Finn Juhl - 20th Century & Contemporary Art & Design Evening Sale Hong Kong Saturday, May 26, 2018 | Phillips

20th Century & Contemporary Art & Design...

Hong Kong Auction 27 May 2018

  • Provenance

    Private Collection, Copenhagen, early 1950s

  • Literature

    G.B. De Searpis, 'Finn Juhl, architetto danese', Domus, nos. 252-53, November-December 1950, p. 23
    Nona Triennale di Milano, exh. cat., Milan, 1951, p. 443
    Svend Erik Møller and Viggo Sten Møller, Dansk Møbelkunst, Københavns snedkerlaugs møbeludstilling 1927-1951, Copenhagen, 1951, p. 82
    Bent Salicath, ‘Finn Juhl and Danish Furniture’, Architects’ Year Book 6, London, 1955, pp. 145-46, 155
    Esbjørn Hiort, Modern Danish Furniture, New York, 1956, pp. 54-55
    Niels Vodder Furniture, Copenhagen, 1959, front cover, pp. 10-11
    Eva Hamilton, 'Modern design iG Gammal miljö', Svensk DAM, no. 11, 18 March, 1964, p. 41
    Grete Jalk, ed., Dansk Møbelkunst gennem 40 aar, Volume 3: 1947-1956, Copenhagen, 1987, pp. 124-25, 233, 311
    Patricia Yamada, ed., Finn Juhl Memorial Exhibition, exh. cat., Osaka, 1990, passim
    Esbjørn Hiort, Finn Juhl: Furniture, Architecture, Applied Art, Copenhagen, 1990, front cover, pp. 23, 40-41
    Martin Eidelberg, ed., Design 1935-1965: What Modern Was, New York, 1991, p. 187
    Irene de Guttry and Maria Paola Maino, Il Mobile Italiano Degli Anni '40 e '50, Bari, 1992, p. 47
    Noritsugu Oda, Danish Chairs, San Francisco, 1996, pp. 92-93
    Arne Karlsen, Danish Furniture Design: in the 20th Century, Volume 2, Copenhagen, 2007, pp. 106, 187-89
    Per H. Hansen, Finn Juhl and His House, Ostfildern, 2014, passim

  • Catalogue Essay

    In 1949 Finn Juhl designed the model ‘FJ 49 A’ armchair, which became primarily known as the ‘Chieftain’, a title rarely used by the architect as he referred to it as the ‘Big Chair’. When interviewed in 1981, by the Danish journalist Mike Rømer for ‘Space and Form’, about the ‘Chieftain’ Juhl reminisced over its moniker and revealed the following story: “King Frederik and Queen Ingrid used to be good enough to come and open our exhibitions, and afterwards they would make a round of the stands. When a journeyman cabinetmaker came in carrying the ‘Chair’, someone asked me what it was for. Jokingly I said it was for King Frederik. We quickly realized that we could neither call it the ‘King Chair’ nor the ‘King Frederik Chair’. The King had never requested this of us, and besides, we had never asked him. So I passed it off by saying it was for an African chief- and the name stuck with it. As a matter of fact, a photograph was taken of King Frederik in the chair”…

    The ‘Chieftain’ when first exhibited at the Cabinetmakers’ Guild was well received and described in Politiken as being ‘so full of life that it seems to be almost quivering with vitality. It is expensive and as delicate as a thoroughbred must be.’ Finn Juhl designed some of his finest cabinet made furniture for the Cabinetmakers’ Guild and the ‘Chieftain’ must be considered one of his most accomplished designs. Almost every year from the late 1930s to the early 1950s Juhl presented designs at the Cabinetmakers’ Guild that were executed by the master cabinetmaker Niels Vodder. The synergy and symbiosis of these two artistic characters created masterpieces of 20th century design.

    In discussing the master cabinetmaker Niels Vodder, the Danish architectural journalist Henrik Sten Møller refers to the cabinetmaker as an ‘original craftsman with a distinct sense of humour.’ He then goes further to explain possibly why Vodder would have ever agreed to collaborate with Juhl: ‘The reason why Niels Vodder became Finn Juhl’s cabinetmaker was that nobody else wanted to produce his furniture. They thought the furniture too strange and furthermore often technically complicated’ (Patricia Yamada, ed., Finn Juhl Memorial Exhibition, exh. cat., Osaka, 1990, p. 18). Although the collaboration between Juhl, then aged twenty-five, and Vodder began in 1937, it was not until the breakthrough period of 1944-1949 at the Cabinetmakers’ Guild in which Juhl began to incorporate his burgeoning organic and percipient approach towards furniture design. Professor Noritsuga Oda writes in his essay ‘My Recollections of Finn Juhl’ that “the seat and backs, now had become independent of the legs, making the chairs seem lighter – almost sculptures floating in air. Creative as they were, Juhl’s designs might not have been successful three-dimensional objects without the craftsmanship of the master cabinetmaker Niels Vodder”. The ‘Chieftain’ armchair features masterfully handcrafted, accentuated and organic stiles, produced in exquisite Bangkok Teak. The stiles support the shield-formed backrest whilst elegantly revealing the interstice between the seat and the load-bearing legs. The following statement by Juhl is manifested within the construction of the ‘Chieftain’: ‘I have always been interested in analysing a piece of furniture’s different parts, surely a consequence of my early excitement for Corbusier’s cubist architecture.’

39

Finn Juhl

Important and early 'Chieftain' armchair, model no. FJ 49 A

designed 1949, produced early 1950s
Bangkok teak, leather
93.3 x 103 x 89 cm. (36 3/4 x 40 1/2 x 35 in.)
Executed by master cabinetmaker Niels Vodder, Copenhagen, Denmark. Underside branded and impressed NIELS VODDER CABINETMAKER/COPENHAGEN DENMARK. Designed in 1949, produced in early 1950s.

Estimate
HK$500,000 - 800,000 
€53,800-86,100
$64,100-103,000

Sold for HK$1,000,000

Contact Specialist
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+852 2318 2023

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Head of Department
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Head of Sale
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20th Century & Contemporary Art & Design Evening Sale

Hong Kong Auction 27 May 2018