Arne Jacobsen Fritz Hansen Dot Stool  

Yes, it's genuine. (As far as I can tell from the pictures)
This is an early version of the Dot chair. You can see that by the bolts/screws going through the seat. The later models had the legs attached from underneath without penetrating the seat.
The Dot stool was presented in 1954, but I don't know the exact year the mounting method was changed.
In 1970 Fritz Hansen decided to "update" the design by making it a four-legged stool. In my opinion that completely ruined the design. If Jacobsen wanted it with four legs, he would have designed it with four legs.
The old versions of the stools were stamped/inked with FH in a circle, and DENMARK next to the cicle. It's quite common that these stamps fade away.

Hello
Thank you for your insight.  I thought they were an early version but the bolt mounting threw me as I've only seen the newer mountings before.
Many thanks
Sarah

Aren't this kind of stools (with apparent screws/bolt) supposed to be by Soren Hansen?
 

Cool, I learned something.

@ DrPoulet
Aren't this kind of stools (with apparent screws/bolt) supposed to be by Soren Hansen?
Yes and No.
Søren Hansen, who was the grandson of the founding father Fritz Hansen, was the driving force in the development of the steambend wood and lamination techniques which were utilized in Fritz Hansens (the company) production of furniture.
Like his father, Christian E. Hansen (son of Fritz), Søren did design some furniture on his own, which were put into production. As far as I’m aware, none of these designs were very successful.
Thus, when Arne Jacobsen joined Fritz Hansen (the company) in 1934, Søren Hansen had already done a lot of the groundwork. Søren Hansen worked side by side with Jacobsen in the further development of the techniques, and as Jacobsen could see the potential, his later designs were inspired by the technical possibilities, rather than the other way around. The techniques developed, made actual production possible of the Dot stool, Ant chair, 7-chair and so on. So you could say that without Søren Hansens groundwork, actual production of Jacobsens designs wouldn’t have been possible. So it is not without reason that Søren Hansen is often credited with Arne Jacobsen on the dot stool (and others)
The design of the dot stool however, is only credited to Arne Jacobsen on Fritz Hansens (the company) own website. None of the furniture designed by Søren Hansen includes anything remotely similar to the Dot stool. And I’m pretty sure that Fritz Hansen (the company) would attribute it to the grandson of the founder, if he had anything to do with the design himself 🙂

@ I love danish
Thanks a lot for the detailed explanations! Very interresting!
Actually I saw this stool specificaly attributed to Soren Hansen in the book "Scandinavian design" by Peter and Charlotte Fiell (Taschen). It confused me a bit as the only difference between the 2 versions seems to be the apparent bolts.
Could it be that Jacobsen actually improved a design that was originally by Soren Hansen?
thanks!

Hi!
I've been looking at four stools like this one myself. It does look a lot like the dot stool.
http://www.retrostart.com/search/dot/
Since I couldn't find any confirmation online that this stool was also designed by Arne Jacobsen I decided to contact Fritz Hansen, they are very helpful with questions like these.
According to Sven Bruun, who worked at Fritz Hansen for 40 years and wrote three books about Fritz Hansen after going through their entire archive, this is not a Arne Jacobsen stool. It's not a stool designed by Søren Hansen either. The stool is only attributed to the Fritz Hansen design department. They have their own design department where designers are not credited. Like the Join table for example.
http://www.fritzhansen.com/se/soffbord-fh21-ovalt
It's a beautiful stool anyway and very similar to the dot stool.

Attached are images of the stool from the 1963 Fritz Hansen Furniture catalog. Stool is clearly attributed to FH (in house design). I have attached an image of a Jacobsen chair, clearly credited to him.

Well, that settles it. Thanks.
I see this stool credited to Arne Jacobsen at auctions so often.

Just to clarify, only the three-legged exposed bolt stool is credited to in-house designers, while the underside connection "dot" stool is Jacobsen. Correct?
Is anything else different? Diameter? Edge profile? Leg shape/dimensions?

To add to the confusion... On FH website the 3170 stool is the dot stool and is clearly attributed to Arne Jacobsen.
I own a vintage three legged dot stool. Diameter: ca. 33 cm. Height: ca. 45 cm. Here are some pictures for future references...

This might _speculatively_ be a case where Fritz Hansen owns the copyright to the Dot stool, so FH can claim the designer credit (we would say it is an in-house design), and it is also true that Arne Jacobsen drew the design (but does not own the copyright) so Fritz Hansen can give him credit, especially when it is convenient for marketing purposes.
Only speculation, but it certainly fits into the parameters of where this has also happened in the Danish Furniture industry.
It might also _speculatively_ explain how Fritz Hansen has been able to modify the design so much over the years. (changing how the seat is attached, the number of legs).

I will take another look at the catalog and another later one - and see what kind of info they can provide. I also noticed that on the website, they credit the 3170 (without the visible bolts) to Jacobsen. The Furnitue Index gives the stool in question, the model number 3150 and credits it as a Fritz Hansen design from 1953. I need to go back to the catalog and see what is going on. It seems Fritz Hansen is as confused as we are.

Based on some things I've seen it seems Fritz Hansen designed the stool before Jacobsen.,,.is this correct? I'm so damned confused!