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Lounger - Olsen or Kayser?  

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thasac
(@thasac)
Active Member
Joined: 2026 years ago
Posts: 16
17/08/2015 6:21 pm  

Long time lurker, first time poster.

After losing my much loved Coggin/Baughman teak lounger in a "friend had too much wine" incident, I had been a multi-year hunt for another lounge chair which suited my tastes and budget. I stumbled across a lounger on craigslist listed by a friendly/honest local collector who had seemingly lost interest in what was clearly a basket-case piece. Having access to a full woodshop and tendency toward hopeless projects, I was willing to take on a basket-case piece since the price was right(ish).

In my years of Brimfield browsing and google hunts, I had never seen this chair design . The seller believed it to be a Mogens Kold piece designed by Hovmand Olsen. My own google research suggested he might be right, with at least one reputable Danish reseller labeling the same chair as a Mogens Kold piece. This said, other sellers have claimed it to be a Komfort or even a Fredrik Kayser piece. The replica producers has gotten a hold of the design, and too are claiming Kayser (though wrongly marked as model 711). While the design does look similar to other Kayser designs, I haven't found any catalogs attributing this design to him.

What I can confirm is the chair is NOT teak. I own plenty of teak pieces and grain, weight, and color simplydoes not align. I'd say it looks and smells more like east indian rosewood, which is good because the chair needs a new seat cross member and I am able to get replacement lumber locally for relatively cheap. Not sure if the Danes had access to this lumber during the late '50's though.

I've attached some terrible phone-cam photos which I took while wet sanding a tung oil finish on the arm/leg assembly. With some oil on the wood, the richness is looking definitively like rosewood (and beautiful!) It's hard to see, but the arm has a nice little beech dowel and wedge feature.

MattBlatt is peddling a pretty accurate replica, including the nicely sculpted dowel joints . This provides a better overall view of the design (unlike my own pics).

http://www.mattblatt.com.au/Replica-Lounge-Chairs/Replica-Fredrik-Kayser-Model-711-Armchair.aspx?p4267c307

Thanks in advance for any input.

-Zach


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