Peacock Chair
Hans J. Wegner's easy chair of 1947, a Windsor-style chair whose fan of fourteen spindles is flattened where the back rests, made today by PP Møbler as the pp550.
- Designed by
- Hans J. Wegner
- Made by
- PP Møbler
- First made
- 1947
Pictures © PP Møbler, from pp.dk.
Why it is renowned
The Peacock Chair is known for its back: an arch over a fan of spindles, each flattened at shoulder height, which Finn Juhl likened to a peacock's tail when he first saw it.12 Museums in the United States hold it: the Art Institute of Chicago has one in ash, teak and paper cord, made in 1969 by Johannes Hansen in Copenhagen, and the High Museum of Art in Atlanta has one given by Wegner and Johannes Hansen.34
The story
Hans J. Wegner designed the chair in 1947 and took the English Windsor chair as his starting point.12 Fourteen spindles join the seat to the arched back, and their flat middle sections give the back its support.1 Johannes Hansen's workshop made it first.23 In 1990 PP Møbler took on the Wegner collection Johannes Hansen had made in the 1950s and 1960s, the Peacock Chair among it.5 PP Møbler makes it as the pp550 in oak or ash, soap-treated or oiled, with a woven paper-cord seat and armrests in the frame's wood or in teak.1 Wegner also made an upholstered version and showed it at the Cabinetmakers' Guild Exhibition in 1953; Johannes Hansen made only a handful, and PP Møbler brought it back in 2014, a hundred years after Wegner's birth.2 PP Møbler sells it as the pp521 Upholstered Peacock.1
Sources
- pp550 Peacock Chair, PP Møbler. pp.dk, read 5 October 2026.
- The Peacock Chair, Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org, read 5 October 2026.
- Peacock Chair, Art Institute of Chicago. artic.edu, read 5 October 2026.
- Peacock Chair, High Museum of Art. high.org, read 5 October 2026.
- Wegner & PP, PP Møbler. pp.dk, read 4 October 2026.
Last checked 5 October 2026, against the maker's own pages.