MODERN DANISH FURNITURE
Danish Furniture Manufacturers’ Association
Keld Helmer-Petersen [Photographer], Hans Bendix [drawings]
Keld Helmer-Petersen [Photographer], Hans Bendix [drawings]: MODERN DANISH FURNITURE. [København]: Danish Furniture Manufacturers’ Association, n.d. Original edition. Text in English. Square quarto. Parallel wire binding. Clear acetate covers. Thick photo illustrated covers. 20 pp. Photographs and drawings. 9-panel brochure inserted as issued. 6 loose photo plates inserted into cardboard portfolio at rear as issued. Elaborate graphic design throughout. Acetate cover chipped at crown and heel. Very mild age toning to page edges. A nearly fine example of this elaborate promotional booklet.
8.25 x 8.25 elaborate promotion from the Danish Furniture Manufacturers’ Association featuring an exceptional example of Danish Womanhood posed with furniture designed by Arne Jacobsen, Børge Mogensen, Nanna Ditzel, Mogens Koch, Kristian Vedel, Hans J. Wegner, and Ole Wanscher. Each of these designers are also portrayed via ink portraiture by Hans Bendix.
This promotion also contains a 9-panel accordion fold brochure and a portfolio set of 6 loose plates featuring the aforementioned model interacting with the furniture and the Bendix portraits to the verso. Christine Keeler has got nothing on this woman. believe me.
Manufacturers represented are Fritz Hansens, Carl Hansens and Sons, Fredericia Stoefabrick, Poul Kold Mobler, Interna, Søren Villadsens, Ap-Stolen, and P. Jeppersens Mobelfabrick. The furniture was selected by a jury of Esbørn Hiort, Bent Salicath, and Kristian Vedel.
Nanna Ditzel (1923 – 2005) was a groundbreaking modernist – her work spanned all areas of design. Trained as a cabinetmaker, she opened a studio with her husband Jørgen in 1946, designing furniture, ceramics, jewelry and textiles. Ditzel’s Hallingdal fabric, designed in 1965, has been in continuous production since, becoming one of Kvadrat’s best selling products. Her Dennie Chair (1956), originally designed for Fritz Hansen, was a fixture in the Ditzel household, but was never produced on a large scale.
Arne Jacobsen (1902 – 1971) trained as a mason before studying at the Royal Danish Academy of Arts, Copenhagen where he won a silver medal for a chair that was then exhibited at the 1925 Exposition Internationale des Art Decoratifs in Paris. Influenced by Le Corbusier, Gunnar Asplund and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Jacobsen embraced a functionalist approach from the outset. He was among the first to introduce modernist ideas to Denmark and create industrial furniture that built upon on its craft-based design heritage. First among Jacobsen's important architectural commissions was the Bellavista housing project, Copenhagen (1930-1934). Best known and most fully integrated works, are the SAS Air Terminal and the Royal Hotel Copenhagen for which Jacobsen designed every detail from sculptural furnishings such as his elegant Swan and Egg chairs (1957-1958) to textiles, lighting, ashtrays and cutlery.
Mogens Koch (1898 – 1992) was a Danish architect and furniture designer and, from 1950 to 1968, a professor at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. He was married to the weaver Ea Koch. He attended the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen, and between 1925 and 1932 worked for Carl Petersen, Ivar Bentsen and Kaare Klint, where he was trained in the Danish functional tradition. As a furniture designer Mogens Koch is known for the Folding Chair (1932), the Wing Chair No. 50 and the Armchair No. 51 in mahogony and leather (1936) and the Book Case (1928).
Børge Mogensen (1914 – 1972) started as a cabinetmaker in 1934, and studied furniture design at the Danish School of Arts and Crafts in Copenhagen from 1936–38, and then trained as an architect (from 1938–42) at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts' School of Architecture graduating in 1942. From 1938-43 he worked at various design studios in Copenhagen, including with Kaare Klint. During his time with Kaare Klint, Mogensen fostered a deep commitment to producing classical, simple and highly functional furniture. He also became interested in researching contemporary lifestyles, in order to develop domestic objects that are customized for specific uses. Continuing Klint's innovative studies in how the size and proportion of objects should influence their design, Mogensen, collaborating with Grethe Meyer, produced a project in 1954 called the Boligens Byggeskabe (Construction Cupboards of the House), which introduced the idea of building shelving and storage units as part of a room, rather than purchasing and placing them in the space. Mogensen did studies to determine the standard measures for common objects, such as cutlery and shirts, and how many of each item the average person owned. With this information he developed a set of figures for the base width and depth of drawers and shelves, and his information tables were published as a manual on building storage systems. Between 1955 and 1967 he worked on the related "Øresund" shelving series that took on the mammoth task of solving every storage need that could arise in the modern home.
Kristian Vedel (1923 – 2003) completed his apprenticeship as cabinetmaker in 1942. From 1944 - 1945 he was visiting student under professor Kaare Klint at the Department of Furniture at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen. In 1946, he graduated from the Furniture Design Department of the School of Arts, Crafts and Design in Copenhagen, where he also lectured 1953-56. He served as chairman of Danish Furniture Designers 1947-49. He was instrumental in establishing the Industrial Designers of Denmark and served as the society's first chairman, from 1966 to 1968. Influenced by Kaare Klint and the German Bauhaus school, his "classic modern" designs are characterized by creative use of materials, especially plastics and wood, and with a strong sense for ergonomic and functional requirements. A typical example is his children's furniture, which could be adapted to a growing child, turned over to be used as a toy. In all respects, the furniture was designed for children according to children's needs, rather than just being a miniature version of adult furniture.
Ole Wanscher (1903 – 1985) studied at the Danish School of Art and Design, and was particularly influenced by Prof. Kaare Klint. After completing his studies, Wanscher worked with Klint from 1924 to 1927, at which time he set up his own office, specializing in furniture design. Throughout the 1930s and 1940s, Wanscher, working with master joiner A. J. Iversen, produced dozens of designs that are now seen as modern classics. In the 1950s, Wanscher left his private firm and began an association with P. Jeppesens Møbelfabrik A/S that would last for the rest of his professional life. Upon the death of Kaare Klint in 1955, Wanscher replaced Klint as professor at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, a post he held until his retirement in 1973. Taking a cue from his father, an art historian, Wanscher published several histories of furniture design during his time at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, including The History of the Art of Furniture and Five Thousand Years of Furniture.
Hans Wegner (1914 – 2007) stands among designers Finn Juhl, Arne Jacobsen, Børge Mogensen, Poul Kjærholm and Verner Panton as a master of 20th-century Danish Modernism. More specifically, he was instrumental in developing a body of work known as organic functionalism. His early training included both carpentry and architecture; he worked for Erik Møller and Arne Jacobsen designing furniture for the Århus Town Hall in the early 1940s before establishing his own furniture studio. Until the 1960s, Wegner typically collaborated with cabinetmaker Johannes Hansen to realize his designs, most notably gracefully tapered and curved solid wood chairs, often composites of wood and woven rattan or leather. He occasionally experimented with laminates, as in the Three-Legged Shell Chair (1963), or steel and ox hide as in the Ox-Chair (1960) for Erik Jørgensen. While he is best known for his chairs, Wegner has also created memorable cabinetry, desks, tables, beds and lighting.