Paul Anker Hansen was born in the 1920s and grew up on a farm on the Danish island of Bornholm. Paul had a passion for animals and trained to become a veterinarian. He was also a very skilled wood turner and would spend many hours creating wooden animals that he would give as gifts to family and friends.
Ever since he was a boy, Paul Anker Hansen loved the Owls that he would see in the forest near his home. For years he worked on a prototype but was never happy with the result. Then in 1960 after a late night thinking about the design, the essence of the form came to him in the morning.
After a day of refining the idea and showing his wife each adjustment, Paul Anker Hansen completed what is today one of the iconic Danish wooden animals of the mid 20th century. Anker Hansen then worked closely with Danish designer Theodor Skjøde Knudsen to refine the design for commercial production.
The Owl was then produced by Theodor Skjode Knudsen's workshop, Skjode Skjern, alongside a number of other designs by Danish architects and designers. Skjode Skjern went out of production in 1977 and today the Owl is produced by Architectmade.
