FDB MØBLER
F.D.B. Møbler/ANVA
[Sales Catalog]: FDB MØBLER. Copenhagen: F.D.B. Møbler/ANVA, [1965]. Original edition. Text in Danish. 16mo. Photo illustrated stapled wrappers. 72 pp. Fully illustrated in black and white halftone. Furniture catalog with specifications. Folded six panel price list [dated 1965] laid in. Wrappers lightly edgeworn, but a very good or better copy. Rare.
6 x 6 stapled furniture sales catalog with 72 pages illustrated in black and white, with a six panel folded price list laid in. Includes dimensions and manufacturing specifications.
Features furniture designs by Jørgen Bækmark, Børge Mogensen, Hans J. Wegner, Poul M. Volther, Ejvind A. Johansson, Karl-Erik Ekselius, Kaare Klint, Wahl Iversen, Yngve Ekstrøm, Hans Olsen, A. V. Lehtinen, Holger Jensen, Nanna Ditzel, Oiva Paviainen, Kai Kristiansen, Folke Pålsson, and Sune Fromell.
“Already back in the 1920's, architects around the world began to develop a new approach to the design of everything from housing to utility art. With notes like Le Corbusier in the front became functionalism introduced as the ideal of the future, to make up for the backward, opulent, decorated and unnecessary. There should be cut into the leg, and only the strictly functional must be left behind.
“However, people like Le Corbusier, as frontrunners often have, do not easily put their ideas out of a narrow intellectual circle. The broad population was neither ready to wake goodbye to the upholstered furniture or the piece in the attic.
“The same was true in Denmark. Enough young progressive architects scanned the world and longed for the clean lines, but there was neither responsiveness in the market, among the producers nor the dealers. It was perceived as elitist and almost human enemy.
“However, a smaller group believed that functionalism's ideas contained completely different perspectives and possibilities. Options; not just to deal with the style of the past but to create better lives. Not only for the elite with the wide population. Among them was FDB's director Frederik Nielsen.
“He had taken a number of initiatives since 1929, pointing to FDB's future place in Danish design history, but it was only when the FDB's own furniture office was set up and the appointment of furniture architect Børge Mogensen as chief in 1942, became synonymous with FDB Furniture.
“FDB's furniture office and Børge Mogensen was put on a mission. A cultural radical mission. The Danes should learn to adapt to modern ones. The old heavy and impractical furniture should be replaced with functionalistic furniture, all of which should be “quiet of exterior, good objects" and without “decoration for the sake of decoration.”
In keeping with the basic idea of functionalism, the conviction was that a modern functionalistic interior design would mean a significant boost to the quality of life of individual Danes and society as a whole.
“Even Børge Mogensen stated: “The social task of drawing furniture for regular people suited me and I had a good legacy to manage in my learning from Kaare Klint. Without it, I would have been ill. It was immediately clear to me that Klint's specific requirement that the furniture should, above all, be a sensible tool, precisely in this case, would be indispensable if it was possible to realize Frederik Nielsen's idea-to give the regular man his natural environment.”
“Kaare Klint had been Børge Mogensen's teacher at the Architectural School's furniture line. He is often referred to as the Danish design father, and it is also difficult to exaggerate the influence he has had on several of Danish functionalism and modernism's chapters.
“Kaare Klints philosophy dictated, among other things, that in intensive studies of the human dimensions and the function of furniture, the mathematical formula for the archetypes of any furniture could be found. That is, the perfect chair, the perfect table, etc. It would provide furniture that was perfectly matched to the dimensions and needs of the human being, why home furnished with functional furniture had to be the most natural and functional environment for living and living in.
“Getting the functionalistic furniture into the Danish homes was, however, no easy task. The Danes still struggled against it and it was difficult to find factories that could lift the task. Particularly difficult was combining the high quality requirement, the desire to democratize the modern furniture and sell them at prices that were within ordinary Danes and the employers' association more than 40,000 members.
“However, it was possible. When Børge Mogensen in 1944 was ready to present the first part of the furniture program, it was also a clear signal that FDB differs from the rest of the Danish retail trade. Where competitors focused on profit, FDB rested on the collectivist vision of " Of the people, for the people.”
“The prices may not be a measure of what it cost to produce the furniture, but the mission was more important than profits. The Danish culture of furniture should be raised. Cost what it would!
“The fact that FDB had an economic muscle that surpassed most was also stressed by the enormous campaign activity. FDB's member magazine Samvirke missed no opportunity to bring constructive articles about functionalism's bliss and great ads, FDB participated in a number of furniture fairs, and in 1945, the 35-minute FDB film “A bright and happy future” about the young couple Finally, as they spot the beautiful, simple FDB furniture, look forward to a bright and happy future.
Producing a commercial film of that length has at that time been nothing less than a sensation and a quantum leap in marketing. And the FDB held on. In spite of a hesitant market and major production challenges, neither the requirements for a high quality level, design, caught the essence of simplicity and beauty of functionalism and made it accessible to the general public.
“In 1947, FDB bought the furniture factory Tarm Stole- og Møbelfabrik, which opened up for some completely new possibilities. Secondly, FDB now had full control throughout all stages from production to sale, and it was possible to streamline production equipment after American model. At the same time, there was better harmony between design and production, so the furniture could be mass-produced and production costs reduced significantly.
“In parallel with the fact that FDB had the organization in place, Børge Mogensen and his team of designers could gradually present an impressive collection of several of the furniture today known in the world as classics. It was good timing, for the 1940s painted against the end, and then began to blow new and more modern wins. There was a recovery and the population demanded new. It placed FDB in a lucrative place as supplier of the hottest trend of the time, and even at prices that were available to the general public in more than 2,000 utility unions distributed across the country.
“The result was some amazing sales figures up through the 1950s and a spread of FDB's iconic furniture that has not been seen as the side. Frederik Nielsen and Børge Morgensen's mission was successful, and the furniture with the promise of a bright and happy future had become folkeje.
“Børge Mogensen stopped as head of FDB's furniture office in 1950. He was followed by, amongst others, Poul M. Volther and Ejvind A. Johansson, whose furniture is also among the classics that were relaunched in 2013. [FBD Website]