Carl Hansen & Søn Wishbone Chair

We think the CH24 is the dining chair that ends the search. Wegner distilled comfort, structure, and silhouette into a single gesture: the steam‑bent top rail that becomes the arm, braced by a Y that sets you upright without bossing you around. The hand‑woven paper‑cord seat has give without bulk; it breathes in summer and warms in winter. It’s light to pick up, generous to sit in, and strong enough to live with every day. Under a table, the chair recedes; in a room, it gives the space a clear spine. Most chairs choose either craft or daily use. This one ties them together. Copies exist by the truckload, but the original is still the one to live with: proportions that land, joinery you can read, and comfort that lasts past dessert. We reach for the CH24 when the brief is simple—fewer, better things, no drama, no soft compromises. Designed in 1949 and launched in 1950, the CH24 comes from Wegner’s study of Ming‑era Chinese chairs. He didn’t mimic; he edited. Mass shaved where it wasn’t earning its keep, steam‑bent wood tracing that horseshoe form, the Y‑splat doing the minimum to do the job. Carl Hansen & Søn had the patience and tooling to make it repeatable without sanding off the soul. Building one still takes more than a hundred steps, including hand weaving about 120 meters of paper cord per seat. The method is the shape: visible mortise‑and‑tenon joints, a carved and bent top rail, legs subtly tapered with a stance that feels poised, not precious. Wood and finish options have widened—beech, oak, ash, cherry, walnut; soap, oil, water‑based lacquer—but the fundamentals haven’t shifted. Production stays in Denmark, on Funen. Decades of repetition didn’t dull the craft; it tuned it. The Wishbone is shorthand for good taste without fuss. Architects specify it when they want a room to read as intelligent rather than loud. Restaurateurs fill dining rooms with it because it’s comfortable for hours, moves easily for service, and photographs beautifully. We see it everywhere materials and light do the talking: Scandinavian townhouses, Californian bungalows, Tokyo coffee bars. Special editions and color runs come and go, but the core appeal doesn’t move. The chair plays with everything—from farmhouse planks to marble slabs—and never asks for attention. The clearest cultural tell is the number of imitations. When a silhouette goes universal and the original still looks and feels better, you’re looking at an archetype. For us, the CH24 isn’t just a classic. It’s the default setting for what a dining chair should do: sit well, last well, and keep its dignity while it works.