The pp201/pp203 combines the aesthetics of the pp701 Minimal Chair with the construction of the pp66 Chinese Chair thus creating a new expression, where the strict geometrically defined frame construction supports only the most prudent use of those organic shapes so characteristic of Wegner’s work through the 1950’s.
The pp201/pp203 also marks one of the most important milestones in the lifelong close partnership between Hans J. Wegner and PP Møbler. Until 1969, PP Møbler had been more of a free space for Wegner rather than a business partner. Although PP Møbler had produced thousands of frames for the pp19 Teddy Bear Chair, Wegner’s relation to PP Møbler was primarily based on his friendship with the PP family and the craftsmen, and indeed the PP workshop provided the surroundings where he conceived the ideas for many of his prototypes and experiments through the 1960’s and to the end of his career.
In 1969, in addition to designing the pp201/pp203, Wegner also designed the PP logo and encouraged PP Møbler to initiate their own line of products as well as their own sales department. During the next 25 years, Wegner designed all PP Møbler’s sales and marketing material and he placed his best and most cherished new and previous designs at PP Møbler.
Son of a shoe-maker in southern Jutland, Hans Wegner, finished his formal training as a cabinetmaker with master cabinetmaker Stahlberg in 1930 before starting at Teknologisk Institut in Copenhagen. He soon moved to the School of Arts and Crafts in the Danish capital where he became architect in 1938, and started teaching in 1946.
In 1940 he joined Arne Jacobsen and Erik Møller in Arhus, to design the furniture for the new Arhus city hall. He started to work with 'minister' cabinetmaker Johannes Hansen in 1940 and showed his first furniture in the famous Hansen store on Bredgade 65 in 1941. Johannes Hansen was more than twice as old as the 26 year old Wegner but the unique collaboration between the two became the undisputed backbone of Danish furniture design and the main reason for it's world wide recognition in the fifties and sixties. The Copenhagen Museum of Art and Industry acquired the first Wegner chair in 1942.
In 1943 he started his own design office and 1 year later designed the first of a long series of 'chinese' chairs inspired by portraits of Danish merchants sitting in Ming chairs for Fritz Hansen. In 1950 Wegner designed the “Wishbone Chair” produced by Carl Hansen & Søn in Odense which became the most successful of all Wegner chairs. Most well known for it’s use by Kennedy and Nixon in their famous CBS TV debate of 1960.
Inspiration
