Finn Juhl. The “Ross coffee table” designed and made for Alf and Else-Merete Ross’ private home in 1948. Unique coffee table with teak top, inlaid brass plate and white painted frame. Estimate: DKK 400,000

Finn Juhl’s Unique Coffee Table from the Ross Family

At the childhood home of art critic Trine Ross, a coffee table by Finn Juhl was the natural gathering place for the whole family. A long list of furniture icons, classics and rarities from the golden years of Danish design history are coming up for auction at Bredgade. The designer/cabinetmaker duo Finn Juhl and Niels Vodder are particularly well-represented with no fewer than 16 items. Of these, there are several real rarities from Danish private collections and with a unique provenance which is relevant today.

This autumn’s Design Auction at Bredgade will be full to the brim with true Danish design icons such as Finn Juhl, Hans J. Wegner, Poul Kjærholm and Kaare Klint. Finn Juhl was the first Danish furniture designer to achieve wide international recognition. In the period from 1937–1948, Juhl’s design was more sculptural than functional. Working with his long-standing collaborator, cabinetmaker Niels Vodder, Juhl created some of the most distinctive and iconic pieces in Danish design history. They have the status of valuable collectors’ items and museum pieces.

Finn Juhl and the “Ross Coffee Table”

Juhl and Vodder occasionally accepted commissions from private clients for private homes. In 1948, they created a unique coffee table for Alf and Else-Merete Ross’ home, the so-called “Ross coffee table”. Juhl and Vodder’s special coffee table was the sculptural centrepiece of many family gatherings and combines a teak top with a brass inlay and a white painted frame. With the “Ross coffee table”, wood virtuoso Juhl plays, like an artist, on the combination and contrasts in the choice of materials, contrasts in horizontal and vertical surfaces and on the organic and the sculptural. In Juhl’s feel for shapes, colours and materials, we see the climax of his early development and enormous creativity. In the composition of materials and colours, he plays on a duality between function and aesthetics, creating an almost graphic expression between delicate, floating and solid.

“Finn Juhl stood out from other great furniture designers of his day. He had a more artistic approach and often operated in the field of tension between art and furniture. This is particularly evident in Juhl’s coffee tables, of which this “Ross coffee table” is truly unique. Organic, rounded shapes are broken by straight lines. Juhl is clearly inspired by art. The table should be seen as a sculpture …“

 Peter Kjelgaard

Specialist and Head of Department, Modern Decorative Art & Design Bruun Rasmussen

Alf and Else-Merete Ross

Alf Ross was a professor at the Faculty of Law at the University of Copenhagen from 1935 to 1969. He achieved international recognition as one of the 20th century’s greatest legal philosophers. His wife Else-Merete was a teacher of both German and gymnastics at Ordrup Gymnasium sixth-form college. But it was as a member of the Danish Women’s Society, chairwoman of the Danish Women’s Council Denmark and later as a parliamentary politician with strong opinions – radical at the time – that she really made her mark. From early on, she was a pioneer for the improvement of women’s conditions and rights: as a member of the government’s sex education committee in 1961, she made a significant effort to have sex education introduced as a subject in school from the late 1960s, and she worked for freer legislation in abortion cases. The Ross’ home was characterised by a humanistic outlook on life, humane attitudes and international understanding. The slatted teak bench is from the same home. The furniture is being sold by the couple’s granddaughter, art critic, debater and author Trine Ross.

Trine Ross as a child in Alf and Else-Merete Ross’ home, all gathered around the coffee table up for auction (Privately owned photo)

Craftsmanship and Artistic Expression in Unison

The Live Auction at Bredgade also features a collection of Juhl chairs – the “FJ 42” and the “FJ 45” – from the same fantastic and productive period. Both have a story to tell. The “FJ 42” is a very rare mahogany armchair made by cabinetmaker Niels Vodder. The chair was given as a gift by Finn Juhl to a student at the School of Interior Design in connection with the student’s graduation in 1955 and has belonged to Juhl privately. Where the “FJ 42” is extremely rare, the “FJ 45” was Juhl and Vodder’s greatest commercial success. It was produced by Vodder himself until the 1970s and is today one of Juhl’s most famous and beloved chairs. The two chairs very much represent Juhl’s artistic range.
Finn Juhl. Slatted teak bench from the private home of Alf and Else-Merete Ross, c. 1948. Estimate: DKK 75,000–100,000.
“FJ 42”. Rare mahogany armchair. Seat and back upholstered in brown leather. Made by cabinetmaker Niels Vodder. Estimate: DKK 100,000–200,000
“FJ 45”. Armchair made of Rio rosewood. Sides, back and loose seat cushion upholstered in lightly patinated natural leather. Designed in 1945. Made in the 1960s by cabinetmaker Niels Vodder, stamped. Estimate: DKK 250,000–300,000

Wegner Chairs and Swedish Rugs

The auction will also include 16 works by Hans J. Wegner, including a number of well-known and beloved chair classics such as the “Ox Chair”, the “Teddy Bear Chair”, the “Fireplace Chair”, the “Cow Horn Chair” and a rare “Buck Chair” made of solid pine with sand-coloured webbing designed in 1959. Also up for auction are a number of fine, hand-knotted rugs by Swedish textile artists Ann-Mari Lindbom and Barbro Nilsson. There will thus be ample opportunity to bid on design icons from both “home” and “away”.
Hans J. Wegner. Rare “Buck Chair” made of solid pine with tapering legs. Seat and back with stretched, sand-coloured webbing. Designed in 1959 and made in the 1960s by cabinetmaker Johannes Hansen. Estimate: DKK 80,000–100,000
image
Live Auction

Design

21 September at 4 pm

View selection

If you have any questions, please contact the department

Anna Berger Widenborg Portrait

Anna Berger Widenborg

Anna Berger Widenborg

Head of Department / København
Andreas Krabbe Portrait

Andreas Krabbe

Andreas Krabbe

Specialist / København
Peter Beck Portrait

Peter Beck

Peter Beck

Head of valuation / Aarhus

Items for sale

Finn Juhl

See all 9 lots by Finn Juhl

Hans J. Wegner

See all 26 lots by Hans J. Wegner

Poul Kjærholm

See all 5 lots by Poul Kjærholm

Kaare Klint