Design story
Hans J Wegner Wishbone Chair (CH24) continues to be Hans Wegner’s greatest commercial success among the many excellent chairs he designed during his career. In 1944, Wegner began designing a series of chairs based on portraits of Danish merchants seated in Ming Dynasty chairs. The Wishbone was the last of the series, designed in 1949. In 1950, Wegner started his partnership with manufacturer Carl Hansen & Søn to produce this chair. The chair has become an icon of the high quality craftsmanship, attention to detail and construction, generous proportions, comfort, and texturally pleasing materials that contribute to the perception of Danish design as particularly human-cantered, modest, and well made.
With a form that is uniquely its own, the iconic CH24 Wishbone Chair by Hans J. Wegner holds a special place in the world of modern design. When designing the CH24, Wegner chose to combine the back- and armrest into a single piece. To give stability to the steam-bent top and ensure comfortable support, Wegner developed the characteristic Y-shaped back that the Wishbone Chair is named after.
Did you know?
More than 100 steps are required to manufacture each Wishbone Chair, most of which are carried out by hand. The hand-woven seat alone takes a skilled craftsman about an hour to create, using approximately 120 meters of paper cord, the impressive durability and stability of which makes the chair both strong and long-lasting. The Wishbone Chair offers comfort and stability as well as satisfying aesthetic desires for distinctive, elegant form. Over time, the Wishbone Chair has gained recognition as the ideal chair, capturing the essence of modern Danish design.
Wegner was one of the most creative, innovative, and prolific. Often refer to as the mast of chairs, he designed over 500 chairs out of which 100 was put into production and many have become design icons. He gained great recognition for his furniture and won several awards and prizes. Some of his chairs are on permanent display at MoMA in New York.
