Ivan Schlechter

Photo: Berner Mogensen made the Chieftain chair for both Niels Vodder (1950–1971) and Ivan Schlechter (1972–1987).

The cooperation between Finn Juhl and Niels Vodder eventually came to an end in the early 1970s, and the contract for the Chieftain chair was given to Ivan Schlechter who had been the upholsterer of the Niels Vodder Chieftain chair from the mid-1950s onward.

Berner Mogensen was one of Niels Vodder’s finest cabinetmakers, and in 1972 he was hired by P.P. Møbler after Niels Vodder closed his shop. Ivan Schelechter knew that Berner Mogensen made the chair for Vodder, so Schlechter asked P.P. to continue making the chairs for him. Essentially, the chair was made by the same hands while under the license of Ivan Schlechter. This accounts for the striking similarities we see in the construction of the chair under Schlechter’s license. The Schlechter Chieftain appears to have a slightly more elongated backrest, but the overall construction methods remained consistent with Niels Vodder’s version of the chair. It should be noted that Schlechter only made the chair in mahogany.

Finn Juhl discusses the cooperation in detail here in a 1988 correspondence:

My "handsome" chair was designed 1949 and entered the design competition, yearly arranged by the cabinetmakers' Guild, awarded First Prize together with my other designs that year, and all of them shown in the,autumn of 1949 at the yearly furniture exhibition, arranged each year by the cabinetmakers at the Kunstindustrimuseum. When a design got an award, the cabinetmakers were forced to make at least one sample.

When this very big chair was carried into the museum building, somebody asked me, for whom it was meant:. I answered 'for a chieftain', so this particularly impressive creature has always been called the Chieftain Chair.

The first guest to try it was the late King Frederik lX, whose reaction was 'just my size'.

The cabinetmaker Nie1s Vodder, Bille Brahesvej 2, Frederiksberg-Copenhagen, made altogether 78 samples before his death 3 Nov 1982, just the day before my exhibition opened.

Later I agreed to let cabinetmaker Ejnar Petersen, PP-møbler in Allerød make 2 times 12, as he was using the same man in his workshop (Berner Mogensen) having hired him after Vodder's death - also the upholsterer, Mr Ivan Schlechter in Gilleleje, had made his part on all the samples.

Photo: Ejnar Pedersen, owner of P.P. Møbler that made the Chieftain from 1972–1988

The arms of Schlechter’s chairs were made of planished plate steel, and it is said that a few of the chairs were made with fiberglass arms towards the end of the production.