Arne Jacobsen Series 7 padded chairs! - date?  

I've never seen any Jacobsen chairs with upholstery like this.  I would bet that someone added it later to make the chairs more comfortable.  The decorative nailheads are particularly suspect.  
These chairs did come with upholstered pads which added a little padding but more than that, the pads keep you from slipping forward on the seat.  Or at least that's what my Danish friends who had a set told me!  
I could be wrong, though.  If you don't get a definitive answer here, you could always email Fritz Hansen.  Or even better, email them and post your own definitive answer.  

Thanks Spanky!

You should definitely contact Fritz Hansen. Last time I did, they sent me some spare parts... for free! Fantastic customer service and great people. 
That being said, the metal cap on your picture indicates an edition from the 60s. Not the very first edition (nailed metal cap) but an early one for sure.
I highly doubt that the upholstery is original. Since the chairs belonged to your father, do you know if they have been repaired at some point? They might have been upholstered to hide something (just my personnal guess though).

According to a delightfully helpful email just received from Fritz Hansen, they date from January 1964 and February 1965. He didn't suggest that any part might not be original! (I can't imagine my father diluting a classic - it would go against all his purist principles!! Buying a limited edition - that, YES, absolutely, he would have done that in a heartbeat! But buying a classic and then desecrating it... I'd have said never.)
At any rate, I've re-emailed the lovely chap from FH to ask whether he knows anything further. 🙂
 
 

Just to update you (esp DrPoulet and Spanky) - the chap from FH says they're original and genuine, by FH themselves! They must be pretty rare in that case, I imagine??
If I were to sell them, what price would you guys suggest would be appropriate?

How interesting!  I never would have thought it, but I do have this aversion to decorative nails on uphlstered pieces.  Bad associations with icky vinyl furniture.  
This isn't really the place for appraisals (see: rules for the forum) but maybe you can find an appraiser for MCM furniture somewhere.  Good luck!

oooh, sorry, didn't realise I was infringing etiquette by requesting value guidelines!
What does MCM stand for?
Thanks Spanky!

Hi.
Did FH realy say that the upholstery was original?I am 99.9% sure that its not since:
1. I have never seen an early chair like yours in upholstery (although they could of course exist)2. Every original upholstered seven chair i have seen from FH have had one piece of fabric or leather on the seat/back part and without the seam in the bent area that yours have.Then the rivets....i have never, ever seen anything like them on an original chair either.
Not trying to talk down your chairs, just trying to get some facts straight. 
Then about the dating its quite easy.The first two numbers are the month and the second the year of manufacture.

Mid
Century
Modern

Hi there! Thanks for your comment. See for yourself: this is both what I wrote - and the response I received - my statements above are based on his sentence: "This are [sic] probably with original upholstery"
What would YOU conclude from the Fritz Hansen response?
 

Hi Anna
Any piece of furniture like this can be upholstered...but I doubt that your father got it done by a local source.
This are probably with original upholstery.
 
kind regards
JC

 
JC PazSales Support, Customer Service & Logistics
 

 
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From: "Anna Lindsay" Sent: Wed 15 Apr 15 5:54:53 PM GMT-0400To: "SalessupportJC Paz" Subject: RE: Arne Jacobsen Series 7 chairs: query [Fritz Hansen#179518] 
BTW... I've never seen any reference to such upholstered versions... I can'timagine my father desecrating such a classic (though maybe I'm wrong? But in that case, why THREE? Surely he'd have gone for an even number? But it simply wasn't his style to unilaterally customise such classics. Buying a limited edition, YES, that would be entirely his style!! but buying a classic and then deliberately changing it - no, I'd have said never: it would have offended his purist values!!), but am guessing that only very few of that variant were made? Or how come I cannot find references to them? DID my father commission tinkering? Do you happen to know?

That is an odd response for FH, considering that the upholstery (esp the nail heads) is quite odd "Probably original" is the sort of thing one would say if it looked quite plausibly original in every way.  However the nailheads on this upholstery are very far from plausibly original, so it is hard to understand how to interpret such a response. 
I would want to keep looking for confirmation that upholstery like this was ever done.  Perhaps a catalog photo or something.  Otherwise, I don't think many knowledgeable people are going to interpret your emails with certainty.  The nailhead upholstery is just too incomprehensible to stand up to any but the most definitive proof.  

Agree: but you can see now why it seems to me from his email that he's conferming provenance?
And you saw the photos of their bases?
So all and any help sleuthing gratefully received - both in the light of your convictions AND in the light of his(?diametrically opposite?) email response! 🙂
 

Hi again,
If i were in your shoes i would most likely think the same since you got that email from FH.But speaking from experience i doubt that a sales person working with the company today (and even more so in the US) have vast knowledge about what their productline looked like over 50 years ago.I believe the email was some kind of misdirected kindness from their part, trying to please a customer.So rather say yes than no, especially if the person did not realy know, hence the "probably".
If i were you i would rather trust the people here like myself that collectively have seen thousands of these chairs from the same age as yours between us.But that is of course totally up to you, i am just trying to help you out here looking objective on the matter.
 

Maybe you should see if the salesperson can direct you to someone in Fritz Hansen who could confirm or deny the "probably". I imagine they get this sort of question about old product from the 1950s and 1960s fairly often and have a knowledgeable person who handles such questions.