A new discovery!

Take a look at the 'Oculus' (or CH468) armchair by design legend Hans J. Wegner - not a re-release, but an actual launch because amazingly, it never made it onto the market.

Designed by Wegner in 1960, the history of the chair kind of stops there since only two prototypes were ever made. One in orange fabric, the other in leather, and then both were, for mysterious reasons, forgotten.

The story starts again in 2009, when the piece was rediscovered by Knud Erik Hansen - the owner of the furniture maker Carl Hansen & Son - after receiving an e-mail from the Wegner studio with a picture of the chair from a 1968 magazine.

“The studio asked if we liked the chair,” said Thomas Vagner, the president of the company’s American branch.

“Of course, we loved the chair.”

The leather prototype had been lost (and likely to now become the Modernist Holy Grail of finds), but Wegner’s family still had the orange chair...

“Normally, when we develop or relaunch an old product, we buy it at auction and cut it in two to see what it’s like on the inside,” Mr. Vagner said.

But since it was the only one, they had it scanned in 3-D, so they could see the interior.

Now available from Carl Hansen & Son in fabric or leather, it does cost a pretty penny, but is definitely a thing of beauty for collectors and design nerds to own and cherish forever.