Kaare Klint (b. Frederiksberg 1888, d. Copenhagen 1954)
“Card Table For a Lady”. Cuban mahogany furniture set consisting of a square table with triangular fold-out leaves and a set of four chairs with diagonal frame. Back with vertical bars, seat with woven cane. Four loose seat cushions upholstered with natural coloured leather. Model 7214 and 7215. Designed 1946. These examples made 1940s by Rud. Rasmussen Cabinetmakers, with maker's paper label. H. 67 cm. W./L. 61/87 cm. (5)
Label indistinctly numbered.
Model presented at the Copenhagen Cabinetmakers' Guild Exhibition at Designmuseum Danmark, 1946.
“... Professor Kaare Klint's Interior with Card Table for A Lady, perfect in terms of craftmanship, notice the table top which consists of three layers of solid wood that have been glued together with the grains running at right angles to each other....” Literature: Grete Jalk [ed.]: “40 years of Danish Furniture Design”, vol. 2, ill. and mentioned pp. 312–313. Literature: Gorm Harkær, Klintiana: “Kaare Klint”, ill. and mentioned in vol. 1, pp. 376–379 and vol. 2, pp. 56 and 82.
It has been suggested that the Lady who inspired this set was Kaare Klint’s second wife Gerda Heerup, whom he met in 1945–46 and married in 1947. Puzzling how a love affair could inspire him to design a set of furniture which most of all can be seen as the most complete study of geometry found in any piece of Danish furniture. This amazing and highly complex set of furniture pieces can be completely divided into simple geometric structures – lines, squares and circles. Here we find no organic shapes in the style of Finn Juhl. This is serious business. Kaare Klint here offers perhaps his best example of how far careful, logical deliberation can take you.
Condition report on request.
Design & saxophone, 27 September 2018