I just purchased these recently, and I can't seem to solve the riddle. The ottoman and sofa have matching original upholstery. The ottoman is marked Getama & Wegner, as it is a "Cigar" ottoman. The sofa is unmarked. Both were purchased together in Copenhagen in the 1970s.Thoughts?
Not one I have seen before. The coil springs are done in a typical Getama manner, with hooks that look like the ones on my GE236...
Does not see to be a lot of information out there about later designs Wegner may have done in the 70's and 80's. As demand and production tapered off maybe something like this is unfamiliar to us because very few were ever sold.
Interesting about the catalog raisonné.
I will also mention that originally it had a "army green" twill cotton coverlet over the loop-de-loop springs, which are a very Getama characteristic. While the Getama coverlets I've seen in photos are this color, they don't appear to be stapled down, and they have criss cross quilt like stitching on them.
I am naturally rather skeptical about an "unknown" Wegner. But in digging about the internet, I did bump into a number of later Getama/Wegner pieces which are very uncommon. And also look a lot like this sofa, especially the rear leg.
How likely is it that a buyer could get matching upholstery from two different Danish furniture companies?
My GE236 had the army green coverlet. The back part of it is held in position by a cord sewn into the fabric. The cord has a screw at either end, securing it to the frame. I believe the front part is tacked down and folded over the tacks, so you can't see the tacks, and so the tack heads do not rub the cushion upholstery.
The seller had lived with these his whole life and said the sofa and ottoman have always sat together.
I suppose it is possible they ordered them from a store in Copenhagen and by luck both companies carried this upholstery. It seems rather unlikely, but not impossible.
I just discovered that Getama still exists and shows their currently produced and past production designs. It appears to be a complete list and this sofa isn't on there. So I am thinking that it isn't Getama, and therefore isn't Wegner.
I think it's quite likely that the store where these were originally purchased offered a range of fabrics from which the customer could choose. US stores still do that---a lot of better furniture comes in a few standard fabrics or then you can choose from a lot of others if you are willing to wait another 12 weeks or whatever.
In other words, I doubt that the store stocked the furniture in identical fabrics. I think they probably had floor models and then you ordered what you wanted.
What Spanky said sounds very plausible. Many of the Danish companies probably had strong working relationships with Danish textile makers like Gabriel and Kvadrat, and it might actually have been unusual for a Danish furniture company to not offer upholstery by those firms if you were willing to wait for a custom order.
The sofa has an interesting story!:
"
Thank you for your request. This time Lauritz informs you
correctly. The sofa is model 88, designed by Aage Pedersen and
produced by Getama.
The foot stool GE240s, however, is designed by Hans J. Wegner and also
produced by Getama.
The story goes that Aage Pedersen's hobby was designing furniture, and
he continued doing this, when Hans J. Wegner started designing for
Getama. Several times Wegner found Aage Pedersen copying him or was
inspired by him, so one day Wegner informed Aage Pedersen that if mr.
Pedersen did not stop designing furniture, Wegner would end the
co-operation with Getama. Luckily for Getama mr. Pedersen stopped.....
Happy New Year.
Best regards,
Inger Temp
GETAMA DANMARK A/S
"
The reference to lauritz is this page ( http://www.lauritz.com/en/auction/aage-pedersen-laenestol-model-88/i3420...), which shows the easy chair version of the sofa, described as Getama model 88 by Aage Pedersen.
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