FH3400 Lounge Chair by Nanna Ditzel for Fritz Hansen, 1950s

Born in Copenhagen, Denmark in 1923, modern designer Nanna Ditzel (nee Hauberg) initially trained as a cabinetmaker at the Richards School before studying at the School of Arts and Crafts and the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen. She graduated with a degree in furniture design in 1946. She met her first husband, Jørgen Ditzel during her studies, in 1943, and they began working and exhibiting together in 1944. In 1946, the pair established a design studio in Copenhagen focused primarily on interiors and multipurpose, adjustable, and children’s furniture. Their iconic 1959 Hanging Chair, nicknamed the “Egg Chair,” is arguably their most famous piece; the rounded wicker seat hangs from chains from the ceiling.

Since Jørgen passed away in 1961, Nanna Ditzel continued to work in a range of design arenas—from jewelry and textiles to furniture, tableware, and applied arts—and using a variety of materials, including fiberglass, rubber, and wicker. In 1968, she married Kurt Heide and relocated to London, where they created a showroom and meeting place for international design in Hampstead, which was called Interspace. Her own studio and company, Nanna Ditzel Productions Ltd., also made its home in London. In 1986, after the death of her second husband, Ditzel returned to Denmark.

Ditzel was nicknamed the “First Lady of Danish Furniture Design” by the Scandinavian Furniture Fair, and her work has been exhibited around the globe. Her awards include a lifelong artist’s grant from the Danish Ministry of Culture in 1998 and she was elected Honorable Royal Designer by the Royal Society of Arts in London in 1996.  Her clients included Georg Jensen, Kvadrat, Kvist, Fredericia Furniture, among others.

Ditzel continued to work until shortly before her death in 2005 in Copenhagen.

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.