873/​1006

Finn Juhl (b. Frederiksberg 1912, d. Ordrup 1989)

“The Dream table”. Unique sculptural coffee table with teak frame. Turquoise blue lacquered palette-shaped top with raised edges. Middle of top with built-in storage compartment with teak tabour lid, inside with yellow lacquer. One side of top with circular zinc inlay, other side with zinc cannister with circular lid of thick, clear glass. Made on special order 1945 by cabinetmaker Niels Vodder, not stamped. H. 44 cm. L. 124 cm. W. 72 cm.

Provenance: Private Danish collection. Acquired directly from Niels Vodder 1945. Hence by descent in the family.

Presented at The Copenhagen Cabinetmakers' Guild Exhibition at Designmuseum Danmark, 1945. Literature: Grete Jalk [ed.]: “40 Years of Danish Furniture Design”, vol. 2, p. 276. Literature: Ebbe Kornerup “Snedkerlaugets Udstilling ” i “Nyt Tidskrift for Kunstindustri”, 1945.

The table stand as one of the most visually remarkable sculptural pieces designed by Finn Juhl. You can say that here Finn Juhl fully lives out the inspiration from Jean Arp. He creates a piece of furniture which, in terms of color and form, if transformed into two dimensions would have been a strong contemporary painting in its time and in this way the table transcends traditional notions of a table. The table in this way becomes a contrast to the clarity of function and construction, firmly established in a fine and proven tradition that we see in the furniture from Kaare Klint and his followers. The table is archetypal Finn Juhl, yet most un-Danish and so it also becomes a testimony the wide span among designers and architects already from the earliest years in the Golden Age of Danish Design. In a review of the Cabinetmakers’ Guild exhibition in 1945, the architect Ebbe Kornerup attaches the following comments to this specific table: “.. It is permitted to romp in colors, glass and steel, when you by this create a work of art, liberated from all ideas of time and tradition,- we must always afford ourselves to dream”.

This lot is subject to Artist's Royalty.
Condition

Condition report on request.

Auction

Design: Nordic Masters, 27 September 2017

Category
Estimate

200,000–400,000 DKK

Sold

Price realised

580,000 DKK