1950s Danish Design Classic Finn Juhl “Spade” Armchair, Upholstered in Mohair

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, credenzas 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. 

Juhl’s earliest works, designed in the late 1930s, are perhaps his most idiosyncratic. The influence of modern art is clear in his 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 workshop of Danish cabinetmaker Niels Vodder began to issue his designs. Yet Juhl’s 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 Judas table — a piece ornamented with stylish inlaid silver plaquettes — and the biomorphic Baker sofa. After an article authored by Kaufmann on Juhl and his work appeared in the U.S.-based magazine Interiors in 1948, he began receiving American commissions. 

Kaufmann commissioned Juhl to create the exhibition design for, and contribute pieces to, the 1951 edition of the Good Design shows he organized for MoMA and Chicago’s Merchandise Mart. Baker Furniture asked Juhl to design for the firm, and he produced a collection of chairs, tables and cabinets, and, later, the 1957 sofa. 

Scandinavian modernist seating, such as the chairs and sofas Juhl created for Baker, became immensely popular in postwar America, as the seeds of the Scandinavian style that Juhl sowed took root and spread in the United States. Juhl and his work featured prominently in the landmark show “Design from Scandinavia,” which opened in 1954 at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and traveled to 24 museums in the U.S. and Canada; over three years, it was seen by more than a million people.

Juhl’s furniture — as well as his ceramics, tableware and accessories — has an air of relaxed sophistication and elegance that is unique in the realm of mid-century design.

Find vintage Finn Juhl armchairs, coffee tables, desks and other furniture for sale on 1stDibs.

The giant of mid-century furniture design France & Søn began its remarkable journey as a Danish firm specializing in the production and exporting of Scandinavian design called France & Daverkosen.

British businessman Charles William Fearnley France and Danish cabinetmaker Eric Daverkosen entered into a joint venture in 1936 — France being the investor and Daverkosen the head designer for their small mattress factory. Soon after production started at the France & Daverkosen company, Daverkosen became quite ill.

Concerned for his friend and their fledgling business, France traveled to Denmark, and Daverkosen died soon after his partner arrived. While France was attempting to make arrangements to transfer the company into his hands, World War II erupted, and Germany invaded Denmark. As a British citizen, France was captured and sent to a prison camp in Germany.

While in captivity, France developed several manufacturing ideas to pass the time and to keep his mind focused. He imagined a way to create lightweight wooden chairs that could be manufactured on an industrial scale and transported using an economic flat-pack format. He also thought of a way to retool his mattress factory to create chair backs, seats and sofa cushions. 

Once freed, France returned to his business in Denmark and began to manufacture beech and teak goods that were gaining widespread acclaim around the world. He began to surround himself with some of the best Scandinavian designers of the time: Finn Juhl, Grete Jalk and Ole Wanscher, to name a few.

By 1954, France & Daverkosen accounted for 60 percent of all Danish furniture exports and their factory employed 350 people. Charles’s son James joined the company in 1957, which resulted in the name change to France & Søn.

Later, France & Søn was acquired by Danish designer Poul Cadovius, who folded it into the operations at CADO, a company he founded during the 1950s. 

On 1stDibs, find France & Daverkosen seating, tables and more.