Kaare Klint Safari Chair: Identification Guide

Kaare Klint’s Safari Chair is a landmark of Danish furniture design. Designed in 1933, it refined the portable campaign-chair principle into a light, demountable lounge chair. Its influence and long production history mean that a familiar outline alone cannot establish maker or date.

Design and date

The National Gallery of Victoria records a Safari armchair designed by Kaare Klint in 1933 and manufactured by Rud. Rasmussen in Copenhagen. Its materials include beech, leather and canvas. The museum explains that Klint adapted the collapsible safari chairs used by nineteenth-century explorers, valuing lightness, storage, comfort and economical transport.

The Centre Pompidou likewise dates its Klint Safari Chair to 1933 and records solid ash and black leather. Differences in documented timber and upholstery show why one specification should not be treated as universal.

Construction to examine

The chair’s frame is designed to come apart rather than rely on a rigid upholstered carcass. Inspect:

turned or shaped uprights and rails;
the way rails locate in the legs;
leather or canvas seat and back;
leather arm straps;
buckles and other metal fittings;
maker’s labels, stamps and numbers;
wear where removable components meet.

Replacement canvas, straps and leather are common because these parts carry load and age differently from the wood.

Dating and makers

Early Rud. Rasmussen production, later authorised versions and unlicensed copies must be distinguished. Markings can help but changed over time. Record every stamp and label before cleaning, then compare it with examples from the claimed period.

A component chair may contain an old frame with later upholstery or mixed replacement parts. Date each element and describe restoration clearly.

Copies and related chairs

The Safari Chair drew on earlier campaign furniture, and many knock-down chairs share its practical logic. Not every colonial or safari-style chair is a Klint design. Compare proportions, joints, rail profiles and strap arrangement rather than relying on a generic name.

Condition and safe use

Check wooden sockets and rail ends for splits, compression and poor repairs. Leather may stretch, crack or tear around buckles and fasteners. Canvas can weaken through ultraviolet exposure even when it looks intact.

Do not sit in a chair until load-bearing parts have been checked. Avoid saturating leather with oil, which can darken it and weaken fibres. Keep the chair away from radiators and prolonged strong sunlight. Replacement load-bearing material should respect the original construction while making any intervention traceable.

Sources

[National Gallery of Victoria: Kaare Klint Safari armchair, designed 1933](https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/explore/collection/work/20686/)
[Centre Pompidou: Kaare Klint Safari Chair, 1933](https://www.centrepompidou.fr/fr/ressources/oeuvre/CDhS170)
[Philadelphia Museum of Art: Safari Chair, designed 1933](https://www.philamuseum.org/collection/object/332769)

Museum records establish the design; production dating requires examination of the individual chair.

Kaare Klint Safari Chair: Identification and Dating Guide