PP Møbler Produces Rare Hans Wegner Prototypes

Danish furniture company PP Møbler, known for producing Hans Wegner’s iconic designs, plans to debut two new, rarely seen pieces at the Salone Internazionale del Mobile in Milan this April. The Tub Chair, an advanced shell design that was "technically not possible to produce" commercially in the 1950s, according to Kasper Holst Pedersen, a third-generation master of craftsmen at PP Møbler, was never even assigned a model number (it’s now 530). And the upholstered Peacock Chair, an update on the Wegner’s classic take on the Windsor, was produced briefly in a limited run in the ‘50s before being discontinued.

Pedersen fills us in on the newly-produced Tub Chair:

"The Tub Chair was designed by Wegner in 1954, and it is first of all the most advanced shell chair experiment Wegner ever did. The back of the chair is a very complicated double-bended shell. At the time when Wegner made it, he had to put together two different pieces of bended plywood: One that was bended and one that was both bended and twisted. How exactly they made it happen at the time we will maybe never know, but it must have proved impossible to produce rationally. Today, however, our techniques have improved, so we’re now able to produce it.G iven that the chair consists of two shells – one back and one seat – that are both fully upholstered, and that the frame is solid wood with a metal mechanism to adjust the angle of the back, the Tub Chair is a fusion of completely different concepts. This fusion, along with the complex shape of the back, makes the chair appear radically different depending on which angle you see the chair from."

As well as the Upholstered Peacock Chair:

"This was a chair that was designed by Wegner in 1953, two years after his famous Teddy Bear Chair (or Papa Bear Chair), and it is probably the only chair that can challenge the Teddy Bear Chair as the most exclusive upholstered chair. Like the Teddy Bear Chair, it has to be upholstered using natural materials like flax fibers, cotton, jute straps, palm leaves and horse hair. This is the only way to ensure that this kind of easy chair will be worn in instead of being worn out with time. The Upholstered Peacock Chair is, as the name implies, an upholstered interpretation of the Peacock Chair from 1947, which is one of Wegner's all time classics and one of his personally most beloved designs. For the Upholstered Peacock, Wegner has repeated the arch from the original version and then covered the construction with fabric except for the neck and the armrests. These are covered with leather, because these parts take the most wear."

For more Hans Wegner chairs, see our list of eight iconic designs.