Design Features Naomi Cleaver On Arne Jacobsen

Date Published:

10/06/2008

Architect and designer Arne Jacobsen gave progressive new forms to everything from hotels to cutlery. And he also happened to be responsible for a certain famous chair...

We all know the story of the late politician, John Profumo, whose deceit over his extra-marital relationship with the now infamous party girl Christine Keeler provoked not only his political demise but, arguably, the downfall of the entire Tory government of the time.

This scandalous event also happened to thrust a chair into the spotlight - the Series 7, Model 3107 chair designed by Danish architect and designer Arne Jacobsen in 1955. Except it wasn't actually a Jacobsen chair that was straddled by the nimble Keeler in Lewis Morley's classic 1963 photograph. It was, in fact, a rip-off of Jacobsen's more polished design, bought from a sale for five shillings and now, ironically, part of the furniture collection at the Victoria & Albert Museum.

Model 3107

The differences between them are subtle but distinct. 'The plywood (of the imitator) is much thicker and less subtly moulded,' says Gareth Williams of the V&A's Furniture, Textiles and Fashion department. 'The cinched 'waist' of the chair is more pronounced, and the front of the seat is set back too far. Unlike Jacobsen's chair, this model has a cut-out handle at the top of the seat, but even this is inaccurately positioned and irregularly cut.' These alterations, which distinguish the Model 3107 from its imitators, also frame Jacobsen's monumental talent.