THE CAFÉ SERIES - a chair at the right time
Audacious by looks, not too comfortable, and heavy likea tombstone, can be left outdoors - it was a classic from the very day it was launched on the market. Galvanized steel tubes with big, unconcealed welds, with a rubber cylinder for back support, a rubber cover on the splitseat - add to this that all four legs are turned at 45 degrees compared to normal legs. A spontaneous chair for a spontaneous time.
Only few would have expected this design from the respectable furniture factory Fritz Hansens Eft. A/S in Allerød, who has both Wegner and Jacobsen in the cata- logue - the cream of Danish furniture design - and now such whims of fashion? But it was with perfect timing when sometime in 1983 the factory eventually got star- ted on the Café Series by Pelikan Design - it had then been kept well under lid for about a year - with precision the series landed amidst exploding café life at the beginning of the 1980s.
It is not an exaggeration to say that the series came out at the right time and in the right place, but then again this timing had to do with two designersability to read the trends of their time and convert them into attractive sales objects.
The form of the café series is characteristic of the period, but is also a clear and logical combination of design and function - for instance the split seat which was not designed for aesthetic reasons only, but partly serves as rainwater drainage and partly permits stacking of the chairs in handy units.
by / Mike Rømer