Détail

100 years of craftsmanship

Carl Hansen & Son celebrated its 100th anniversary on 28 October 2008. Only a few family-owned companies make it this far. Even fewer are the furniture manufacturers that span a century of changing tastes and technologies. But it is truly rare that the fortunes of a high-end furniture producer are so closely connected to just one designer.

The cooperation between Carl Hansen & Son and Hans J. Wegner began in 1949 – and was a turning point for them both.

Carl Hansen opened his furniture workshop in Odense, Denmark in 1908 and soon became known for the high quality of his work. In the early days, the company produced bespoke furniture – including everything from dining room sets to bedroom suites. As the company grew and times changed, however, it gradually began to produce smaller series of its most popular pieces. This combination of hand craftsmanship and rational series production soon became the firm’s hallmark – and continues to set it apart today.

Until the middle of the 1940s Carl Hansen & Son cooperated with Frits Henningsen, a Danish architect and cabinetmaker, on designs of tables and chairs. It was Carl Hansen’s son, Holger Hansen, who took a chance on the ground-breaking designs of the young Hans J. Wegner. Holger Hansen, master cabinet maker and businessman, worked closely with Hans J. Wegner to adapt his radically innovative designs to mass production. Among these designs, the legendary Wishbone Chair which has been produced ever since.

Holger Hansen’s widow, Ella Hansen, kept Carl Hansen & Son in the family and led it through difficult times with the help of her dedicated staff – a remarkable achievement for a woman of her day. Her son, Jørgen Gerner Hansen, later took over management of the company.

Holger and Ella Hansen’s other son, Knud Erik Hansen, assumed leadership of the company in 2001. Since then Carl Hansen & Son has built a new, modern factory in Aarup, Denmark, where the firm continues to combine hand-crafted care with the best technologies available to produce furniture of the highest quality – efficiently and sustainably.

Today, Carl Hansen & Son continues to cooperate closely with the Hans J. Wegner Studio to introduce or re-introduce outstanding designs from the treasure chest that Wegner left behind.

http://www.carlhansen.com/