I'm the odd fellow who's only slightly less excited to come across an uncommon vintage replica, as I am a legitimate chair. This pair just popped up on eBay. The seller has duly noted that they are "in the style of", rather than other less accurate descriptions.
Rather than go for the direct copy of a particular model, the designer of this replica appears to have combined features of the JH-515 and the JH-525, then added some side stretchers to compensate for weaker seat rail joints. Seller says the wood is beech and the upholstery is vinyl.
Ethics aside, not a bad replica effort. Probably harder to find than the real ones.
Another update:
A month ago, I was flipping through the online catalog for one of Wright's upcoming Scandinavian Design auctions. A couple of listings caught my eye, as there were two pairs of caned JH-515 arm chairs in the auctions. The pre-auction estimate for each pair was $10-15K. However, upon a closer look at the three photos provided online, they appeared to be knockoffs for the following reasons:
1. The wood framing cross sections do not look correct. A good example are the armrests, which do not taper to as thin an edge as they should. The “coat hanger” front stretchers also appear to be too boxy in cross section.
2. There are gaps between the “coat hanger” front stretchers and the front rails above, which should not be there.
3. The joint between the armrests and the back stiles are “V” shaped. Wegner did not use “V” joints, and this particular joint for JH-515 should be straight vertical.
4. There are not reveals at the joints between armrests and 1) front legs, and 2) back stiles. Wegner utilized reveals here to acknowledge the joints.
5. The wood does not appear to be old growth Siam teak, which has a darker honey color, or European white oak.
6. While the cane weaving is close, there is a horizontal strand woven at the top and bottom rails of the backrest which should not be there.
So, i wrote down my observations and sent them off to Wright. Richard got back to me fairly quickly, thanked me for writing, and said they would look into it.
Over the next 2 weeks, I did not hear anything back, but was able to stop in during a preview session to see the chairs firsthand. What appeared to be knockoffs on a few online photos were obvious knockoffs close up. As can be seen in the detail photos, wood type, joint quality, and framing member elegance were all way off.
As opposed to the "heavily-inspired" green upholstery chairs in post #16, these were intentionally made to deceive people into thinking they were JH-515 chairs. At least there was no fake Johannes Hansen marks on the underside (they were unmarked).
While it took Wright a while, they ended up pulling both lots the day of the auction, and the listings themselves have been removed from the auction archive. It is certainly good that Wright did the the "right" thing, but a little disconcerting that such obvious knockoffs initially made its way past their experts. There were also a couple of other suspect listings in that auction which I will not comment on in this thread.
Hopefully, my next post in this thread will not be on the subject of knockoffs.
Another JH-515 knockoff, albeit a different one than above. . . this one for sale on 1stDibs for $4500:
https://www.1stdibs.com/furniture/seating/armchairs/rare-hans-wegner-mod...
This knockoff was fairly easy to spot without seeing details as there are side stretchers right behind the seat rails, which should not be there. I also can't recall ever seeing quarter-sawn oak in a Wegner chair, but could be wrong on that. And who knows whether that dark stain came with the original knockoff, or was an owner addition.
I've notified the dealer of the bad news, and we'll see whether they choose to do the right thing.
Update:
The dealer did do the right thing (listing removed), although he probably wishes I never stuck my nose in his business. However, as the chair was on consignment, the news was worse for the consignor than the dealer. Will be interesting to see if this chair pops up on a different sales site in the future. Its fingerprints are very easy to spot.
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