Danish Design Treasures

As we unveil the autumn auction, you will find a large selection of Danish design furniture from the period 1920-70.

Exceptional Art Deco Chairs

We begin with two extraordinary chairs attributed to the architect Henning Hansen. They are from approximately 1928 and are most likely made by the cabinetmaker Louis G. Thiersen. Hansen is best known for his buildings, such as the Town Hall of Frederiksberg, while his work as a furniture architect is far less known to the public. Originally, Hansen was trained as a cabinetmaker in Odense, but he continued his education and became an architect in the early 1900s at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen. After his graduation, he travelled around Europe and became associated with the École Francaise d'Athènes (The French School of Athens) in Greece, where he participated in the excavations of one of the religious hubs of classical antiquity on the island of Delos. Hansen’s chairs offered at the auction are clear representatives of Art Deco – a style characterized as a conglomerate of inspirational sources, ranging from the avant-garde movement's focus on geometry to the many historic excavations being done at the time. 

PH’s Four-poster Bed

With his outstanding lighting abilities, Poul Henningsen (PH) is a frequent guest at our auctions, but this time we have also managed to consign a unique blue and white painted four-poster bed from around 1926. PH was extremely productive in these early years of his career, and at the ”International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts” in 1925, he presented his first variation of the PH lamp, which has become one of the great milestones in Danish design history. What is much less known is that PH also designed a handful of furniture pieces in the 1920s, which in the case of the offered four-poster bed is an indication that he had not yet found his well-known modernist idiom. The bed with the baluster columns was made to order for PH's in-laws at Dronninglund Castle in Northern Jutland, where he supervised the refurbishment of the Castle’s stable and agricultural buildings. Since then, the four-poster bed has been in private Danish ownership but was exhibited at the "Kunsten" Museum of Modern Art in Aalborg in connection with the 100th anniversary of the architect.

Flemming Lassen and Finn Juhl

The auction also includes a wide range of design treasures by Flemming Lassen, such as a sofa made in 1942 by cabinetmaker Jacob Kjær and a rare armchair with the peculiar name "The Hussar" from 1935. Finn Juhl's best and most well-known furniture classics have also found their way to the auction, such as the “Chieftain Chair” from 1948 and several sets of the “FJ-45” chairs.

A Musical Piece of Memorabilia

It is not hard to picture the many Danish design classics of this auction being designed in the different drawing offices of Copenhagen to the sound of jazz music. It is also entirely imaginable that the architects, like the proponents of cultural radicalism in Denmark, saw a liberating potential in this musical genre. At the autumn auction, we join in with a musical piece of memorabilia in the form of the Danish musician Jesper Thilo’s Selmer Saxophone, originally purchased by American jazz legend Ben Webster. The two commenced a musical friendship in Copenhagen during the 1960s, which at the time was a vibrant international jazz metropolis. On the occasion of the sale, jazz musicians from Chris Minh Doky's "Come Fly Away Orchestra" will be playing at the opening of the preview on 13 September.

Auction: Thursday 27 September at 3 pm in Bredgade 33 in Copenhagen 
Preview: 13-17 September at the same address

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