CH78 Mama Bear Chair 🇩🇰 Carl Hansen

Affectionately known as the Mama Bear Chair, the CH78 lounge chair was originally introduced in 1954, and was an extension of Wegner’s CH71 ‘Mini Bear’ Chair (1952) design. Defined by a series of inviting curves that offer up a warm embrace, the CH78 lounge chair’s special aesthetic character comes from the way it balances soft, rounded curves with dynamic geometries and fine details, such as the signature wooden ‘claws’ on the chair’s armrests.

This lightweight, modern lounge chair is both soft and highly supportive, offering ergonomic comfort to the neck, back, and body which encourages rest and relaxation.

“The CH78 lounge chair’s characteristic expression and lightness fits perfectly into a modern context. It is the embodiment of comfort in a limited space.

Dimensions W84 x D80 x H106 cm – Seat height 40 cm
Wood oak or walnut
Upholstery fabric or leather
Warranty 5 ans

Hallingdal 130 (price group 3) + oiled oak

Hallingdal 130 (price group 3) + Sif 91 leather + oiled oak

Hallingdal 100 (price group 3) + oiled walnut

Hallingdal 100 (price group 3) + Sif 92 leather + oiled walnut

Fiord 961 (price group 3) + oiled oak

Fiord 191 (price group 3) + oiled oak

Fiord 782 (price group 3) + oiled oak

Fiord 271 (price group 3) + oiled oak

Fiord 151 (price group 3) + oiled oak

Fiord 991 (price group 3) + oiled oak

▸ wood & finishes

▸ fabrics & leathers

Hans J. Wegner

Hans J. Wegner was born in 1914 in Tønder, Denmark, the son of a shoemaker. At the age of 17, he finished his apprenticeship as a cabinetmaker with H. F. Stahlberg, in whose workshops Wegner’s first design experiments took form. He moved to Copenhagen as a 20 year-old, and attended the School of Arts and Crafts from 1936 – 1938 before he began working as an architect.

As a young architect, Wegner joined Arne Jacobsen and Erik Møller in Århus, working on furniture design for the new Århus city hall in 1940. It was during the same year that Wegner began collaborating with master cabinetmaker, Johannes Hansen, who was a driving force in bringing new furniture design to the Danish public.

The Copenhagen Museum of Art and Industry acquired its first Wegner chair in 1942.

Wegner started his own design office in 1943. It was in 1944 that he designed the first “Chinese chair” in a series of new chairs that were inspired by portraits of Danish merchants sitting in Ming chairs. One of these chairs, the “Wishbone Chair”, designed in 1949 and produced by Carl Hansen & Son in Odense since 1950, became the most successful of all Wegner chairs.

Among Danish furniture designers, Hans J. Wegner is considered one of the most creative and productive. He has received practically every major recognition given to designers, including the Lunning prize, the grand prix of the Milan Triennale, Sweden’s Prince Eugen medal and the Danish Eckersberg medal. Wegner is an honorary Royal designer for industry of the Royal Society of Arts in London. Almost all of the world’s major design museums – from The Museum of Modern Art in New York to Die Neue Sammlung in Munich – include his furniture in their collections.

Hans J. Wegner died in Denmark in January, 2007.

Hans J. Wegner’s contribution to Danish Modern:

- First a cabinetmaker, then a designer: integrates exacting joinery techniques and exquisite form.

- A deep respect for wood and its characteristics – and an abiding curiosity about other natural materials

- Brings an organic, natural softness to formalistic minimalism

- Generally regarded as ”the master of the chair”, with more than 400 chair designs to his name