While there are quite a few Wegner Round chair threads, none seemed to be very specific to the earliest design, so I thought I'd start a new one.
Yesterday was quite exciting for me as I picked up my second Wegner piece ever, the earliest Round Chair (JH 501) design with both the cane seat and cane-wrapped back rest (actually it is a chair and a half as one is heavily damaged and is missing the entire backrest).
I recall reading a few months ago that the cane wrapping of the backrest for the initial design was only done to hide the original arm/backrest connection, which was known early on to be a high stress point in the chair (doesn't sound very Wegner-like to me). Then after the sawtooth joint was designed and tested, the production changed to this joint and the backrest wood became fully exposed.
These chairs were part of a set of 8 or 10 in our office conference room during the 50's-70's (long before I arrived). When we moved offices in the early 80's (also long before I arrived), we went with a different interior design theme, and these chairs have been sitting in the storage room for more than 30 years. Since only these two chairs were left, I assume someone had graciously cleared out some storage room space somewhere along the line.
Anyway, the office recently decided to clean out the storage room. Since the guy in charge of that knew I was into Danish furniture, he thought I may be interested in "some chairs" downstairs. Needless to say, when I saw these guys sitting there on top of stacked up pile, I was stunned, as nothing in our current office is even close in style (now mostly Brno armchairs in offices and Cassina Cab armchairs in the conference rooms). Since the office was more interested in cleaning the storage room, I was able to procure both Round Chairs for an extremely attractive nominal price.
While I have always wanted a Round Chair for the pad, I had been looking for the upholstered seat version with exposed sawtooth joint backrest. As can be expected with the caned seat version that has been sitting in storage for 30+ years, the caning itself is very brittle and missing a few strands. So while I finally have my Round Chair, I think this version is one to look at rather than sit in.
My first step is to do my usual Howards 1-2 punch cleaning for the teak (which is quite brown and not very reddish right now). However, I would be interested in hearing options for the cane. Seeing as this is such an early chair, I am leaning on keeping the cane and primarily just want to clean it. Is it acceptable from an archiving perspective to put a little wood glue on any broken cane ends and tack glue to the wood frame? 
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damaged chair
While the plan is to keep the good chair, I am not yet sure what I want to do with the damaged chair. Either I will hang onto it for parts in case I come across another damaged Round Chair, or might sell to someone who is already in that position.
The damaged chair does offer some insight into the early chair design and weaknesses. The tops of the four legs are doweled to receive the arms. Also, the slots in the rails through which the cane is wrapped have proven to be the weak links in the frame structure. Even the good chair shows splits in the wood between the end of the slots and the end of rail. I haven't yet determined if these splits have been previously repaired or not.
I'll post additional images of the chairs down the road as I clean/recondition/analyze them.
I don't believe the Round...
I don't believe the Round Chair was ever made in stained beech. I believe the old Johannes Hansen ones are mostly limited to either teak or oak, while PP Mobler currently offers oak, ash or cherry.
Also, I think the flash from the iPhone photo is misleading as the split in the wood is not as light as it appears here. I must admit I did not take a close look at the dowels yet. It could be that the dowel is not turned from the leg base, but is instead a separate lighter wood dowel, which was glued into a hole in the leg top.
Next time I take photos, I'l try to avoid using the flash.
On a separate note, after reviewing the PP Mobler site now, I just noticed that the upholstered seat version is numbered 503 (vs 501 for the caned). I believe this numbering was used for the Johannes Hansen production as well.
Well, I really don't know muc...
Well, I really don't know much about it on that level. You probably know much more than I do. The index offers up PP Møbler's selection as: Oak, Ash, Mahogany, Cherry, and Teak.
It could also be something like oak or ash that I am seeing that has been stained.
And photos can lie, so I could easily be wrong.
It is this photo that is most strongly "questionable":
I'll take some better photos...
I'll take some better photos that show the truer wood color and post tomorrow. Even without the flash, I do agree that the surface tone and inside wood tone have a wide range between them. And the exposed wood is not even fresh. I'm not sure when the chair was broken, but it could have been 25-30 years ago and changed color during that time. I may find a splintered piece and splinter it some more to find out what the freshly exposed wood looks like.
While I have heard of caned seat and back replicas for the Round Chair, both of my chairs have the Hansen mark underneath.
I wasn't suggesting you have...
I wasn't suggesting you have replicas. I wouldn't think they are.
I can tell you that when you break open vintage teak it looks very much like the outside.
And I was more thinking in reference to your concerns with how to treat the wood. The "archival" course of action for teak vs some other wood is likely to diverge.
Oh, and congratulations! I d...
Oh, and congratulations! I didn't mean to throw cold water on how great a find you've got. I just walk through life noticing the species of wood that I see (I know: weird).
I especially like the story: pulling those out of the basement at your work place.
As the caning
will need to be replaced entirely, at some point (on the seat, at least), I wouldn't worry about what is "archival" as far as repairs to the existing seat caning.
The wood color is indeed puzzling. Other photos of the broken area(s) might help. If these are very early chairs, perhaps they were made before the final species list was settled upon. Or they could have been made to special order for the client, whose designer may have wanted a non-standard color (i.e., a stain) to match other work ?
In the meantime, dressing up the wood with a topical coat seems premature to me. I'd want to preserve the existing finish condition until all the archeology is complete. After all, these might end up on Antiques Roadshow . . . !
new photos from this...
new photos from this morning, in daylight without flash. These do a better job of showing the actual color of the wood, although the split wood still reads differently from different daylight angles. Also, the doweled tops (not photographed) appear to me to be turned from the teak legs and not a separate connector dowel; however, I am not 100% sure on that.
Apologies for the misleading initial shots.
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