Hans J. Wegner - Design Evening New York Thursday, December 13, 2018 | Phillips

Design Evening

New York Auction 13 December 2018

  • Provenance

    Private collection, Copenhagen, acquired circa 1955
    Acquired from the above by the present owner, 2018

  • Literature

    Johan Møller Nielsen, Wegner en dansk møbelkunster, Copenhagen, 1965, p. 61
    Grete Jalk, ed., Dansk Møbelkunst gennem 40 aar, Volume 3: 1947-1956, Copenhagen, 1987, pp. 245, 325
    Jens Bernsen, Hans J. Wegner on Design, Copenhagen, 1995, p. 13
    Noritsugu Oda, Danish Chairs, San Francisco, 1996, p. 106
    Christian Holmsted Olesen, Wegner: just one good chair, exh. cat., Design Museum Denmark, Copenhagen, 2014, p. 107

  • Catalogue Essay

    The present model armchair, which later became known as the "Peacock," belongs to Hans Wegner’s modernized Windsor series, which was executed by master cabinetmaker Johannes Hansen. Wegner had always admired and was fascinated by the Windsor chair and he referred to it as “a simple construction, something the people of England were able to make 200 years ago. But it is also a distinctive design, precisely because it expresses what it is so naturally." Wegner designed the original wooden “Peacock” chair in 1947, which had a magnificent fanned and radiating back with ergonomically flattened spindles. The present model “Peacock” was celebrated by a critic for being “beautifully formed” when first exhibited at the Cabinetmakers’ Guild Exhibition in 1953. Mimicking the original “Peacock” the present model is an example of Wegner developing forms, but due to its complicated construction it was therefore too expensive to produce, so only a few were ever executed making this a rare production by Johannes Hansen. In 1955 the present model was shown again at the prestigious Cabinetmakers’ Guild Exhibition where the stand was greeted with even more praise: “This year there was a strong note of masculinity and robustness in Wenger’s interior as well as in the individual pieces of furniture."

14

Hans J. Wegner

"Peacock" easy chair, model no. JH521

circa 1953
Oak, fabric, leather.
39 1/2 x 34 3/4 x 34 1/4 in. (100.3 x 88.3 x 87 cm)
Executed by cabinetmaker Johannes Hansen, Copenhagen, Denmark.

Estimate
$60,000 - 80,000 

Sold for $68,750

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Design Evening

New York Auction 13 December 2018