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About the Item
Armchair designed by Peter Hvidt and Orla MlgaardNielsen and produced in 1963 by Fritz Hansen, Denmark. The chair is press shaped in laminated beechwood, the seat is upholstered with all original cognac leather. The legs feature a teak core. Marked with FH label.
An example of this ingenious chair design can be found at the Museum of Design in Copenhagen.
Peter Hvidt (19161986) was a Danish furniture designer celebrated for his significant impact on mid-century modern design. Alongside Orla Mlgaard-Nielsen, Hvidt co-founded Hvidt Mlgaard, a design studio known for its clean lines and functional elegance. His innovative use of materials, particularly teak and beech, became emblematic of Scandinavian design. Hvidt’s iconic creations, like the Ax chair and Minerva sofa, exemplify his commitment to blending form and function seamlessly. His designs not only graced homes but also shaped the broader design philosophy of the mid-20th century.Creator: Fritz Hansen (Manufacturer),Peter Hvidt (Designer)Dimensions: Height: 31.5 in (80 cm)Width: 23.63 in (60 cm)Depth: 26.38 in (67 cm)Seat Height: 14.18 in (36 cm)Style: Scandinavian Modern (In the Style Of)Materials and Techniques: Birch,Leather,TeakPlace of Origin: DenmarkPeriod: 1960-1969Date of Manufacture: 1963Condition: GoodWear consistent with age and use.Seller Location: Dronten, NLReference Number: 1stDibs: LU931442312672Shop All Peter Hvidt
Peter Hvidt
One half of the influential Danish furniture duo Hvidt and Mlgaard, 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 Mlgaard-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 Denmarks first stacking chair (this design has alternatively been attributed to Hvidts partnership with Mlgaard-Nielsen over the years).
The exceptional collaboration between Hvidt and Mlgaard-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, Mlgaard brought his technical prowess and eye for practical design to the partnership. Together, for more than three decades, Hvidt and Mlgaard 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.
Hvidts 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 Mlgaard-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 duos work with celebrated manufacturers Fritz Hansen, France Sn and Sborg Mbelfabrik has been a part of exhibitions at New Yorks Museum of Modern Art, Copenhagens Design Museum and the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne.
On 1stDibs, find vintage Peter Hvidt seating, tables and case pieces.
Shop All Fritz Hansen
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 countrys 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 caf 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 Sren 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 hed seen of Danish merchants in the Chinese chairs.)
Everything changed in 1952 with Arne Jacobsens 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 insects 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, Jrn Utzon (the architect of the Sydney Opera House) and Verner Panton. If the Fritz Hansen of 1872 would not now recognize his company, todays connoisseurs certainly do.
Find a collection of vintage Fritz Hansen tables, lounge chairs, sofas and other furniture on 1stDibs.
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