Wanting to pay homage to the breathtaking beauty of solid wood manually carved into organic shapes, Hans Wegner decided to make a compact chair. Hence the number of pieces of solid wood used to form the armrests and back was reduced to only two pieces, joined in the middle. The joint obviously needs to be aligned with the grains of the wood with some kind of tenon and could be dowelled, but in this case Wegner decided that instead of hiding the unavoidable joint he would rather enhance it and make it a decorative feature of the design. To obtain the full visible effect, Wegner used wood of a contrasting colour. This original idea would later become a characteristic trademark in many of his works and it is an important example of his honest and craftsman-like approach to design.
His pp505 (which debuted in 1952) is available from Danish company PP Molberwith either cane or upholstered seat. As opposed to most other chairs by Wegner that come with a upholstered seat, this chair is upholstered directly on the seat rails. Before the era of Wegner this was the normal way of upholstering chairs and in the case of the Cow Horn Chair and the Bull Chair (pp518), Wegner sticks to the old tradition. The armrests on pp505 are always cut from the same piece of wood, so the grain will match. The joint detail in the back is made of rosewood.
For more info, visit http://www.pp.dk/