Set of Colonial Chairs Model PJ-149 by Ole Wanscher for Carl Hansen & Søn, Denmark, 1990s

Born in Copenhagen in 1903, Danish architect-designer Ole Wanscher was a key player in Denmark's midcentury modern movement. In the postwar era, the simple and refined aesthetic he achieved by reinventing classic forms helped define Scandinavian design, and many of his pieces became staples in Scandinavian homes.

Wanscher studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts under famous architect-designer Kaare Klint (1888-1954). Upon graduating, Wanscher worked with Klint from 1924 to 1927 and, after Klint passed away, Wanscher was given Klint's professorship at the academy —a position he held until he retired in 1973.

In 1927, Wanscher opened his own architecture firm, specializing in furniture design. Like Klint, Wanscher disagreed with the modernist full-sail rejection of the past and preferred to explore classic yet minimal aesthetics informed by precise study of the human body. Wanscher was also heavily influenced by Greek, Chinese, and Egyptian designs—which he encountered during his many travels abroad—as well as proto-modernist movements, like the Viennese Secession, Biedermeier, and Shaker styles.

Between the 1940s and 1960s, Wanscher enjoyed fruitful collaborations with small-scale, artisanal cabinetmakers, like the masterful A. J. Iversen (1888-1979), as well as well as larger-scale Danish companies, such as France & Søn, Fritz Hansen, Poul Jeppesen, and Rud Rasmussen. With Iversen, he created the iconic Ladies Desk (1954) and Egyptian Stool (1957). Other standout Wanscher designs include the PJ-149 Colonial Chair (1949), Rungstedlund Dining Chair (ca. 1950), and PJ-112 Sofa (1951) for Poul Jeppesen; as well as the 110 Rocking Chair (1951) and Senator Easy Chair (1951) for France & Søn .

Wanscher went on to write various articles and publish several books on design history, such as The History of the Arts of Furniture (1956) and Five Thousand Years of Furniture (1967).

Although less known than many of his contemporaries—Finn Juhl, Hans Wegner, Poul Henningsen, and so on—Wanscher made a strong impression on many important critics. In 1958, Sven Erik Moller wrote in Danish newspaper Politiken: "If one owns a chair by Wanscher, it will be an experience every day—perhaps for hundreds of years, because that is how long it will last. One senses the man behind the chair and the value of man-made work…" And in 2003, famous New York Times art critic Roberta Smith commented: "He combined fully and equally the talents of a master craftsman, designer, and sculptor with those of a historian. In particular, his sensitivity to the luster and living delicacy of wood enabled him to bring organic life and a rich sense of the past to the indelibly modern spareness of the International Style."

Wanscher passed away in 1985. Many of Wanscher's design remain in production with Carl Hansen & Søn.

Danish furniture manufacturer Carl Hansen & Son is credited with launching the career of Hans J. Wegner, a designer who often is featured on lists of the most important and influential people in furniture design, and is commonly credited as a driving force in the midcentury Danish modern movement.

In 1908, Carl Hansen established a workshop in Odense. In the beginning, the company produced bespoke furniture including dining room sets and bedroom suites. Carl Hansen struggled financially during the 1930s-economic crisis, and in 1934, Carl’s son Holger Hansen took over the family business, renaming the company to Carl Hansen & Søn. With a new contract producing wooden cases for the American sewing machine manufacturer Singer, Holger was able to save the company from financial ruin.

Carl Hansen & Søn sales manager, Ejvind Kold Christensen, kept a close eye on the new breed of Danish furniture designers that emerged in the 1940s. Up until the mid-1940s, Danish architect Frits Henningsen designed for the company, including a series of Windsor chairs, some of which were produced until 2003. In 1949, Kold Christensen introduced Hans J. Wegner (1914-2007) to Holger Hansen, after seeing immense potential in the young and undiscovered designer.

Within the first three weeks with the company, Wegner designed the CH22 Lounge Chair, the CH23 Dining Chair, the CH24 Wishbone Chair, and the CH25 Easy Chair for Carl Hansen & Søn. This first collection, which was launched in 1950, would catapult both Wegner and Carl Hansen & Søn to international fame. The sculpturally bold designs of both the Wishbone Chair and the CH25 Easy Chair were a break from tradition, and were considered radical for their time. Wegner’s use of woven paper cord—a substitution material used during the war—for the seat of his CH25 was unprecedented. Holger’s decision to invest in work by a virtually unknown designer was a huge risk, but one that paid off for the manufacturer.

In 1951, the pair, along with Kold Christensen, formalized their partnership and formed a sales group called SALESCO. Active throughout the 1950s and ‘60s, SALESCO was a unique marketing team charged with promoting Hans J. Wegner’s work in Denmark and abroad, though they were also instrumental in the advancement of the mid-century Danish design identity in general. Other notable designs by Wegner for Carl Hansen & Søn include the CH29 Sawbuck Chair (1952); the three-legged CH07 Shell Chair (1963)—which was designed for MoMA’s now-iconic competition on low-cost furniture; the CH20 Elbow Chair (1956); and the CH88 Chair (1955)—which existed only as a prototype until it was produced in 2014 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Wegner’s birth.

In 1962, shortly after Kold Kristensen left SALESCO to work with the promising new designer Poul Kjærholm (1929-1980), Holger passed away. The company was left to Holger’s widow, Ella Hansen, who safely steered the company through financial difficulty. In 1988, Ella’s son Jørgen Gerner Hansen took over management of the company, and in 2001, her other son Knud Erik Hansen assumed leadership. During the early-2000s, the company moved to a larger factory in Aarup, located outside Odense.  

In 2011 and 2012, Carl Hansen & Søn bought the equally renowned Danish cabinet maker Rud. Rasmussen in Copenhagen and the furniture manufacturer P.J. Furniture in Store Heddinge.

Today, Carl Hansen & Søn is the largest manufacturer of furniture designed by Hans J. Wegner. Other historical and contemporary designers include Tadao Ando, Mogens Koch, Ole Wanscher, Kaare Klint, Thomas Bo Kastholm—son of the famous Danish architect Jørgen Kastholm, Poul Kjaerholm, and the Danish design duo Strand & Hvass.