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Showing posts with label Nanna Ditzel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nanna Ditzel. Show all posts

Friday, October 24, 2014

Nanna Ditzel

I started this blog September 6, 2010. Some of you have been readers since the beginning. Others have come on board later. From now through the end of the month, I'm going to be on a short blogging break. Not only am I in the middle of a big volunteer project, I'm also trying to help get the new store open, so I've decided share some of my favorite posts from the past four years. I'll throw in a few new photos for you longtime supporters who read the posts when they were first published.


(First posted 6/17/2011)

Nanna Ditzel (1923-2005) was born in Copenhagen. Originally trained as a cabinetmaker, she later studied at the School of Arts and Crafts and the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen, graduating with a degree in furniture design in 1946. In that same year, she established a design studio with her husband Jørgen Ditzel and worked with him until his untimely death in 1961.

Throughout her career, which spanned almost six decades, she experimented with new materials such as foam rubber, fiberglass and wicker. She worked in many disciplines, designing furniture, jewelry, tableware and textiles and continued to create furniture and jewelry up to the end of her life. Much is still in production.

In 1968 she moved to London, where she and husband Kurt Heide opened the international furniture house Interspace in Hampstead. In 1986 she moved back to Denmark and opened her own studio.

She was exhibited internationally with one-woman shows in Amsterdam, Berlin, New York, Vienna, London, Stockholm, Milan, Glasgow, Manchester, Reykjavik, Paris and nationally in Denmark. During her lifetime, she was awarded many international prizes for her awards, including many medals from the Triennale in Milan and the prestigious Lunning Prize and is remembered as "The First Lady of Scandinavian Design." 

From nanna-ditzel-design.dk and furnituredesign24.com


Sausage chairs
1stdibs.com

Child's high chair
1stdibs.com

Oda armchair
pinterest.com - Ursela Maätita

Hanging Egg wicker chair
nanna-ditzel-design.dk

Swivel Easy chair
houzz.com

Skal chair
furnituredesign24.com

Settee, chairs and table
bolighuset-ry.dk

Trinidad chair
arttattler.com

Dennie chair
houzz.com

Child's Toadstool
arttattler.com

Silver bracelet, 1951
nanna-ditzel-design.dk

Wristwatch for Georg Jensen, 1995
nanna-ditzel-design.dk

Young Nanna Ditzel
retrostudio-online.com


Here's a delightful interview with Nanna Ditzel in 2005, shortly before her death. She discusses the Trinidad chair, designed in 1993, one of her award-winning pieces. The clip also includes production of a Trinidad chair.


youtube.com
Uploaded by fredericiafurniture, March 22, 2010

Wednesday, September 3, 2014

Jewelry by Nanna Ditzel

I first posted about Nanna Ditzel back in 2011. At that time, my focus was mainly on her furniture designs. However, she was much more than just a furniture designer. She collaborated with George Jensen for a half century and created more than 150 works for his company, most of which was jewelry.

Ditzel's innovation in the use of silver and gold over those five decades has resulted in uniquely modern pieces that stood out as her own. This simplicity and elegance in precious metals helped create the "Georg Jensen look."

From grasilver.com

Sterling brooch
ebay.com - copenhagensilvercom

Sterling necklace with carnelian stone
grasilver.com

Sterling necklace
1stdibs.com

Sterling earrings
grasilver.com

Sterling Surf bracelet
scarabantiques.com

Sterling brooch
thegoodaygallery.com

Sterling earrings
grasilver.com

Enamel bracelet
1stdibs.com

Gold and pearl brooch
galleryninetwofive.com

Gold bangle bracelet
lauritz.com

Friday, May 2, 2014

Factsheet Denmark

Ever wonder what the Danes officially consider the most representative pieces of furniture from their classic designs of the 1950s and 1960s and into the present? In 2008 the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark issued a publication called Factsheet Denmark which listed their most important designers. The publication also included images of pieces of furniture that the Ministry believed to reflect Danish society. Many you could easily guess, while some might surprise you. One of their furniture choices certainly surprised me, and I bet it won't be hard for you to figure out which one...especially when they had so many beautiful examples to choose from.

From denmark.dk


PH Artichoke pendant by Poul Henningsen, 1958
louispoulsen.com

CH 07 by Hans Wegner, 1963
larsenform.com

City Bench by Nanna Ditzel, 1997
nanna-ditzel-design.dk

Chieftain Chair by Finn Juhl, 1949
onecollection.com

PK 22 by Poul Kjaerholm, 1956
1stdibs.com

Spanish Chair by Borge Mogensen
danishdesignstore.com

Ant Chair by Arne Jacobsen, 1952
1stdibs.com

Panton Chairs by Verner Panton, 1967
treadwaygallery.com

Trinidad Chair by Nanna Ditzel, 1993
nanna-ditzel-design.dk

Polyether Chair by Gunnar Aagaard Andersen, 1964
netpublikationer.dk

X-line Chair by Niels Jorgen Haugesen, 1977
architonic.com

Saturday, March 15, 2014

In the store: Ditzel, Robsjohn-Gibbings and Hundevad

My SIL recently went on a buying trip that was supposed to go up the east coast, back across to Chicago and then down through the Midwest, but you know what Robert Burns said about best-laid schemes. They gang aft agley...or, to borrow a military acronym, they often result in a SNAFU. After getting stuck for a few days somewhere around Virginia or Maryland when the transmission went out on the truck, he finally got tired of day trips in a rented cargo van and bought a new passenger van. All was well, even though his itinerary was cut in half. He went as far as Pennsylvania before heading home and brought back plenty of gorgeous pieces.

One is an exquisite rosewood desk by Nanna Ditzel that has been fully restored. The shapely legs on this piece are uniquely beautiful. Also, there's an out-of-this-world dresser by T. H. Robsjohn-Gibbings for Widdicomb that has been painstakingly restored as well. Finally, there's a remarkable teak credenza by Poul Hundevad that is in excellent original condition. Its tambour doors open to reveal a beech interior that is nothing short of phenomenal.


Nanna Ditzel rosewood desk

Top view of Ditzel desk

Close-up of Ditzel desk

Solid walnut dresser by T. H. Robsjohn-Gibbings for Widdicomb

Robsjohn-Gibbings dresser

Teak tambour door credenza by Poul Hundevad

Beech interior of Hundevad credenza

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Vanishing art

Most of us are so accustomed to firing off a quick email from the computer at our utilitarian desks that we forget people in the mid-Twentieth century sat at exquisitely crafted pieces of furniture and composed letters by hand with elegant instruments called fountain pens.

I hope these beautiful desks, along with a glimpse of an extremely rare Parker T-1, will inspire you to pick up a pen and write a note to someone you love.

Images from 1stdibs.com unless otherwise noted
Extremely rare titanium Parker T-1
fastcompany.com
Arne Vodder
Bullet-shaped Danish teak, designer unknown
Edward Wormley
George Nakashima
Hans Wegner
Ib Kofod-Larsen
Jens Risom
Kidney-shaped Danish with tambour doors, designer unknown
Milo Baughman
Nanna Ditzel
T. H. Robsjohn-Gibbings
Vladimir Kagan
Walnut desk with tambour doors, designer unknown