The young Hans Wegner, seeing an illustration of an eighteenth-century Chinese chair for export in Ole Wanscher’s Møbeltyper (1932), was impressed by the harmonious relationship between the solid square seat and legs and the delicate and airy arms and back. Following this initial inspiration, Wegner's designs in the late 1930s for a China chair reflected his colleague Arne Jacobsen’s 1934 piece—rectilinear and solid, utilizing steam-bent beech wood, a wood typical to Danish furniture. In the 1940s, the furniture firm Fritz Hansen sought to mitigate wartime beech wood shortages, asking Wegner to design a chair with a rounded top rail that could be made from two pieces instead of one long piece. Wegner’s answer was this updated China chair, incorporating a steam-bent top rail, tapered legs, and a curvilinear appearance that merges Danish simplicity with the elegance and angularity of traditional Chinese chair forms. Wegner continued to draw from this formal dynamic, following the China chairs with a design for his iconic Wishbone chairs in 1949.