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The CH88 Chair is an example of Hans J. Wegner's exploration of materials. The elegant combination of wood and steel, possibly complemented by the upholstered seat, shows Wegner's ability to make soft and comfortable minimalist forms appear.
Wegner developed the CH88 Chair with colored legs as a prototype for the 1955 Helsingborg International Exhibition in Sweden. It was not until 2014 that Carl Hansen & Søn started mass production.
Its smart construction and stackable quality make it very functional. Its very Wegnerian-style wooden backrest, which holds the back perfectly and provides small armrests, provides it with exceptional comfort.
The CH88 Chair is available in the CH88T version, with a veneer seat, and in the CH88P version, with a padded seat covered in leather or fabric.
Dimensions L57 x P44,5 x H76,5 cm – seat height H44,5 cm
Backrest solid wood
Seat veneer or foam + fabric or leather
Legs stainless steel or black epoxy painted steel (matt)
CH88P upholstered
beech + black legs
CH88P upholstered
oak + black legs
CH88P upholstered
beech + stainless steel
CH88P upholstered
oak + stainless steel
CH88T wooden seat
black legs
CH88T wooden seat
stainless steel legs
white painted beech / fabric Canvas 2124 / stainless steel
oiled oak / leather Loke 7240 / black steel
soaped oak / leather Sif 90 / stainless steel
Oiled beech / black steel
Black painted oak / black steel
white painted beech / fabric Remix 2163 / stainless steel
oiled oak / leather Thor 301 / stainless steel
Hans J. Wegner
Hans J. Wegner was born in 1914 in Tønder, Denmark, the son of a shoemaker. At the age of 17, he finished his apprenticeship as a cabinetmaker with H. F. Stahlberg, in whose workshops Wegner’s first design experiments took form. He moved to Copenhagen as a 20 year-old, and attended the School of Arts and Crafts from 1936 – 1938 before he began working as an architect.
As a young architect, Wegner joined Arne Jacobsen and Erik Møller in Århus, working on furniture design for the new Århus city hall in 1940. It was during the same year that Wegner began collaborating with master cabinetmaker, Johannes Hansen, who was a driving force in bringing new furniture design to the Danish public.
The Copenhagen Museum of Art and Industry acquired its first Wegner chair in 1942.
Wegner started his own design office in 1943. It was in 1944 that he designed the first “Chinese chair” in a series of new chairs that were inspired by portraits of Danish merchants sitting in Ming chairs. One of these chairs, the “Wishbone Chair”, designed in 1949 and produced by Carl Hansen & Son in Odense since 1950, became the most successful of all Wegner chairs.
Among Danish furniture designers, Hans J. Wegner is considered one of the most creative and productive. He has received practically every major recognition given to designers, including the Lunning prize, the grand prix of the Milan Triennale, Sweden’s Prince Eugen medal and the Danish Eckersberg medal. Wegner is an honorary Royal designer for industry of the Royal Society of Arts in London. Almost all of the world’s major design museums – from The Museum of Modern Art in New York to Die Neue Sammlung in Munich – include his furniture in their collections.
Hans J. Wegner died in Denmark in January, 2007.
A few major characteristics about Hans J. Wegner:
- First a cabinetmaker, then a designer: he integrates exacting joinery techniques and exquisite forms.
- A deep respect for wood and its characteristics – and an abiding curiosity about other natural materials.
- Brings an organic, natural softness to formalistic minimalism.
- Generally regarded as ”the master of the chair”, with more than 400 chair designs to his name.
