Arne Jacobsen

Tajan, 5 November 2015, lot 43

Private collection, United Kingdom

Charlotte and Peter Fiell, Design scandinave, Cologne, 2005, pp. 158-159 for the armchair and the two seater sofa of the same model

Arne Karlsen, Danish Furniture Design in the 20^th Century, Volume 2, Copenhagen, 2007, p. 215, for the two seater sofa of the same model

Peter H.Hansen and Klaus Petersen, Moderne dansk mobeldesign, Tendenser, Hammerslag og historie, Denmark, 2007, p. 77

The Series 3300 lounge chair and sofa have a notably different character to many of the other furniture pieces from Arne Jacobsen’s work from the 1950s. The Series 3300 has a far stronger affinity with the architecture of the period, with its straight lines and oblique angles. He often used pieces from this series in his interior design commissions - just after creating it in 1956, he used it for the modern, professional interiors of the Rødovre Town Hall. From 1959 onwards, the sofa was used in the sleek new air terminal in the SAS Royal Hotel (now called the Radisson Collection Royal Hotel), earning it the moniker 'the Airport Series'.

The Series 3300 includes a lounge chair and a modular two-, three- or four-seater sofa, and was launched by Fritz Hansen, the Copenhagen-based furniture manufacturer. It numbers among Arne Jacobsen’s most architectural designs: the construction of the design is emphasised through the contrast between the steel frame and the soft leather seat, creating an overall lightness alongside stability. It is also a clear example of Arne Jacobsen's increasing use of modular design, allowing furniture to be adapted from core design modules to suit a specific space and interior. In the following decade he would become increasingly interested in the systems approach to architecture and design.