CH24, Maruni Hiroshima, Cassina Cab, ENWA Yume: four serious dining chairs, compared properly.

If you are choosing a dining chair at the serious end of the market, four names keep meeting in the same shortlist: Hans J. Wegner's CH24 Wishbone Chair for Carl Hansen & Søn (1949), Mario Bellini's Cab 412 for Cassina (1977), Naoto Fukasawa's HIROSHIMA armchair for Maruni (2008), and the ENWA Yume chair by Mililab (2026). A Danish icon in continuous production for seventy-five years. An Italian landmark in the MoMA collection. Modern Japanese manufacturing at its most precise. And a Tokyo architecture studio's contemporary answer, sold direct. This is a working comparison for people who specify or buy furniture — construction, comfort, real prices, lead times, and what actually arrives at your door.

The four chairs

CH24 Wishbone — the reference point

There is no serious conversation about wooden dining chairs without the Wishbone. Wegner's design has been in continuous production since 1950; Carl Hansen & Søn builds it from fourteen solid-wood components with a steam-bent top rail and a seat hand-woven from roughly 120 metres of paper cord. On the brand's official Japanese store it sits around ¥170,000 in FSC-certified oak with oil finish (July 2026), with a stated lead time of about four months — prices vary by region and finish across the dealer network. Five-year warranty, and — to their credit — full 2D and 3D CAD files publicly downloadable. If you want the archetype, this is the archetype.

Cassina Cab 412 — the Italian landmark

Bellini's Cab was the first chair in the world built as a free-standing leather structure: twenty-one pieces of saddle hide, twenty-two hand processes, zipped over a tubular-steel skeleton "as in a bespoke tailored garment," in Cassina's own words. It is Italian design royalty — Bellini has eight Compasso d'Oro awards and twenty-five works in MoMA's permanent collection. Cassina publishes no price online; the Cab is quoted through their dealer network by leather grade and colour, with market pricing for the standard chair generally in the same territory as the other two icons here, often above. Full CAD (DWG, Revit, SketchUp) is public.

Maruni Hiroshima — Japanese precision

Fukasawa's Hiroshima is arguably the finest expression of Japanese industrial woodcraft in a chair: machined and hand-finished solid wood, a broad sculpted arm in one continuous gesture. On Maruni's official online shop the wooden-seat armchair runs roughly ¥110,000–164,000 depending on wood species and finish — beech at the entry, solid oak toward the top, walnut above (July 2026). Lead time about five weeks, three-year warranty. One practical note for international buyers: Maruni's own shop delivers within Japan only — overseas, you buy through regional distributors, where pricing differs.

ENWA Yume — the direct contemporary

The Yume chair is Mililab's contemporary position: a solid North American oak frame — never veneer — carrying a fully upholstered seat and backrest, designed by our architecture studio in Tokyo. $2,400–$2,800 depending on upholstery (Kvadrat wool included at $2,400; Dedar bouclé and leather above; customer's own material accepted). W640 × D530 × H750 mm. Made to order in 8–12 weeks order-to-delivery, shipped DDP to 34 countries — the price shown is the price paid, duties and import tax included. CAD, BIM and 3D files are public.

The comfort question

Here is the difference the spec table understates. The CH24 seats you on hand-woven paper cord; the Hiroshima's wooden-seat version seats you on sculpted timber; the Cab seats you on saddle hide stretched over a steel skeleton, with a thin layer of moulded foam. All three are masterful surfaces — and all three are firm, with a hard backrest. Carl Hansen sells a separate seat cushion for the CH24, Maruni offers an upholstered-seat Hiroshima, and the Cab's leather softens with years of use — but in every standard version of all three icons, when you lean back, you lean against wood, or hide over steel.

The Yume is built around the opposite premise: that a dining chair should still be comfortable in the third hour. Seat and backrest are fully upholstered over the solid-oak frame — cushioned support you settle into, not perch on. The fabric is not an accessory but part of the architecture of the chair: Kvadrat wool as standard, Dedar bouclé and full-grain leather above it, or your own material (COM) if the scheme calls for it. For long dinners, working lunches, and hospitality settings where guests sit for hours, this is the practical line between the four chairs.

None of this is a criticism of cord, timber, or saddle hide — they are the point of those designs, and they age beautifully. It is a question of what the chair is for. Sculpture you sit on, or seating you stay in.

Side by side

How to choose between them

Choose the CH24 if the point is the object itself — the icon, the cord seat, the Wegner lineage. Nothing else is that chair, and the four-month wait is part of owning it.

Choose the Cab if leather is the material story of the room — Bellini's tailored hide over steel is one of the great objects of Italian design, and it patinas like a briefcase you love.

Choose the Hiroshima if you want sculpted Japanese woodwork with a wooden seat and you are buying inside Japan or near a Maruni distributor. Its arm is one of the great details in modern furniture.

Choose the Yume if you want solid oak and upholstered comfort — a chair guests stay in through the third hour, in a fabric or leather you choose (or supply), with one all-in delivered price and the CAD files already on the product page.

The honest difference is not quality. All four are built seriously. The difference is what you optimise for: heritage, tailored leather, woodcraft — or upholstered comfort bought direct, with the total cost visible before you commit.

A note on the rest of the market

A solid-wood-look dining chair at a mass retailer costs roughly $65–$120 — IKEA's NÄSINGE, for instance, lists at $65. If the budget is the budget, that is a legitimate answer, and nothing above will beat its price cell. What changes as you move up this table is everything the price cell doesn't show: solid timber you can sand and refinish for decades rather than a stained hardwood frame and foam pad; joinery designed to be repaired; a maker who will still recognise the piece in twenty years. Buy once at whatever tier you buy — but read the spec line, not just the number.

Specifying the Yume

For architects and interior designers: dimensioned drawings, BIM/CAD files and fabric direction are on the Yume product page; trade terms and the full collection document are at mililab.co/trade. Made-to-order production means COM is straightforward — send your fabric, we confirm meterage and timing in writing before production. Questions about a specific project: talk to the studio.

Prices and specifications for Carl Hansen & Søn, Cassina, and Maruni are from their official pages, accessed 24 July 2026, and belong to their respective brands. All three are makers we hold in genuine regard; this comparison exists because buyers ask us the question, and the honest answer includes them.