What Is an Egg Chair? Design, History, and Why They’re So Popular

For the full breakdown, see our best Indoor Egg Chair guide.

Walking into a hotel lobby or a friend’s living room, you know the egg chair before you can name it — that high, curved shell that wraps around the sitter like a hand cupping a match. The Danish architect Arne Jacobsen drew it in 1958 for the SAS Royal Hotel in Copenhagen, a building he designed down to the cutlery, and Fritz Hansen has produced it without interruption ever since. So what is an egg chair, really? It is a mid-century lounge chair with a story, a specific maker, and a stubborn grip on the design world. Here is how it came to be, what separates the real thing from lookalikes, and why the silhouette keeps showing up.

What Makes Arne Jacobsen’s Egg Chair Different

The original egg chair is an oval, upholstered shell resting on a steel insert and a four-pronged aluminium base that tilts and swivels. The shape is the point: it curves up past the shoulders to shut out whatever is going on behind you.

Jacobsen did not sketch it and hand it off. He worked the form in wire, plaster, and clay first, then moved to foam and polyurethane instead of a traditional wood frame — an unusual construction method for the late 1950s that helped the chair keep its organic curves without a visible skeleton.

The chair was never meant to be a statement piece in a showroom. Jacobsen designed it as a refuge from the hotel’s glass-and-steel modernism, a spot where a guest could sit in public and still feel enclosed. That intent explains the whole design: the wings, the tilt, the privacy. It is furniture built around a feeling, and that is a big part of why it outlived the lobby it was made for.

Not Every Egg Chair Is the Same Chair

“Egg chair” is a shape, not a trademark, and that trips people up constantly. Arne Jacobsen’s Egg™ Chair is the best-known and the only one tied to Fritz Hansen — but several unrelated designs share the nickname.

Henrik Thor-Larsen released the Ovalia Egg Chair in 1968, a separate take that went out of production in 1978. The Victoria and Albert Museum documents that garden version in its own right, which tells you how easily the name gets borrowed.

The practical upshot: if you are buying, ask which chair you are actually looking at. A Jacobsen original, a Thor-Larsen Ovalia, and a garden egg chair are three different objects with three different histories and price brackets, and sellers rarely spell out which one they mean.

Why the Egg Chair Still Sells

The popularity comes down to three things working together: a silhouette you can identify from across a room, a mid-century pedigree that never went out of style, and the way it signals comfort and quiet in both homes and hotels.

Design writers routinely call it one of the most recognisable and most copied chairs ever made, and that copying is its own kind of proof. Knockoffs exist because the shape still reads as desirable decades after the hotel it was built for opened. Pair a curved shell with soft upholstery and the result photographs well, sits well, and makes a corner feel finished.

If you are shopping for one today, the thing worth checking is not the silhouette but the build — a swivel base, real foam density, and upholstery that holds its shape. That is what separates a chair you keep for twenty years from a chair you replace in two. Our breakdown of the best indoor egg chair options walks through what holds up in daily use and which models earn their price.

The design history is well documented by Iconeye, which traces how Jacobsen developed the chair for the SAS Royal Hotel, and Dezeen, whose 2024 feature covers its long run with Fritz Hansen.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who designed the original egg chair?

Arne Jacobsen designed the Egg Chair in 1958 for the SAS Royal Hotel in Copenhagen, a project he oversaw completely, including the furniture and interiors. Fritz Hansen has manufactured the chair continuously since its introduction. Some sources give 1959 as the design year, but most design references settle on 1958.

Is the egg chair comfortable for everyday sitting?

Comfort depends on the specific chair and its upholstery. The original Egg Chair was built as a lounge seat with a tilt-and-swivel base and a shell that supports the shoulders, so it suits reading and long sits. Cheap copies often skimp on foam density, which is where comfort drops off.

Why is it called an egg chair?

The nickname comes from the shape. Jacobsen’s chair has an oval, upholstered body that curves up and around the sitter, resembling an eggshell. The form was developed through experiments with wire, plaster, and clay before being produced in foam and polyurethane rather than a traditional wood frame.