Arne Jacobsen 'Swan' swivel armchair from the SAS Royal Hotel, Copenhagen, circa 1957

Arne Jacobsen 'Swan' swivel armchair from the SAS Royal Hotel, Copenhagen, circa 1957 Leather, brass-plated aluminium, steel, rubber. 74 x 79 x 68.5 cm Manufactured by Fritz Hansen, Copenhagen, Denmark. Underside of seat stamped FH. Underside of one leg impressed 13 and with crown symbol. Footnotes: Provenance SAS Royal Hotel, Copenhagen Acquired from the above, 1983 Kunst & Design, Krefeld, 'Auction 9', 7 May 2002, lot 569 Acquired from the above by the present owner Literature Poul Hvidberg-Hansen, Fritz Hansen 1872-1997: Danish Furniture Design Through 125 Years, Kolding, 1997, pp. 30-33 Carsten Thau and Kjeld Vindum, Jacobsen, Copenhagen, 2001, pp. 138, 142, 182-83, 469-70, 478-79, 489, 511-14, 530 Christopher Mount, Arne Jacobsen, San Francisco, 2004, pp. 53-54, 59, 66-67, 69, 85 Nick Wright Co-author of Cut and Shut: The History of Creative Salvage, London, 2012 A rare bird Question: Which came first; the Swan or the Egg? Answer: The Pelican. Arne Jacobsen's Egg and Swan chairs remain icons of 21st century design even 65 years after their debut, their placement on a magazine cover short-hand for contemporary cool. Designed for the lobby of the SAS airlines hotel in Copenhagen in 1958, the chairs were emblematic of a Scandinavian soft socialism whereby good design became a means of engineering the good society through comfort for all. Jacobsen was the preeminent architect of that post-war Danish modernity. He had designed (with Erik Moller) the City Hall in Aarhus in 1941, in 1960 he completed the SAS Royal Hotel and, as his reputation took off, Saint Catherine's College Oxford in 1964. His studio produced the furniture and fittings for all his buildings, the range of product, from cutlery to chairs, branded with that same Scandi cool the Swan and Egg exude to this day. As such, Jacobsen's work appeared a break with the tradition of cabinet-made Danish furniture. Where Finn Juhl, Hans Wegner and Borge Mogensen drew on the traditions of English cabinetmaking to produce hand-crafted naturalistic forms for the modern home, Jacobsen was designing industrially produced fittings for large architectural projects like the SAS. The Swan and Egg, made as they were from innovative Styropore, seemed future facing from the start. In their original form, however, they also swivelled back to face the past. The Egg is the wing-backed Derby to the Swan's Joan. The Swan is also clearly influenced by Finn Juhl's Pelican Chair of 1936. The cleft between 'wings' and 'body' is similar even if the Pelican's ungainly stance did not imply flight. To achieve take off, Jacobsen inverted Juhl's top-heavy original and replaced its wooden legs with a centrally located aluminium base. Even naming the chair the Swan seems a nod to the pre-war Pelican. Jacobsen originally envisaged that the Egg and Swan would be produced in leather, a natural material synonymous with cabinet-made furniture; it was only when the prohibitive cost was pointed out that he sanctioned fabric and later vinyl. Significantly too, the aluminium base that now lends the chairs lightness, was Bronze plated for the SAS Hotel lounge. Jet-age the building may have been, but Jacobsen stipulated brass fittings more associated with a nineteenth century gentleman's club for Denmark's first skyscraper. Swans and Eggs from the SAS Hotel are rare birds. The bronzed bases that, aside from Fritz Hansen's anniversary edition, distinguish this original production was for the lounge areas only. (Swans in the bedrooms were bare aluminium). All were thrown out when the hotel was refurbished in the eighties and only three have come up for sale in the following years. The bronzed Swan in this sale is one of those birds, now rare to the point of extinction. This lot is subject to the following lot symbols: TP TP For auctions held in Scotland: Lots will be moved to an offsite storage location (Constantine, Constantine House, North Caldeen Road, Coatbridge ML5 4EF, Scotland, UK) and will only be available for collection from this location at the date stated in the catalogue. Please refer to the catalogue for further information. For all other auctions: Lots will be moved to an offsite storage location (Cadogan Tate, Auction House Services, 241 Acton Lane, London NW10 7NP, UK) and will only be available for collection from this location at the date stated in the catalogue. Please note transfer and storage charges will apply to any lots not collected after 14 calendar days from the auction date. For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com For further information about this lot please visit the lot listing