Fritz Hansen has made furniture in Denmark since 1872, when a cabinetmaker of that name took out a trade licence in Copenhagen. Furniture production proper began in 1885. By the early 1900s the workshop was supplying the Danish Parliament and the Supreme Court, and in 1915 it produced its first chair in steam-bent wood — the technique that set the direction for everything after.
What the company is known for today, though, comes from one working relationship that began in 1934.
The Jacobsen years
The architect Arne Jacobsen brought Fritz Hansen the pressed-veneer shell. The Ant arrived in 1952, the Series 7 in 1955, the Grand Prix in 1957. The Series 7 went on to become the most-produced chair in the company’s history and is still made in Denmark.
Then came the commission that fixed Jacobsen’s reputation outside Denmark: the SAS Royal Hotel in Copenhagen, for which he designed the building, the interiors, the cutlery and the furniture. Two chairs from that project — the Egg and the Swan — have been in production ever since.
The archive is still being worked. The Grand Prix returned in special editions in 2024, the Little Giraffe in 2025, and the Series 7 has been reissued in a tailored version and in a colour palette drawn from Danish morning light.
Kjærholm, and the rest of the collection
Poul Kjærholm called himself a furniture architect and worked in steel where his contemporaries worked in wood. His first designs for Fritz Hansen date from the early 1950s — the PK0 in 1951, the F.L. Smidth chair in 1954 — but the bulk of his collection was produced elsewhere until Fritz Hansen acquired the rights in 1982. It has been added to continuously since: the PK3, unrealised in his lifetime, went into production in 2025, followed by the PK111 modular screen in 2026.
The Superellipse table, drawn by the poet and mathematician Piet Hein with Bruno Mathsson and dated 1968, remains one of the company’s steadiest sellers. Hans J. Wegner’s China Chair joined the collection in 2024, and Verner Panton’s centenary was marked in 2026.
Fritz Hansen today
The family sold out in 1979, after 107 years. Production moved from Christianshavn to Allerød in 1965 and expanded to Vassingerød in 1999, where it remains.
The current collection reaches well beyond seating. Cecilie Manz has contributed the Caravaggio lamp, Monolit and the Solae portable light; Kasper Salto the Pluralis office tables and the Vind series; Jaime Hayon the Fri, Analog and Plenum families. Michael Anastassiades, Sebastian Herkner, Henning Larsen, Nendo and Note Design Studio all appear in recent launches, and the 2026 collaboration with Technics moved the company into sound.
Five pieces to know
- Series 7 (1955) — pressed veneer, still made in Denmark, still the company’s best seller
- Egg — drawn for the SAS Royal Hotel, upholstered over a moulded shell
- Swan — from the same commission, and the one that stayed in production as a sofa too
- Ant (1952) — the three-legged first attempt that made the rest possible
- Superellipse table (1968) — Piet Hein’s geometry, Bruno Mathsson’s legs
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