Arne, Finn, Borge oh my

We came to Copenhagen to search out the best of Denmark's mid-century furniture design icons and it didn't disappoint. The first day we hit Ravnsborggade, the vintage and antique market district. We fell for a small cabinet but our hopes of bringing it home were dashed by the exorbitant cost of shipping - about double the cost of the piece.

The next day we headed out towards the Bredgade avenue - home of the heavy hitters in mid century design classics including Klassik and Dansk Mobelkunst where I inquired about a Finn Juhl upholstered 2 seater thinking "it's small, we could ship it". sadly my sofa budget doesn't quite approach the $15k price tag (though it does make that Hella Jongerius Polder sofa I've been drooling over seem more reasonable....) check out the Wegner Papa Bear Chair in the Klassik storefront window.

We stopped in at Bruun Rasmussen's auction house where he had an incredible early model chieftain chair. I've seen a few newer versions offered by mid-century dealers in north america but nothing compares to the patina on the original. With a guide price of $60,000 dollars, quite reasonable too, really. Bruun let us take a peek in the back at this rare Finn Juhl 2 seater chieftain! Apparently only 20 were made.
We also visited the Dansk Design Center and the Kunstindustrimuseet and took in a lot of newer design at Normann Copenhagen, Hay, Illums Bolighus - a huge department store dedicated solely to design. In the end, we didn't manage to bring home a Borge Mogensen or a Hans Wegner but it was fantastic to meet them all in person.