The Egg Chair

Here a few places that manufacturer the Egg chair, many of them are from China.  If you know of any additonal companies or have had experiences ordering products from any of these listed, please contact me and I will make the changes.

Company: Cn.Modernclassic Ya Dea Limited
Contact Person: Mr. Joe Lau (Marketing)
Address: 27F Yi Hai Ge,Splendid garden,Overseas Chinese town,, Shenzhen, Canton, China

Contact Person: Mr. james zhan (Manager)
Company:Fuhualian Import and Export Co., Ltd
Address: Room B303, Jinwenge Jinguanhuacheng, Henggang Town, Longgang District, Shenzhen, Guangdong, China

Contact Person: Ms. Bella Chen (Sales)
Company:chinayadea(hk)co.,ltd
Address: shennan road, Shenzhen, Guangdong, China

Contact Person: Mr. James Zhan (Contracts Manager)
Company: ShenZhen M&F Furniture Co.,Ltd
Address: AnYe Road,ShanJiaoLong Industrial Zone,HengGang Town, shenzhen, guangdong, China

Contact Person: Ms. Wing Guo (Sales)
Company:Guangzhou Panyu Huayu Furniture Co.,ltd
Address: Room 33,NanPu Rd.DongXiang Industrial Estate DaiShi,Panyu, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China

Contact Person: Ms. Angela hu (Director)
Company: Hongkong Brother Home Furnishing Co.,Ltd.
Address: dakang, Shenzhen, Guangdong, China

You may also check the site tradekey.com which has a large number of suppliers listed in their directory.

 image credit: drewleavy

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fast food chain McDonald’s may have to change its plans for revamping some of its European stores after being accused of "piracy" by Frtiz Hansen.

From the TIME article
"McDonald’s approached us some six months ago to help revitalize and revamp their European restaurants," Fritz Hansen CEO Jacob Holm told TIME in Copenhagen. "We developed Arne Jacobsen chairs in special colors and began deliveries." In particular Avanzi and McDonald’s chose The Egg and The Seven chairs, two of Jacobsen’s most iconic creations. Jacobsen, who died in 1971, contracted Fritz Hansen to be the sole licensed manufacturer of his designs in 1934, meaning nobody else can make an original Egg (created in 1958) or Seven (1955). Approximately 2,500 of those chairs have already been sold to McDonald’s, according to Holm. "But," he says, "we discovered that terrible copies of our furniture were also being used in the U.K. That is unacceptable. We simply will not work with people who use originals where they have to and copies elsewhere, legal or otherwise."

According  to copyright law’s in the United Kingdom, McDonald’s is technically doing nothing wrong. Since the U.K. rights on the designs of the chairs have expired, which holds that the rights on a design last a maximum of 25 years, instead of 70 as in much of Europe — British furniture stores and websites are legitimately selling copies of the Egg chair for a fraction of the original price.

28 McDonald’s in the U.K. that were refurbished in 2006 and fitted with all original Fritz Hansen chairs. By the end of this year, another 100 restaurants will have gone through a "re-image": some using all originals, some using reproductions and some using a combination of both. "While the reproduction chairs are naturally very similar to the original design, there are differences," says Homer. "No attempt has been made to ‘pass off’ reproduction chairs as originals in any references or labeling."

"The fact that McDonald’s has chosen to use pirated copies is even more surprising since the company itself is legendary across the world in pursuing trademark and copyright suits to safeguard its product and name," Mr Holm said.

McDonald’s admitted using chairs that were similar-looking reproductions of the iconic designs, but said the company had not acted improperly.
 

Additional Articles covering the story:

Telegraph.co.uk

TIME

NYTIMES

 

 

 

 

image credit:svanes

Basic Details:

Arne Jacobsen, 1958

Created for the the largest hotel in Denmark at the time the SAS Royal Hotel in Copenhagen, which was owned by the airline of the same name. and became the first skyscraper in the country’s history. 

When it first debuted it was called the "glass cigarbox", the steel structure remains a monument to the Modernist movement to this day.  This reputation not only has to do with the buildings desings but also because of what was held within.  Jacobsen’s philosophy was described as "from spoon to city" and the Egg chair and the Swan chair all the way to the door handles, cutlery and martini mixers were designed as a singular unit.  Each piece an important piece of the harmonious design.

Original Egg Chairs, made by the Danish company Fritz Hansen are priced at the $5,000 + range, and sell by the thousands pushing.  Cheaper reproductions, priced at anything from $600 to $2,000, have been increasing in popularity (shopping guide). Original examples from the 1950s have sold at New York auction houses for up to $70,000.

Construction + Finish:

1,300 stitches are used to add the upholstery

Shell:
Created with of polyurethane foam with glass fibre reinforcement.

Tilt mechanism:
Made of steel sheet, steel tubing and spring steel. The adjustment handle is made of polished stainless steel.  This tilt feature adjusts according to the users individual weight. 

Base:
Consists of a satin-polished swivel centre part of welded steel tubing (dia. 38x 2 mm), a spindle of dia. 28 mm machining steel and a 4-star base in injection moulded aluminium.

Upholstery:

Fabric-Standard fabrics for the Egg include Kvadrat Hallingdal, Tonus, Divina, Topas and Fame and Comfort

LeatherClassic leather (5 colors); Natural leather (1 color); Elegance (3 colors) and White leather 
+ 50th Anniversary Egg Chair

Dimensions:
Depth: 79 (95) cm
Width: 86 cm
Height: 107 cm
Total weight: 18.1 kg

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photos: 
See our photo gallery of the Egg chair in the wild.

Videos:
Some Youtube videos on Arne Jacobsen and the Egg Chair

3d Models: Sketchup + 3dmax

Manufacturers:
Looking to bring the Egg chair into your store? Here is a list of Suppliers.

Shopping:
Looking for the best stores or cheapest price? We have browsed the web for you and have a list of stores that carry the Egg chair.  Check out the Shopping guide.

+ Egg t-shirt

About the Designer: Arne Jacobsen

 

 

 

 

 

magnus* Credit +License

Articles + Resources:

Fritz Hansen: Homepage
Wikipedia: Egg chair

NYTimes: Egg and I
Interior Design.net: What is it about that chair?
The Independent: The man who invented a golden egg
NotCot: 50 years of the Egg
House Beautiful: Foyer redesign

Blog Posts:

+The pod/stereo/bubble/ball/eggs
+Nothin’ but egg
+3d leather covering
+Fjord chair: the new egg
+Ikea’s Egg
+Egg Mating
+Mcjacobsen

If you are interested in seeing more photos of Arne’s work and how people are using them in their own homes,  I would recommended checking out his Flickr Group, or the Archlanders.com House Shots blog.