Mid2Mod: Fritz Hansen

Showing posts with label Fritz Hansen. Show all posts

Sunday, September 8, 2013

Arne Vodder

Arne Vodder (1926-2009) was a Danish architect and furniture designer. He was trained by Finn Juhl, who later became a friend and a business partner.

In 1951 Vodder opened a studio with Anton Borg. They designed 1100 low-cost homes, which were a great success. He started designing furniture for Fritz Hansen, France & Son and Sibast. His work with those companies brought him worldwide recognition and success.

His designs were generally made of rosewood or teak and sometimes included colorful panels. Today he is most appreciated for his rosewood sideboards, which usually command high prices. They are characterized by drawer fronts designed so pulls are not necessary.

From bemodern.com and bobedre.dk

Tall rosewood sideboard
lookmodern.com

Rosewood sideboard
1stdibs.com

Conference chairs
1stdibs.com

Lounge chair
1stdibs.com

Credenza with colored accents
kamada-japan.com

Teak armchairs
scandinavianmod.com

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Poul Kjærholm

Poul Kjærholm (1929–1980) graduated from the Copenhagen School of Arts and Crafts in 1952 and taught there until 1956. He took a position at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in 1959.

Kjærholm's designs are known for their clean lines and uncompromising attention to detail and quality. While most other designers chose to work with wood, he preferred steel, which he combined with other materials, such as wood, leather, cane or marble. He said, “Steel’s constructive potential is not the only thing that interests me; the refraction of light on its surface is an important part of my artistic work. I consider steel a material with the same artistic merit as wood and leather.”

E. Kold Christensen produced most of Kjærholm’s designs up until Kjærholm’s death in 1980. A wide selection has been part of the Fritz Hansen production since.

Kjærholm’s work can be found in museums around the world, most notably in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York and at the V&A Museum in London. He has won several awards including two Grand Prix at the Milan Triennale in 1957 and 1960, the Lunning Award in 1958 and the ID Award in 1973.

From danish-furniture.com

PK11 chair, 1957
danish-furniture.com

PK55 table, 1957
1stdibs.com

PK22 chair, 1955
danish-furniture.com

PK31 sofa, 1958
danish-furniture.com

PK1 chair, 1956
danish-furniture.com

Professors-Flat-File
hiddengarments.cn

PK25 chair, 1951
danish-furniture.com

PK80 daybed, 1957
danish-furniture.com

PK24 lounge, 1951
danish-furniture.com

Pronunciation Guide

Saturday, May 14, 2011

I.C.F., Inc.

A few months ago we found an Alvar Aalto Paimio chair on Craigslist. We knew it was a wonderful piece, but we weren't sure how old it was, since the design is still in production by Artek, the Finnish company founded in 1935 by Aalto, his wife Aino, and their friends Maire Gullichsen and Nils-Gustav Hahl.

We did some preliminary research on the piece, but we got busy opening the store, and we never followed up. Today a customer emailed, asking for additional information about the chair, so we finally got back to our search. He specifically asked about any labels that might still be intact, and my SIL found one marked I.C.F. that we weren't sure about.

The company is still in business but had no Paimio chairs on their website. Only when we used "Artek" and "I.C.F." as search terms did we get the full picture. It turns out that I.C.F., Inc. was started in 1962 and was the first American company to distribute furniture designed by European architects. They started with Alvar Aalto's designs in 1962. In the 70s they added pieces by Arne Jacobsen. I.C.F. is still the American distributor for Fritz Hansen, Artek, and Thonet, among others, although it appears that they only distributed the Paimio chair from 1962-1986. While that doesn't give us a definitive date, it certainly narrows the time frame.

Our Alvar Aalto "Paimio" chair

Sunday, March 27, 2011

Arne Jacobsen

Arne Jacobsen (1902-1971) was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, and studied architecture at the Arts and Crafts Academy of Copenhagen. Upon graduating in 1927, he opened his own office. While his early work was influenced by Le Corbusier, Mies van der Rohe and Gunnar Asplund, he was firmly a part of the more organic modern movement by the 1950s. Charles Eames' s DCW inspired one of Jacobsen´s Ant chair (1952), which was ideally suited for mass production.

Jacobsen insisted on complete control of his projects, designing buildings and interiors that were beautifully cohesive, often designing the structures themselves, as well as the furniture, lighting, textiles and even the restaurant flatware.

His well-known Swan chair (1958) was designed for just such a project, the S.A.S. Royal Hotel in Copenhagen. Other famous works include the Egg chair (1958) and his 1957 flatware for A. Michelsen, which was considered so futuristic that it appeared in Stanley Kubrick´s film 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Honors and awards received by Jacobsen include the grand prize at the 1957 Triennale di Milano, the 1960 Grande Prix Internationale, the 1969 Industrial Design Prize, and the 1971 gold medal from the French Academy of Architecture. He designed for Fritz Hansen, Louis Poulsen, Vola, Stelton and Michelsen, among others.

From lostcityarts.com