Mid-Century Danish Armchair by Folke Ohlsson for Fritz Hansen

With a timeless, teak-laden style—so emblematic of Scandinavian modernism—Swedish furniture designer Folke Ohlsson is perhaps best remembered for his outsized role in progressing the popularity of Scandinavian furniture in midcentury America.

Born in 1919 and raised in Sweden, Ohlsson moved to the United States in 1953 and immediately established Dux Incorporated as an American iteration of its Swedish namesake—at the time, the Nordic country’s largest manufacturer of upholstered furniture. Under Ohlsson’s design direction, Dux Inc. quickly garnered considerable clout stateside. 

Dux achieved particular success when it introduced the knock-down chair to the US market. Ohlsson patented his iconic design in 1949, and it went on to inspire more than 100 furniture designers and manufacturers (e.g., fellow Swedes Nordiska Kompaniet and, more contemporarily, Ikea).

Dux Inc. spent three years headquartered in San Francisco before Ohlsson moved the company to Burlingame, California, in 1956. Over the years, the company solicited furniture designs from design heavyweights like Bruno Mathsson, Edward J. Wormley, and , while simultaneously producing Ohlsson’s own designs. Especially popular in the late 1950s and early 1960s—and highly collectable today—Ohlsson’s armchair and sofa designs are prized for their graceful blend of traditional details and modernist simplicity. Accordingly, his work garnered heaps of formal recognition and awards, including Best Design in 1964’s Triennale Exhibition in Milan, as well as Sweden’s Royal Order of Vasa decoration, awarded by King Gustav VI Adolf, in the same year.

He passed away October 23^rd, 2002.

Danish cabinetmaker Fritz Hansen founded his eponymous furniture manufacturing company with his son Christian in Copenhagen in 1885. The first three decades were dedicated to hand-making wood and iron frames for upholstered furniture. In 1915, however, Christian began to introduce industrial processes, such as steam-bending wood, which enabled the family business to mass-produce at a larger scale.

In 1932, Christian brought in his own sons, Fritz and Søren, who updated the product line to include more modernist styles, like Søren’s Thonet-inspired DAN Chair (1930) and a cantilevered wicker and tubular steel chair by architect Mogens Lassen (1933). Other early classics in the Fritz Hansen catalog include Kaare Klint’s Church Chair (1936), Hans Wegner’s China Chair (1944), and Børge Mogensen’s Spoke Back Sofa (1945).

During the 1950s—thanks especially to the contributions of architect Arne Jacobsen—Fritz Hansen entered its golden era, creating some of the most iconic Scandinavian designs of the 20th century. Arne Jacobsen’s Ant Chair (1952), Swan Sofa (1958) and Egg Chair & Ottoman (1958), as well as later designs by Verner Panton, Piet Hein, and Grete Jalk, all helped to cement Fritz Hansen’s legacy as one of the most beloved producers of high quality, simple-yet-elegant, Danish modern furniture.

In 1979, after 107 years of family ownership, Fritz Hansen was bought out by Skandinavisk Holding and is now known as The Republic of Fritz Hansen. Pieces from the company’s long history can be found in nearly every design museum collection there is, from MoMA and Cooper Hewitt in New York to the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney. Arne Jacobsen’s collaboration with Fritz Hansen was the subject of the Siéntate Siéntete exhibition, hosted by the Chamber of Architects in Madrid in 2010.  

* All images courtesy of Republic of Fritz Hansen.