Hans Wegner trained as a cabinetmaker before he trained as a designer, completing his apprenticeship at seventeen and only then going to the School of Arts and Crafts in Copenhagen. It shows in the work. He designed close to 500 chairs across his career and was called the master of the chair, but he thought like someone who had built them by hand.
Three of the four chairs here come from a single commission. In 1948 Wegner was asked to produce four chairs and a sideboard, and the chairs became the CH22, CH23, CH24 and CH25. This collection stocks three of those four. They were designed together, as a family, which is why they sit so easily in one room despite looking quite different from each other.
The CH24 of 1949 is the one that became famous. It was the last piece in a series Wegner drew from portraits of Danish merchants sitting in Chinese Ming Dynasty chairs, and its innovation was combining the top rail and the armrest into a single steam-bent piece. The Y-shaped back that gives the chair its name is what supports that top rail while keeping the whole thing light.
The CH20 Elbow chair is the outsider. Wegner designed it in 1956, made two prototypes, decided it was too difficult to manufacture, and put it in a drawer. It stayed there for nearly fifty years and was not produced until 2005, when it won a design award in New York in its first year on sale.
If you are furnishing a dining room rather than buying a single icon, the designer dining chairs collection sets these against other options, and the bar stools range covers the raised versions.
Four designs, four different jobs.
The default choice, and the one most people arrive looking for. It measures 52 cm wide, 53 cm deep and 73 cm high, with a seat at 43 cm, and weighs 7.5 kg. Armless in profile but with a wrap-around top rail that works as an armrest.
Frame options run to seven: beech, lacquered, walnut stain, ash, oak, oak with a soap finish, and a special edition. Cord comes in natural or black. A black frame with black cord is a far more graphic result than the natural combination, which is worth seeing before you decide.
A four-legged dining chair from the same 1948 family, without the Y-back. The chair to choose if the Wishbone reads as too decorative for the room. Black lacquered solid ash with a paper cord seat, 50.3 cm wide and 78.6 cm high, with a seat at 44 cm, and at 4.8 kg the lightest chair here. From GBP 189.50.
It also comes as a CH23 barstool, with a seat at 74.8 cm, from GBP 161.70. The barstool is held in UK stock.
The most distinctive of the four and the one that works hardest as a single chair rather than a set. Solid ash frame and legs, a leather seat, 57 cm wide, 50 cm deep and 74 cm high, 7.8 kg, with a seat at 47 cm.
Its low back and horizontal seat make it an unusually good desk chair, which is not true of the others. At 57 cm it is 5 cm wider than the Wishbone.
The fourth piece from the 1948 commission, and the only one here that is not a dining chair. Black lacquered solid ash with a woven natural reed cord seat, 71 cm wide and 73 cm high, with a low seat at 37.7 cm. From GBP 444.50, and held in UK stock.
The OX Chair, a wide high back lounge chair, is in the modern high armchairs collection. The Shell Chair CH07, on three plywood legs, is in the modern lounge chairs collection.
The seat heights are not the same. The Wishbone sits at 43 cm, the CH23 at 44 cm and the CH20 Elbow at 47 cm. Four centimetres is enough to notice when two people are sitting at the same table, so if you are putting Elbow chairs at the head and Wishbones down the sides, expect the head chairs to sit visibly higher.
If a consistent height matters more than variety, stay within one design.
The seat is the part people hesitate over, and it is not a compromise. It is the harder option to make.
Paper cord is tightly twisted paper, woven by hand across the seat frame in an envelope pattern. On the original Wishbone it takes around 120 metres of cord per chair, and the chair as a whole runs to more than a hundred production steps.
It is firm rather than padded, gives slightly with use, and breathes in a way foam does not. It also keeps the chair light: the CH24 weighs 7.5 kg.
Paper cord darkens slowly with use and handling, which most people come to like. It is not indestructible.
A leather cushion made for the CH24 is stocked if you want padding without losing the look.
The CH20 Elbow comes with a leather seat rather than cord. If the chair will take heavy daily use, sit near a kitchen, or be used by children, leather is the lower-maintenance choice and wipes clean.
Two pieces are held in UK stock, the CH23 barstool and the CH25 Easy Chair. Everything else takes 12 to 16 weeks. Chairs arrive fully assembled, so there is nothing to build when they land, but if you are buying six for a dining room, order well ahead of any fixed date.
A Hans Wegner chair replica is a reproduction of one of Wegner's designs. It is sold as a reproduction, and every Mobelaris product page states that the item is not manufactured by or affiliated with the original designer. In this collection, the CH24 Wishbone starts from GBP 139.50.
The Wishbone Chair is Wegner's CH24, designed in 1949. It has a Y-shaped back, a top rail and armrest steam-formed from one piece of solid wood, and a hand-woven paper cord seat. It is also known as the Y Chair and by its model number CH24. All three names refer to the same design.
The name comes from the shape of the back. The Y-shaped splat that supports the top rail resembles a wishbone, and that is also why it is called the Y Chair. The design was the last in a series Wegner drew from portraits of Danish merchants seated in Chinese Ming Dynasty chairs.
The CH24 Wishbone starts from GBP 139.50 in beech with natural cord, the CH23 from GBP 189.50, the CH20 Elbow chair from GBP 224.50 and the CH25 Easy Chair from GBP 444.50. The barstools start from GBP 161.70. The grid above shows current pricing including any active sale. Every chair carries a five-year warranty.
Paper cord is tightly twisted paper, woven by hand across the seat frame. It is firm rather than padded, breathes better than foam and keeps the chair light. The original Wishbone uses around 120 metres of cord per chair. Brush it clean and avoid excess moisture, which loosens the tension in the weave.
The CH24 is offered in seven options: beech, lacquered, walnut stain, ash, oak, oak with a soap finish, and a special edition. The standard beech frame is finished in natural matt oil. The CH20 Elbow chair uses solid ash for both frame and legs. The backrest on every version is one piece of steam-bent solid wood.
The CH24 is the Wishbone, with its Y-shaped back and wrap-around top rail. The CH23 is a plainer four-leg dining chair from the same 1948 family, without the Y. The CH20 Elbow chair came later, in 1956, and has a low curved back and a leather seat, which makes it the best of the three at a desk.
Yes. Every chair in this collection, including both barstools and the CH25 Easy Chair, is supplied fully assembled, with nothing to build. That matters more than it sounds for a chair with a steam-bent backrest, because the joint geometry is set in the factory rather than by the buyer.
Yes. A Wishbone barstool, with a seat at 74 cm and from GBP 229.50, is in this collection alongside a CH23 barstool at 74.8 cm, from GBP 161.70. The same design language can run from the dining table to a kitchen island. A leather seat cushion made for the CH24 is also available.
Two pieces are held in UK stock and dispatch in 48 to 72 hours: the CH23 barstool and the CH25 Easy Chair. Everything else takes 12 to 16 weeks, and timings can vary by finish. Each product page shows its own estimate under the Add to Cart button.
