Cone Chair
Design Date 1958
Designer Verner Panton (1926-1998, Danish)
Manufacturer Fritz Hansen (1872-present), Allerod, Denmark
Media metal and cloth upholstery
Dimensions 33 x 22 3/4 x 23 inches
Panton designed the Cone Chair in his search for a unified form, which led him to create a chair that was mostly one piece. “The result rarely has four legs”, he said of his decision to eliminate the visual profile of traditional chair legs and replace it with a low-to-the-ground swivel base. The Cone Chair is made of fabric-covered sheet metal bent into a cone. The circular seat simply drops into the cone. The narrow cone base is strong enough to support the sitter with a fiberglass-reinforced plastic shell. When Panton’s Cone Chair was displayed in the window of a New York store, it allegedly caused so many distracted drivers and crowds on the street that the city police ordered it removed from the window so as not to cause any accidents.
ON VIEW in Modern Gallery 7
Markings unmarked
Accession Number 2008.0652
