Literature:

Hiort, Architect Finn Juhl, Copenhagen 1990, p. 41. Chieftain Chair The Chieftain Chair is considered one of the highlights of Finn Juhl's work and one of the most elegant designs in Scandinavian design. Finn Juhl was inspired by modern art, such as the sculptural works of Henry Moore and Hans Arp, as well as older cultures. During a visit to the Louvre, he saw an Egyptian chair whose geometry he imitated in his ‘Egyptian Chair’ and then transferred to the Chieftain Chair in 1949. The special feature of this chair is the structural and visual separation of the upholstered seat and the wooden frame. This gave rise to his characteristic furniture style, which stood out from the classic Scandinavian design of the time. There is a clear contrast to the prevailing style of furniture at the time, including that of Kaare Klint, which was characterized by clean, simple lines and a focus on ergonomics. Finn Juhl describes the process of creating the Chieftain Chair:
I began designing the Chieftain Chair in the spring of 1949. I was at home and started around 10 a.m. with a small sketch consisting of just four vertical lines connected by something. By two or three o'clock in the morning, I had finished drawing it. But I don't really know how long it took me to design this chair. Perhaps I had had a vague idea of wanting to design something bigger for some time.“ Since, in his opinion, Scandinavian design was dominated by lots of small, practical chairs, he aspired to ”design something more pompous." The collaboration between Finn Juhl and Niels Vodder ended in 1972, and the commission for the Chieftain chair went to Ivan Schlechter, who had been working as an upholsterer for Niels Vodder's Chieftain chair since the mid-1950s. Since Børge Mogensen, one of Vodder's best carpenters, had moved to P.P. Møbler, Ivan Schlechter asked P.P. Møbler to produce the chairs for him. This collaboration was to continue until 1987. It is noteworthy that Schlechter's chairs are made exclusively from mahogany. The Chieftain Chair was first presented in 1949 at the Cabinetmaker's Guild Exhibition in Copenhagen and was so unique that it attracted a great deal of attention. At the unveiling, King Frederick IX sat on the chair, prompting a journalist to suggest calling it the “King's Chair.” However, Juhl did not like this pretentious name and quickly replied, “Better call it the Chieftain Chair,” and so it remained. The Chieftain Chair marked the beginning of a new design language in Scandinavian design, which was later followed by designers such as Arne Jacobsen and Verner Panton. The Chieftain Chair offered here was acquired in the early 1970s and has been in the consignor's family ever since.