag Halyard Chair, GE 225
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Hans Wegner, Early Flag Halyard Chair, GE 225
About the Item
- Creator:Hans J. Wegner (Designer)
- Design:
- Dimensions:Height: 31.5 in (80.01 cm)Width: 41 in (104.14 cm)Depth: 48 in (121.92 cm)
- Style:Mid-Century Modern (Of the Period)
- Materials and Techniques:
- Place of Origin:
- Period:
- Date of Manufacture:1950
- Condition:Wear consistent with age and use.
- Seller Location:New York, NY
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU1060412354021
Flag Halyard Chair
In its broad form and wealth of hard angles, Hans J. Wegner’s Flag Halyard chair is one of the more visually flamboyant pieces to emerge from the Danish mid-century movement. Legend has it that Wegner (1914–2007) conceptualized the piece in 1950 while on vacation at the beach, molding its seat out of sand and attaching a bit of halyard — rope typically used on sailboats — that he found nearby.
Danish brand Getama picked up the chair for production, an undoubtedly difficult task given the piece’s suspension construction and unusual combination of materials. The original Flag Halyard consists of chrome-plated steel, woven rope, linen and a sheepskin throw; subsequent models incorporate leather cushions. But Wegner, who established his studio in 1943 after graduating from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts and working for Arne Jacobsen and Erik Møller on furniture for Aarhus City Hall in 1938, was never one to shy away from unconventional material or construction — and an early apprenticeship with master cabinetmaker H.F. Stahlberg instilled in him a devotion to fine details.
Around the same time that Wegner created the Flag Halyard chair, he developed the widely beloved Wishbone chair and an armchair in 1949 commonly known as “The Chair,” which earned him international recognition when it was used in the 1960 U.S. presidential debate between Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy. Compared to these two seats, the Flag Halyard is a delightfully experimental marriage of material. Today, it’s manufactured by PP Møbler.
Hans J. Wegner
Best known for his chairs and 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 Wegner’s best chair designs, seen in dealer listings below, 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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- Hans J. Wegner Flag Halyard Chair "Model Ge-225" for GETAMA, Denmark 1950sBy GETAMA, Hans J. WegnerLocated in Utrecht, NLWhen this iconic model was released in 1950, the unusual combination of rope, white-varnished steel and sheepskin had never been seen before in the furniture industry. It was a way for Hans Wegner to demonstrate his ability to design innovative, practical and comfortable furniture with every possible material. Unveiled in Copenhagen in 1950 at an exhibition at the Designmuseum Danmark, the design received mixed reviews. Kaare Klint famously likened it to something from a gynaecologist’s office. But from the jump, fashion people fawned. It was splashed across magazines, models posing on its tightly wound string seat. The Flaglinestol or Flag Halyard string-wrapped lounge chair quickly became a 21st-century icon. The story goes that in 1949 Wegner was at the beach, digging himself into the sand when he found the perfect lean-back position for seaside repose, which inspired him to make it in something more sturdy. This gave birth to this chair with its famous steel frame wrapped in rope commonly used for flagpoles. The ergonomic, spaceship-like form still looks innovative despite being over 70 years old. The bottom frame is made of a white-varnished steel structure with beechwood leg caps. The legs are splayed with the front ones connected by a stretcher, establishing the firm base for the body. The top-frame is made of chrome-plated steel that serves as the frame for the stretched halyard. Halyard rope, or flagpole rope, is traditionally used to raise and lower a flag on most external halyard flagpoles. The unusual combination of materials is continued by the cognac leather head pillow secured to the back. The chair is cosied up with sheepskin that - along with the headrest - softens the industrial shape of the steel. This iconic Wegner model was already presented at The Arts & Crafts Spring Exhibition at Designmuseum Danmark in 1950. For several decades it was manufactured by Danish brand Getama in small quantities. In the late ’80s it went out of production altogether. PP Møbler...Category
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