Finn Juhl Technocrat Desk
Mid-20th Century Danish Mid-Century Modern Desks
Aluminum
Vintage 1960s Danish Modern Desks and Writing Tables
Metal
People Also Browsed
Mid-20th Century Danish Scandinavian Modern Bookcases
Metal
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Cabinets
Birch, Walnut
2010s Austrian Jugendstil Chandeliers and Pendants
Silk
21st Century and Contemporary Swedish Mid-Century Modern Table Lamps
Textile
Vintage 1960s Danish Mid-Century Modern Desks and Writing Tables
Chrome
Vintage 1960s Danish Mid-Century Modern Desks and Writing Tables
Metal
Vintage 1960s Danish Scandinavian Modern Desks and Writing Tables
Metal
2010s Mexican Modern Desks and Writing Tables
Wood
Vintage 1960s Danish Scandinavian Modern Desks and Writing Tables
Lucite, Rosewood
Mid-20th Century Mid-Century Modern Desks and Writing Tables
Teak
Vintage 1950s Scandinavian Modern Daybeds
Teak
Vintage 1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Desks and Writing Tables
Wood
Vintage 1940s American Mid-Century Modern Desks
Aluminum
Vintage 1950s Danish Scandinavian Modern Desks and Writing Tables
Teak
Vintage 1970s Swiss Mid-Century Modern Sectional Sofas
Leather
Mid-20th Century Danish Scandinavian Modern Desks and Writing Tables
Teak
Recent Sales
Vintage 1960s Danish Scandinavian Modern Desks
Teak
Vintage 1960s Danish Scandinavian Modern Desks
Aluminum
20th Century Danish Mid-Century Modern Desks
Chrome
Vintage 1960s Danish Mid-Century Modern Office Chairs and Desk Chairs
Aluminum
Mid-20th Century Danish Scandinavian Modern Chairs
Aluminum, Steel
Vintage 1960s Danish Mid-Century Modern Desks
Steel
Finn Juhl for sale on 1stDibs
Along with Hans Wegner, Arne Jacobsen and Børge Mogensen, Finn Juhl was one of the great masters of mid-20th-century Danish design. Juhl was the first among that group to have his work promoted overseas, bringing the character of the nation’s furnishings — and the inherent principles of grace, craftsmanship and utility on which they were based — to an international audience. A stylistic maverick, Juhl embraced expressive, free-flowing shapes in chair and sofa designs much earlier than his colleagues, yet even his quietest pieces incorporate supple, curving forms that are at once elegant and ergonomic.
As a young man, Juhl hoped to become an art historian, but his father steered him into a more practical course of study in architecture. He began designing furniture in the late 1930s, a discipline in which, despite his education, Juhl was self-taught, and quite proud of the fact. His earliest works, designed in the late 1930s, are perhaps his most idiosyncratic. The influence of contemporary art is clear in Juhl's 1939 Pelican chair: an almost Surrealist take on the classic wing chair. Critics reviled the piece, however; one said it looked like a "tired walrus." Juhl had tempered his creativity by 1945, when the Danish furniture-making firm Niels Vodder began to issue his designs. Yet his now-classic NV 45 armchair still demonstrates panache, with a seat that floats above the chair’s teak frame.
Juhl first exhibited his work in the United States in 1950, championed by Edgar Kaufmann Jr., an influential design critic and scion of America’s most prominent family of modern architecture and design patrons. (Kaufmann’s father commissioned Frank Lloyd Wright’s design of the house “Fallingwater.”) Juhl quickly won a following for such signature designs as the supremely comfortable Chieftan lounge chair, the biomorphic Baker sofa, and the Judas table, a piece ornamented with stylish inlaid silver plaquettes.
As you will see from the offerings on 1stDibs, Finn Juhl’s furniture — as well as his lighting, ceramics, tableware and accessories — has an air of relaxed sophistication and elegance that is unique in the realm of mid-20th-century design.