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Miniatures Y-Chair

Hans J. Wegner, 1960

Hans J. Wegner is one of the leading representatives of traditional Danish furniture design. His work has a sound basis, namely a thorough training as a carpenter, and is rooted in a family tradition of craftsmen. He had already learned how to handle shapes and tools in his father's shoe-making shop. During his studies in Copenhagen he became familiar with masters of the Danish art of furniture-making. Wegner takes ideas from artistic joinery the world over and makes them specifically Danish.

The models for his Y Chair stem from China. The Y that is the backrest resembles the natural forking of a branch. The plaited seat is a reference to the grass along the shallow shores of the Danish landscape, and is in the tradition of northwest European utilitarian chairs.

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Miniatures Collection

For over two decades, the Vitra Design Museum has been making miniature replicas of milestones in furniture design from its collection. The Miniatures Collection encapsulates the entire history of industrial furniture design – moving from Historicism and Art Nouveau to the Bauhaus and New Objectivity, from Radical Design and Postmodernism all the way up to the present day. Exactly one sixth the size of the historical originals, the chairs are all true to scale and precisely recreate the smallest details of construction, material and colour. The high standard of authenticity even extends to the natural grain of the wood, the reproduction of screws and the elaborate handicraft techniques involved. This has made the miniatures into popular collector's items as well as ideal illustrative material for universities, design schools and architects.