Ax Chair No. 6020

Designer Peter Hvidt (Danish, 1916 - 1986)

Designer Orla Mølgaard-Nielsen (1907 - 1993)

Manufacturer Fritz Hansen, Eftf. (1885-present)

Place of OriginDenmark

Date1950 (design)

DimensionsH: 29 1/2 in. (75 cm).; Depth: 29 1/2 in. (75 cm); Back: 24 in. (61 cm)

MediumSeat and back of molded plywood. Side of beech veneer. Legs laminated around a core of teak.

ClassificationFurniture

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number

2015.3

Not on View

DescriptionEach side of the chair is a single laminated wood unit comprising of the front and back legs, the side rail of the seat, the upright of the back, and the arm. Although not immediately apparent, this chair is designed to be easily dismantled (the stretchers unscrew). The chair is more usually seen with this plywood seat and back rather than with the quilted leather upholstery of the earliest design version.

Published ReferencesToledo Museum of Art Museum News, no. 142, February 1953, repr. p. 10.

Cf. Design in Scandinavia: An Exhibitiion of Objects for the Home from Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Virigina Museum of Fine Arts, 1954, p. 33.

Noritsugu Oda, Danish Chairs, Chronicle Books, 1999.

Guldberg, Jørn, “’Scandinavian Design’ as Discourse: The Exhibition Design in Scandinavia, 1954- 1957,” Design Issues, vol. 27, no. 2, Spring 2011, fig. 6.

Hvidt, Peter, Møbelserien "Ax".

Exhibition HistoryToledo Museum of Art, Nine Modern Designers in the Jensen Silver Tradition, December 1952 (gallery furniture).

Cf. Toledo Museum of Art, Design in Scandinavia: an Exhibition of Objects for the Home from Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, traveling exhibition organized by the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, touring from 1954-1957 (Toledo, 1955).