The Design Sale

Among the highlights is a beautiful cabinet by Otto Schulz and his firm Boet, upholstered in green velvet, with doors decorated with the firm’s characteristic ‘Bopoint’ in a finely balanced geometric pattern. It is accompanied by no fewer than three further pieces by Schulz – a pair of armchairs and a daybed, all with decorative and colourful original upholstery.

The foremost highlight of the sale is a cabinet by Josef Frank for Firma Svenskt Tenn, its doors covered with a hand-coloured map of Paris – a facsimile of Truschet and Hoyau’s map showing the French capital in 1550. Covering cabinets, and later chests of drawers, with both printed plates and textiles was a joint innovation by Frank and Estrid Ericson, and became a favoured technique to which they returned when making their most exclusive furniture. The previously known examples featuring maps are a small number of cabinets from 1937–1943 covered with Georges Peltier’s map of Paris, and a cabinet with a map of London shown at Nationalmuseum in 1952. This magnificent cabinet from the early 1950s is therefore a unique example within one of the rarest groups of motifs.

Two other significant lots are armchairs that can both be counted among the masterpieces of Danish design history. The first is a graceful wingback armchair upholstered in black leather, designed by Frits Henningsen in 1935. The second is Finn Juhl’s iconic ‘Høvdingestolen’ (the Chieftain Chair) from 1949, here in an example from around 1960 from master cabinetmaker Niels Vodder’s sought-after production.

The sale also offers a rich selection of Axel Einar Hjorth’s ‘Sportstuga’ cabin furniture for Nordiska Kompaniet from the 1930s, among which an armchair from the ‘Sandhamn’ series with its original upholstery preserved stands out. In vivid contrast of colour and form to Hjorth’s rustic pine furniture are several pieces by the Italian Memphis Group.

Another highlight, and perhaps the most enchanting lot in the sale, is a large earthenware charger by the eminent English ceramicist William De Morgan, made around 1900. With its shimmering lustre glaze in well-composed tones of blue, white, red and silver, the charger draws the viewer into a voyage across rolling seas, the ship surrounded by fish and soaring gulls.

Among the glass is a group of sculptures by Edvin Öhrström from the artist’s private collection. The sale includes no fewer than eleven glass sculptures, cast at Lindshammar glassworks, where Öhrström arrived in 1959, varying in colour as well as in abstract and crystal-like forms. Notable among them is a two-coloured glass obelisk, reminiscent of the sculptor’s monumental work at Sergels torg.

The textile section presents a rich collection of pieces by Märta Måås-Fjetterström, Barbro Nilsson and Fernand Léger, among others. These include Måås-Fjetterström’s ‘Hästhagen’, designed for the Gothenburg Exhibition of 1923, and ‘Ängarna’, designed for the interior of M/S Kungsholm in 1928, as well as several vibrant compositions from Barbro Nilsson’s production.

The silver section stands out with pieces by some of the most distinguished silversmiths in the Nordic countries, including Olle Ohlsson, Wiwen Nilsson and Georg Jensen. From the latter come, among others, a pair of nature-inspired candelabra with pomegranate-shaped stems and stylised foliate scrolls, as well as a rare piece from Jensen’s Paris studio of 1925–1926 in the form of a tall bell-shaped vase. Further highlights include a pair of five-light candelabra by Harald Nielsen, an Art Nouveau centrepiece bowl in gilt silver made by C.G. Hallberg in 1909, and a beautiful tazza by Märta af Ekenstam, a pioneer for women silversmiths who established her own workshop. In the jewellery section, Wiwen Nilsson returns with beautiful creations, as do Björn Weckström and Vivianna Torun Bülow-Hübe, among others.

From magnificent cabinets and colourful carpets to sculptural jewellery, the forthcoming sale displays a remarkable breadth and reflects a century of design history in which art, craft and function meet as a remarkable whole. In short, The Design Sale offers a unique opportunity to acquire rare and important pieces by international masters and Nordic designers alike.