Hasta La Ideas

This Tove Lounge Chair was designed by Arnold Madsen and Henry Schübell*, a 20th-century Danish design duo.

Produced in the 1950s and ’60s, it’s finely designed and made, with a well-balanced blend of curves and straight lines. The frame is Oak and the sculpted armrests are made of Teak, and the transitions between the two have been beautifully done. The armrests flow gracefully into the front legs, and are joined to the rear legs via wedged tenon.

Looking at the underside, you can see this piece has been repaired at some point. The telltale is the screws that attach to the seat. The pair of larger slotted screws are undoubtedly the originals; the smaller Pozi-head screws are practically swimming in the original countersinks.

Below is a rare variant of the Tove chair with a mechanical feature. From the left side and the rear, it looks like an ordinary Tove…

…but from the right you’ll spot this lever with a knob.

This variant incorporated a sprung reclining mechanism. It provided eight different angles of recline.

It’s hard to spot in the photos above, but in the shots below, you can see that this reclining version of the chair does not have the wedged-tenon joinery where the armrest meets the rear legs.

There was a companion footstool that could also be tilted.

Looking at the underside of this specific chair, it also appears to have been repaired; while it’s possible that the clunkily-integrated piano hinge was used, the support pieces look to be stained, and I have a hard time believing a manufacturer would go to the trouble of staining unseen pieces, in a different color no less. My guess is the repairer had these pieces on hand.

*Note: The Tove was designed by Arnold Madsen and Henry Schübell. On numerous vintage sites I’ve seen it attributed to Ib Madsen and Acton Schübell, which is incorrect.

Ib Madsen was Arnold’s son, and the two did eventually go into business together–years after the Tove design was introduced. Henry Schübell had sons named Flemming and Preben, and Flemming eventually worked for his father, but there’s no Acton that I can find a record of. So I’m not sure where the “Acton” attribution comes from…unless it’s Danish for “Hank?” (Flemming, who was still alive as of 2021, is known as Flemming.)