The Egg Chair: Arne Jacobsen’s Sculptural Icon

Few objects capture the union of architecture and furniture as clearly as Arne Jacobsen’s Egg Chair. Designed in 1958 for the SAS Royal Hotel in Copenhagen, the Egg is both a technical experiment and a sculptural statement. More than six decades later, it has become one of the most recognizable chairs in design history – a piece that continues to embody the ideals of Scandinavian modernism.

A Total Work of Design

The SAS Royal Hotel was Jacobsen’s most ambitious commission, conceived as a “total design” where nothing was left to chance. From the architecture and interiors down to the furniture, textiles, and even door handles, every detail was part of a single vision. Against the strict rectilinear façade of the hotel, Jacobsen placed interiors full of texture, color, and form. Here, the Egg and its companion, the Swan, became focal points – sculptural pieces of furniture that softened the geometry of the modern skyscraper.

Placed in the lobby and lounge areas, the Egg created pockets of privacy within vast public spaces. Its enveloping form allowed guests to retreat, while still remaining part of the social rhythm of the hotel. This dual quality, both open and protective, made the chair a new type of modern furniture, at once monumental and intimate.

From Clay Model to Icon

The development of the Egg was as experimental as the form itself. Working closely with Fritz Hansen, Jacobsen abandoned traditional wooden frames in favor of a new hard foam shell molded around a steel core. This technique, licensed by Fritz Hansen in the mid-1950s, allowed unprecedented freedom in shaping organic forms.

In his studio, Jacobsen worked much like a sculptor. Plaster and clay models were built, adjusted, and refined in countless iterations before the final form emerged. As one of his collaborators later recalled, they would spend entire weekends adding and shaving material from the prototype – an artisanal process that gave the Egg its unique, harmonious silhouette.

The resulting chair was upholstered seamlessly over the foam, producing a continuous shell. This was not furniture assembled from separate parts, but a single gesture in form. Its swiveling star-shaped base anchored the sculptural shell lightly to the floor, heightening the sense of weightless enclosure.

SAS Royal Hotel and Room 606

When the SAS Royal Hotel opened in 1960, it was Copenhagen’s first skyscraper and a symbol of Denmark’s entry into the jet age. Inside, Jacobsen’s interiors combined modern efficiency with warmth and human scale. The Egg played a central role in this balance, its organic curves countering the strict grids of glass and steel.

Although the hotel has since been renovated, one suite – Room 606, remains preserved exactly as Jacobsen designed it. In this room, the Egg Chair still stands as it did in 1960, a reminder of how modern design was imagined not as a collection of objects, but as a complete environment.

Collecting the Egg

The earliest editions of the Egg, produced by Fritz Hansen in 1959, can be identified by two key details: the white rubber stamp marking beneath the base and the integrated seat cushion, which was built directly into the shell. In later production runs, the cushion was made as a separate, removable element. These distinctions are crucial for collectors, as they confirm not only the chair’s authenticity but also its direct connection to the original SAS Royal Hotel commission.

While Jacobsen designed many important chairs – including the Drop, which was also created for the SAS Royal Hotel – the Egg is often regarded as his defining work, the piece that best demonstrates his ability to merge architecture, design, and craft into a singular vision.

Conclusion

The Egg Chair is more than an icon; it is a document of an era when Scandinavian design was stepping onto the international stage. Conceived for a groundbreaking modern hotel, shaped by new materials and methods, and refined through a sculptor’s hand, the chair represents the height of mid-century design ambition.

To encounter the Egg today is to encounter both history and timeless form. It remains as relevant in contemporary interiors as it was in 1960 – a testament to Arne Jacobsen’s belief that design could be at once modern, human, and enduring. The rare first-edition pair now in Studio Schalling’s collection, model 3316 from 1959, retains its original black leather with a rich patina, along with the white rubber stamp markings and integrated seat cushions that distinguish the earliest production. These details directly connect the chairs to Jacobsen’s SAS Royal Hotel commission and mark them as milestones in modern design history.