GEORG JENSEN INC [folder title]
Hans Wegner, Folke Ohlsson Poul Volther, and Helge Sibast
[Hans Wegner]: GEORG JENSEN INC [folder title]. New York: Georg Jensen, 1954. Original edition. Decorative folder housing five single-page inserts. Housed in original mailing envelope with a 1954 postal cancellation. This Georg Jensen material shows the importance of Frederik Lunning (1881-1952), the indefatigable agent who began displaying in the lobbies of the finest hotels in the city, and who established the Georg Jensen store on 5th Avenue. Folder lightly handled, inserts fine, envelope mailed, so a very good or better set.
8.5 x 12 printed folder with [5] single-page inserts promoting furniture designs by Hans Wegner, Folke Ohlsson Poul Volther, and Helge Sibast imported by Georg Jensen. The 1954 postal cancellation on the mailing envelope dates this marketing set to the same year as the landmark Design in Scandinavia exhibition organized by the four Scandinavian countries, Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland; this monumental exhibition proved to be the most important marketing effort ever for Scandinavian design. From 1954 to 1963 Design in Scandinavia toured the United States and Canada. The exhibition was presented in 27 cities, and it was a huge success, initiated by The Danish Society of Arts and Crafts and its sister organizations in the other participating countries.
Based on the success the four countries established what they called the Scandinavian Design Cavalcade, which had a lot of US press coverage as well. In that connection the July 1963 issue of House Beautiful was centered around The Scandinavian Look in U.S. Homes, and it was Denmark and Danish Design in particular that the magazine focussed on. Besides the editorial pages, the numerous ads illustrates that Danish modern furniture was increasingly gaining a stronghold among certain groups of American consumers.
Importers and retail chains like John Stuart Inc., George Tanier, Raynor and Dunbar etc. now sold Danish modern furniture in the US, and by now it was not only hand crafted furniture from the Copenhagen Cabinetmakers’ Guild Exhibitions but also pieces from industrial furniture producers like Fritz Hansen, Søborg Møbelfabrik, Fredericia Furniture and many others. From the end of the 1950s Danish Department stores and other retailers produced comprehensive brochures and booklets in English with prices in US Dollars presenting Danish Design to American and other tourists.
Without exception, these stores all presented the narrative of Danish modern. “Denmark is known all over the world for its exquisite home furnishing, which are characterized by their outstanding design and superb craftsmanship” the department store Magasin claimed in its brochure “Danish Design.”