An Enduring Icon - Ib Kofod Larsen

May 02, 2025

Written by Ryan Hobbs

An enduring icon - Ib Kofod Larsen

Born in Denmark on 6 May 1921, Kofod-Larsen excelled as a carpenter’s apprentice, graduating top of his class in 1944 before going on to study architecture at Denmark’s prestigious Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts.

As well as drawing houses, banks and schools, he sketched furniture, glassware, silver and textiles. The prolific designer even turned his hand to designing televisions and radios. His body of work was lauded around the world and exhibited in cities from Copenhagen and Milan to New York and Chicago. After his death at 82 in 2003, his children discovered a vast archive of design sketches and prototypes previously hidden.

An intensely private man, Kofod-Larsen shunned publicity, living out his motto, “he who lives hidden, lives well,” and thus he stood in the shadows of many of his peers. Yet his legacy lives on through some of the spectacular designs he created over the course of his notable career. One such piece is The Penguin Chair (Click Here)

Penguin Chair by Ib Kofod-Larsen

Imagined by Ib Kofod-Larsen in 1953, the signature design was first launched in the US where it received rave reviews. The chairs' slightly oversize proportions – a generous seat and back and contrasting slender metal frame earned its name from its silhouette: rounded back, slightly forward arms, perched like a penguin at rest. The chair was a dance between whimsy and precision.

At first glance, his designs may seem simple, but at closer inspection they are full of detail. Inventive and bordering on engineering. He drew, sculpted, made prototypes, was involved in production and participated in the entire process down to every test and launch. He was a creative designer, maybe one of the greatest designers in the golden age of Danish design. He took an innovative approach. Not just to furniture, but to ways of thinking about furniture.

Kofod-Larsen’s infused his rudimentary ethos of comfort-meets-function into The Recliner;

With an internal reclining mechanism hidden within its elegant frame, the chair invites you to lean back and relax. This chair has 3 reclining positions. And then there's the form: sculpted arms that flare gently outward, a high, winged back that cradles the head and shoulders.

Among Ib Kofod Larsens' many masterpieces, one chair rose above the rest in both elegance and legend: the Elizabeth Chair.

Designed in 1956 for the British firm Christensen & Larsen, the chair is a study in contrasts— angular yet inviting, bold yet impossibly graceful. Upholstered in buttery leather and cradled in rich, sculpted wood.

But what truly immortalized the piece was a moment that feels almost too cinematic to be true: Queen Elizabeth II, on a state visit to Denmark, reportedly sat in the chair—and was said to be so taken by its form and comfort that she purchased a pair immediately. The design, previously known as model U56, was forever nicknamed The Elizabeth Chair. It wasn’t just a seat; it was a coronation of design. Quietly, effortlessly, it became royal.

While his Danish contemporaries built their legacies in Copenhagen showrooms, Kofod-Larsen looked outward. He found unlikely reverence in America, Sweden, and the United Kingdom—places that recognized his genius before his own country did. His designs were exported by giants like Faarup Møbelfabrik and Christensen & Larsen, not as commodities, but as cultural artifacts.

Only now, decades later, are we catching up to his quiet revolution. Today, Ib Kofod-Larsen is not just remembered—he is revered. His work reminds us that design doesn’t have to be loud to be heard. It only has to be true.

At Hobbs Modern, we honor that truth—restoring each piece with reverence, especially the Elizabeth, which we treat not as a product, but as a legacy. A seat for a queen—and for anyone who understands that great design never really goes out of style.

We are currently restoring a pair of Elizabeth Chairs and are excited to show you the transformation.

We invite you to come sit, feel, and experience the grace of true Danish Modern design. - Stay tuned.

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An enduring icon - Ib Kofod Larsen

Penguin Chair by Ib Kofod-Larsen