Taking inspiration from classic safari chairs and Roorkhee campaign chairs, Kaare Klint has enhanced, simplified, and clarified the design to create a remarkable reinterpretation. The result is a lightweight and sophisticated folding chair, showcasing the attention to detail and artisanship lavished on it by the talented makers at Carl Hansen & Son.
The original British Army campaign chairs are one of the oldest examples of self-assembled furniture, a tradition Klint has honoured in this updated design, using buckled saddle leather straps to secure the frame together. Rather than relying on joinery or glue to bear the user's weight, the chair uses tension to hold the wooden parts together, providing a structure that conforms to the sitter's body.
Chairs of this kind have been in production since 1898, and have been used across the world by generations of adventurers, explorers, and other travellers. Klint's inspiration for the chair was found in a photograph of two American photographers on safari, which he used as the basis for his elegant indoor version.
Kaare Klint was a precursor to and teacher of the designers who made Danish modern style explode onto the international mid-century scene. In 1924 he helped to establish the influential Department of Furniture at the Royal Academy of Art in Copenhagen, where he was a lecturer and Professor of Architecture. Unlike the modernists, however, Klint worked with an unerring faith in the historical evolution of furniture forms and a commitment to the neo-classical designs.
He established the firm Le Klint and from then on was able to manufacture his forays into mass production, making them available to the public, for example his 1940 folded paper lampshade designed with his son. Klint's goal was for the purest quality and his creations are simple, elegant and beautiful pieces.
