Niels Eilersen ‘Windsor' Chair

A rarely seen Functionalist Danish ‘Windsor' chair, made in the late-1930’s to early-1940’s, by Niels Eilersen.

A skilled coachbuilder and pioneer in steam-bending wood, Eilersen’s move into furniture came as a result of different wartime boundaries and him recognising a burgeoning need for readymade furniture.

Having already evolved from coachbuilder to a firm manufacturing automotive body shells, Eilersen were practised in employing existing skills to a different craft.
And, wisely, the furniture first made by Eilersen incorporated techniques that were well within their wheelhouse. Techniques such as making dowel or spokes, and steam bending.

It is therefore satisfying that reasons for Eilersen’s successful evolution into prominent furniture makers are seen and forever held in this chair.
Sociologically, it is also interesting to view this ‘Windsor Chair’ in relation to two influential exhibitions on British design held at the Museum of Decorative Art in Copenhagen in 1928 and 1932.

As Kevin Davies explores, these exhibitions positioned vernacular British designs, and specifically Windsor chairs, as being of great interest to Danish collectors and institutions, and they [Windsor chairs] represented something of a treasured possession.

Additionally, the 1932 exhibition of British Applied Art, Davies argues, became something of a benchmark for the comparison of Danish furniture.
Steen Eiler Rasmussen, the organiser of the exhibition, illustrates this view stating ‘[…] at a remarkably early-stage British applied art rejected all ornamentation that could be taken as a sign of class, and, insisted on quality. This is modernity that we can learn from.” [1]

Rasmussen decoded that British vernacular furniture was disinterested in class division; a point that is important given the social democratic leanings on Danish politics of the period. And presumably, Rasmussen’s viewpoint was credible to many others, therefore a possible explanation as to why almost every commercially successful Danish designer has tried their hand at a Windsor chair.

As mentioned previously, this iteration of a Windsor shows its lineage to coach building and reflects wartime materials shortages. Namely, the seat on this chair, like a wheel, is formed of a section of bent wood. Topping this frame like a pie crust is a board of laminated wood. All the chairs’ uprights and legs are pushed into the frame of the seat.

The chair is complimented by a brand-new buttoned cushion upholstered in a Fermoie's Poulton Stripe fabric, L-061.

[1] Davies, Kevin. "Markets, Marketing and Design: The Danish Furniture Industry, c. 1947-65." Scandinavian Journal of Design History 9 (1999): 56-73.