Greetings From the Sea!

Figureheads, marine binoculars, ship portraits and telltale compasses – Ib Møller’s collection of maritime objects covers more than 300 years of maritime history. The auction offers some 116 lots with all sorts of items evocative of life at sea. The highlights include a beautiful model ship of the four-masted Danish bark Ellinor, built at Elsinore shipyard as a church ship for Christianskirke church at Christianshavn. Other impressive items in the collection include finely worked navigation instruments, not to mention the furniture from the Admiral Hotel in Copenhagen, including a 19th-century figurehead, the bow of a dinghy and 45 bulkheads of Pomeranian pinewood from the construction of the warehouse in 1782.  

The Sea in Focus

Trip Trap’s maritime collection was created by the company’s founder, Ib Møller. He acquired the items in the collection primarily from the early 1970s to the late 1990s – from antique furniture dealers and auction houses, including sales from the East Asiatic Company and B&W. But Ib Møller’s interest in seafaring goes much further back. He comes from an old Skaw family – the sixth generation, in fact. His great-great-grandfather established Skagen’s first wind-powered sawmill in the 1820s to cut up driftwood, flotsam and jetsam from the many vessels shipwrecked in the treacherous waters around Skagen.

Love of Wood, Craftsmanship and the Sea

Ib Møller served his apprenticeship at the Skagen wood and timber merchant Kul- og Trælasthandel in 1958, served a short spell in the armed forces from 1958–1960 and obtained a diploma in business administration from the Aarhus School of Business in 1965. Innovation was his watchword, and he had strong entrepreneurial skills. In 1976, he founded Trip Trap in Hadsund. Back then, the starting point for the company was steps made of surplus wood, but later it moved into furniture production, with the Drachmann bench as one of its flagship products. Trip Trap was based on an appreciation for wood, proud traditions of craftsmanship and respect for the sea – values that have always characterised Ib Møller’s family. 

All the maritime items from the collection have been continuously exhibited in Trip Trap shops around Denmark. 

Preview and Auction

Preview: From Friday 6 April at Sundkrogsgade 30 in Copenhagen’s Nordhavn. View opening hours

NB: Please note that a handful of the largest items from the collection, such as the interior from the Admiral Hotel and two model ships, will only be exhibited at Mariagervej 3 in Hadsund, Denmark, 16 April from 11 am to 2 pm. 

Auction: Thursday 19 April from 6 pm here at bruun-rasmussen.dk
 

View the entire selection from the maritime collection