Nice find on the catalog! Where did you find it, if I may ask? And it is Danish after all.
Arne Hovmand Olsen is a mystery. He designed so many pieces, and so few are documented.
One way to have done the arms would be to use bending veneer for the entire arm. If it were done with consecutive slices from the same tree, the glue joints could be very, very hard to see. And of course the top veneer would have been the primary wood veneer.
Another option might have been to rough cut the shape of the lower arm, and then use some fancy jigs that allow a router to slide along the cut line for a clean smooth cut, then glue the top veneer on.
Very nice find, i_l_d. And after taking a closer look at the OP photos, I now notice the teak/oak lamination line on the arms. I wonder how many rosewood versions are still out there. That contrast cuts a striking image in the catalog photo.
Maybe someone could advise the Etsy seller that his chair is a Hovmand Olsen knockoff rather than a Wegner knockoff.
@ leif ericson
Where did you find it
Well, I had to apply my superior intelligence, my impressing photographic memory, and my amazing deductive skills.
And if you don't believe that BS, you're absolutely right. I found it by coincidence. I was googling chairs by Hans Olsen, and it turned up among the search results 🙂
Thank you very much to I_Love_Danish for identifying this mystery piece
& all others in the Design Addict community for their interest & debate
over the chair's origin . The digital copy of the original ad is very cool
& great to have along with the chair .
I bought the chair in a mixed lot of furniture that included a side table
marked Hovmand Olsen so that might have been a clue I overlooked .
I've just finished cleaning up the chair & will post a few more detailed
photos in the coming days for those of you interested in the techniques
that might have been used in laminating the arm rests as well as the
misleading hardware for future reference .
An update on this chair for those interested . . .
An experienced dealer I sent photos of the chair to responded today
reconfirming the designer as Hovmand Olsen & a further bit of info
that was interesting .
The original cushions that came with the chair have a sprung seat
cushion which I thought was a North American retrofit but apparently
were a unique original feature of this chair's design .
The cushions shown in the photos of my original post are new foam
cushions reupholstered in a 1950s / 60s wool+cotton melange fabric
I found dusty & unusued in a 2nd hand store before having it cleaned
& used to reupholster the new cushions .
Knowing now that the sprung seat was original I'll likely have it re-done
so that the chair remains as original as possible .
The flat head screws on the backs of the arms are the expected screw head. The screw on the ebay pair must be replacements.
And the lower arm is not composed of pieces of oak bending veneer. Nice woodworking. I notice they added a second piece of teak veneer to the back of the arm to build it up a bit.
Nice woodwork all around. And nice photos!
The chair is even more fascinating to look at, at the close up pictures. I wonder how many prototypes they had to make, to get it just right.
I found a little more trivia on Hovmand-Olsen.
As with other danish designers, you might have wondered how the last name is spelled. Is it Hovmand-Olsen or Hovmand Olsen.
Well it's 100% guaranteed Hovmand-Olsen. How do I know? It says so on his tombstone.
http://www.gravsted.dk/person.php?navn=arnehovmand-olsen
The site is in danish, and I'll be happy to translate the text into english, if anybody is interested. So if google translate fails, please get back to me 🙂
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