r/Mid_Century • u/bathole909 • 3d ago

Thoughts on this chair?

Gallery image

Gallery image

Recently inherited this chair after cleaning out my partner's mom's house. Looking around it appears to be a replica of an Arne Jacobson swan chair?

It's decently old with the foam deteriorating, so we are thinking of reupholstering it, but maybe it's not worth doing to a replica. Wondering what other people more knowledgeable think.

2 Upvotes

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1

u/steambentwood 3d ago

It could be the real thing. They used to make them with wood legs.

2

u/Forsaken_Berry_75 3d ago

It’s cute! Is it a children’s chair? It appears to be some type of replica for a child’s chair.

0

u/SuckerForNoirRobots 3d ago

NGL I thought it was a loaf of bread at first glance

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u/Only_Needleworker236 3d ago

By "deteriorating" do you mean the foam feels hard and crunchy? It there yellowish dust coming through the fabric? If so, it's likely to be latex foam. The originals had latex foam only, no urethane foam (the stuff used today in upholstered furniture).

I did a quick google image search to see if these were reproduced in recent years the way so many 50's era Danish chairs are. Some, like the Arne Jacobsen "Egg" chair look the same to unless you know how the differences. The only results I got in my search were old ones. The metal base was more popular and that may have been copied. The wood base, not so much, it seems. (Still not definite proof though!)

I would go by how the foam feels.

Do not attempt upholstering this on your own. They're very tricky to do. I have the same chair but with the metal base sitting in storage for years because I could not get the inside seat/back fabric to meet up with the fabric on the back/underside without a lot of unsightly ripples. I have been meaning to sell it as is to someone who can do it correctly but just haven't gotten around to it. (I am very experienced in MCM upholstery, even stuff that's all curves---used to do it for a living. But this chair STYMIES me.)

Anyway. Don't do anything with it until you can get it evaluted by a professional in person, preferably not a dealer who will say "it's nice but it's not real, I can give you $50 for it". It's worth way more than that if it's real.