Fritz Hansen Grand Prix Chair | Wood Legs

Founded in 1872, Fritz Hansen originated with a forward-thinking family of Danish cabinetmakers who revolutionized the Scandinavian furniture industry, producing some of the world’s most revered design classics in the process.

Through creative partnerships with visionary designers and architects such as Arne Jacobsen, Hans J. Wegner and Poul Kjærholm, Fritz Hansen developed a culture characterized by the love of good craftsmanship coupled with a desire to make the most of modern industrial production methods in the manufacturing and distribution of good design.

Today Fritz Hansen is part of a small, exclusive array of global luxury furniture makers. From the Royal Hotel in Copenhagen to the North Carolina Museum of Art, to fine homes all over the world, Fritz Hansen is known for products of unmatched quality and world-class design.

Arne Jacobsen was born on February 11, 1902 in Copenhagen. After a spell as an apprentice mason, Jacobsen was admitted to the Architecture School at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts where from 1924 to 1927 he studied under Kay Fisker and Kaj Gottlob, both leading architects and designers.

Before leaving the Academy, Jacobsen also traveled to Germany, where he became acquainted with the rationalist architecture of Mies van der Rohe and Walter Gropius. Their work influenced his early designs. After completing architecture school, he worked at Poul Holsøe's architectural practice.

In 1929, in collaboration with Flemming Lassen, Jacobsen won a Danish Architect's Association competition for designing the "House of the Future" which was built full scale at the subsequent exhibition in Copenhagen's Forum. Jacobsen immediately became recognized as an ultra-modern architect. The following year, Arne Jacobsen set up his own office and designed the functionalist Rothenborg House, which he planned in every detail, a characteristic of many later works.

The collaboration between Arne Jacobsen and Fritz Hansen dates back to 1934, though during WWII, Jacobsen was forced to flee Denmark for Sweden, returning when the war ended in 1945. In 1952 a breakthrough came with the success of the Ant chair. This was succeeded by the Series 7 chair in 1955. The Series 7 propelled both Arne Jacobsen’s and Fritz Hansen's names into furniture history.

At the end of the 50s Jacobsen designed the Royal Hotel in Copenhagen, and for that project he also designed the Egg chair, the Swan chair, the Drop chair, and Series 3300.