Frederik Bruun-Rasmussen told the Antiques Trade Gazette: “Finn Juhl has become extremely popular in the last six or seven months, especially with Americans and the French.” Juhl is known in the States because a lot of his 1950s designs were produced there by Baker, and he also designed some of the seating for the UN building in New York. There was a strong US input at this summer sale, the bulk of it on the telephone, but it was the Europeans who took away the top lots.
Pictured here is the rare Finn Juhl desk, Model BO 69, which was first produced in 1953. It has a teak dropleaf top on an iron frame with teak feet and four painted drawers, the desk and was estimated at €3370 (£2175), but it proved highly sought-after and ended up fetching more than double that; €7800 (£5030) from a European dealer.
Another Juhl piece that drew a lot of interest was the Chieftain Chair, which sold for above top estimate at €4700 (£3030). What made this model of particular interest was the fact that the patent for producing the Chieftain has just been sold by Juhl’s widow to a mass producer.
This piece belongs to the second generation of Chieftains, hand crafted by Niels Roth Andersen since the early 1980s, when he took over from first-generation producer, Niels Vodder. Andersen produced only about 200 such chairs, a fact no doubt significant to the Danish buyer who took this one home.
A further highlight was provided by one of the 14 lots by Danish Bauhaus lighting designer Poul Henningsen. His PH 4/3 brass desk lamp with original glass shade, and stamped Pat. appl., dating it to 1926–8, before it been granted the design patent, sold above estimate for €5900 (£3800).
Juhl in the Danish crown
DENMARK: The modern design session of Bruun-Rasmussen’s (25% buyer’s premium incl. VAT) mixed 5-day sale from August 5–9 included a smattering of pieces from each of the big Scandinavian names: Just Anderson, Axel Salto, Poul Henningsen, Hans J. Wegner, Mogens Koch and Kaare Klint all put in an appearance, but the main focus was on Finn Juhl.
