The real Poet sofa

Finn Juhl’s most iconic sofa, “the Poet”, is known and loved the world over. The small upholstered sofa is named after Jørgen Mogensen’s popular cartoon and Erik Balling’s later film adaption of “Poeten og Lillemor” (The poet and Lillemor), in which the sofa plays a pivotal role.

The unique sofa is designed

The cartoon’s main characters were originally based on the Danish poet Frank Jæger and his wife Kirsten Vodder, who were friends of Jørgen Mogensen. Kirsten Vodder was the daughter of the renowned cabinetmaker Niels Vodder, who worked closely with Finn Juhl for 22 years. She was given the unique sofa following the Cabinetmakers’ Guild’s exhibition in 1945, and it is this sofa that Jørgen Mogensen depicted in his cartoon from 1950.

The poet’s original sofa

So it is Frank Jæger and Kirsten Vodder’s home that provides the setting for events in “Poeten og Lillemor”, where Finn Juhl’s sofa and Arne Jacobsen’s “Egg” easy chair were permanent fixtures. As the couple’s sofa was a one-off, Finn Juhl’s "FJ-41" sofa was known from then on as “the Poet”. However, the Poet’s original sofa was not “FJ-41”, but rather the unique sofa up for auction, which is arguably “The real Poet sofa”.

A closer look at the sofa in the “Poeten og Lillemor” cartoon reveals immediately that it lacks the angular flaps of the "FJ-41"-sofa, and that it has the rounded shape of the unique sofa up for auction from Frank Jæger and Kirsten Vodder.

Bruun Rasmussen Auctioneers, Bredgade 33 in Copenhagen
Preview: 13–17 September
Auction: 27 September