Danish 1980s Peacock Lounge Chair By Verner Panton For Habitat

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About the Item

A visually striking and extremely comfortable lounge chair, Verner Panton’s iconic design is comprised of steel basket form seat and cylindrical base with seven red seat pads. It can either be used in its complete form or the basket seat can be suspended from the ceiling to create a swing.

This limited edition Peacock chair was made under license by Habitat in the 1980s. It is in very good vintage condition. The foam is soft and supportive. The original fabric has minor fading and patina in keeping with age. Steel clips secure the seat to the base. It can also be firmly held in place with discreet cable ties.

It will create a powerful modernist focal point in any interior.Creator: Verner Panton (Designer)Design: Peacock ChairDimensions: Height: 25.6 in (65 cm)Width: 37.41 in (95 cm)Depth: 35.44 in (90 cm)Seat Height: 11.82 in (30 cm)Style: Mid-Century Modern (Of the Period)Materials and Techniques: SteelPlace of Origin: DenmarkPeriod: Late 20th CenturyDate of Manufacture: 1980sCondition: GoodMinor fading.Seller Location: Shepperton, GBReference Number: 1stDibs: LU4497241136412Shop All Verner Panton

Verner Panton

Verner Panton introduced the word groovy or at least its Danish equivalent into the Scandinavian modern design lexicon. He developed fantastical, futuristic forms and embraced bright colors and new materials such as plastic, fabric-covered polyurethane foam and steel-wire framing for the creation of his chairs, sofas, floor lamps and other furnishings. And Pantons ebullient Pop art sensibility made him an international design star of the 1960s and 70s. This radical departure from classic Danish modernism, however, actually stemmed from his training under the greats of that design style.

Born on the largely rural Danish island of Funen, Panton studied architecture and engineering at Copenhagens Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, where the lighting designer Poul Henningsen was one of his teachers. After graduating, in 1951, Panton worked in the architectural office of Arne Jacobsen, and he became a close friend of Hans Wegner’s.

Henningsen taught a scientific approach to design; Jacobsen was forever researching new materials; and Wegner, the leader in modern furniture design using traditional woodworking and joinery, encouraged experimental form.

Panton opened his own design office in 1955, issuing tubular steel chairs with woven seating. His iconoclastic aesthetic was announced with his 1958 Cone chair, modified a year later as the Heart Cone chair. Made of upholstered sheet metal and with a conical base in place of legs, the design shocked visitors to a furniture trade show in Copenhagen.

Panton went on to successive bravura technical feats. His curving, stackable Panton chair, his most popular design, was the first chair to be made from a single piece of molded plastic.

Panton had been experimenting with ideas for chairs made of a single material since the late 1950s. He debuted his plastic seat for the public in the design magazine Mobilia in 1967 and then at the 1968 Cologne Furniture Fair. The designers S-Chair models 275 and 276, manufactured during the mid-1960s by August Sommer and distributed by the bentwood specialists at Gebrder Thonet, were the first legless chairs crafted from a single piece of plywood.

Panton would spend the latter half of the 1960s and early 70s developing all-encompassing room environments composed of sinuous and fluid-formed modular seating made of foam and metal wire. He also created a series of remarkable lighting designs, most notably his Fun chandeliers introduced in 1964 and composed of scores of shimmering capiz-shell disks and the Space Age VP Globe pendant light of 1969.

Pantons designs are made to stand out and put an eye-catching exclamation point on even the most modern decor.

Find vintage Verner Panton chairs, magazine racks, rugs, table lamps and other furniture on 1stDibs.