NORTHERN EXPOSURE As the iconic names of Scandinavian design enter the mainstream, demand for unique, distinctive pieces is on the rise By JUDITH GURA USSEN M S Ra RUUN B ART+AUCTION OCTOBER 2016 | BLOUINARTINFO.COM 73 An oak-and-brass foldable chair with original patinated natural leather, designed ca. 1941 by Mogens Lassen, which was auctioned for $78,285 on an estimate of $27,000 to $36,000 by Copenhagen-based Bruun Rasmussen in December 2013. BLOUINARTINFO.COM | OCTOBER 2016 ART+AUCTION Several decades later, those early acquisitions began to surface on the secondary market, and savvy dealers like Vance Trimble, also of New York, R & Company, and others traveled abroad to hunt for untapped sources of Nordic treasure. The market gathered steam by 2000, and Scandinavian furniture has since been part of all major design sales, with Phillips in London, Wright in Chicago, and Bruun Rasmussen in Copenhagen taking the lead. As more dealers started featuring the category, the market for it exploded, and new-money collectors jumped at the chance to buy furniture to complement their fine art—at prices that were bargains compared to those paid for most categories of antique furnishings and such modern styles as Art Deco. “They bought what their decorators recom- mended, and paid big prices for design furniture,” says Trimble. Early on, as the category was still being defined, some clients, with little real knowledge about what they were buying, later re-consigned their acquisitions to auction, where they failed to gain higher prices, and sometimes lost value. Though many of these early collectors didn’t educate themselves extensively, Trimble believes this is changing as the current market is focusing on buyers who know what they’re looking for, and helping them to find it. Wright put a Scandinavian piece on the cover of its very first catalog, a modern design sale in June 2000. The chandelier by Finnish designer Paavo Tynell sold for $8,625. Just six years WHEa custom-designed dining table made in 1952N by Danish later, a similar Tynell piece at the house brought an impressive cabinetmaker Peder Moos was auctioned at Phillips London in $32,400. Since then, Wright has held semiannual Scandinavian- October 2015 for £602,500, ($1.3 million), more then quadruple only sales. And since 2013 Piasa has run dedicated Scandinavian the presale estimate of £150,000–250,000 ($227,000–379,000) sales, as well as single-designer events for Axel Salto, Josef and a world record for Nordic design, it signaled a shift in what Frank, and Moos. Artcurial held its first Scandinavian sale in May had been a steady, but not necessarily exciting category. Some 2015, while Sotheby’s includes Scandinavian objects in its 74 60-odd years after its emergence on the international scene, 20th-century and design auctions, where it’s a solid niche market, the market for Scandinavian postwar design is growing beyond as it is for Los Angeles Modern Auctions (lama) and Rago of a niche category and showing signs of maturity, such as a clear Lambertville, New Jersey. distinction between great and good pieces and a growing Beginning with a November 2011 Nordic design sale in separation between connoisseurs and mere buyers. London, Phillips moved the market to another level with annual The international market for Scandinavian design emerged sales that set sights on the top of the market. The sale, which after World War ii, when postwar prosperity led Americans to brought in £2,256,200 ($3,558,027), was curated by noted look abroad for new modern design, and they found it in the neutral countries where factories were undamaged, and people were eager to export their wares. In the 1950s, House Beautiful magazine raved about Scandinavian design as a warm and accessible Danish light designer Poul Henningsen, best known for his Artichoke lamp, alternative to Bauhaus-born also created the Spiral lamp. The edition steel and glass; the exhibition at right, in painted metal, was manufactured “Design in Scandinavia” toured by Louis Poulsen ca. 1940, and most recently hit the block in Paris at Piasa’s museums in two dozen cities; Scandinavian design sale on September 14, and Bloomingdale’s and other estimated at $45,000 to $68,000. major department stores staged Scandinavian design events. Americans flocked to Copenhagen’s Den Permanente and Illums Bolighus for modern furniture that was a pendulum-swing away from their parents’ stodgy Colonial and continental antiques. Danish Modern became the latest fashion, with names like Hans Wegner and Finn Juhl high on everyone’s must- have lists, while dozens of other designers offered less distinctive yet still attractive teak and rosewood furniture. After Georg Jensen and George Tanier debuted in New York in 1949, Scandinavian specialty stores opened in cities throughout America, and a market was made. As Evan Snyderman, cofounder of New York–based R & Company, notes, “In the 1950s, Danish design went out A S A to the world in mass quantities.” PI ART+AUCTION OCTOBER 2016 | BLOUINARTINFO.COM New York architect Lee F. Mindel, who Helge Vestergaard Jensen’s three- designs originated: Nordic auction seater sofa with Brazilian rosewood legs, characterized it as “a museum show that designed and fabricated in 1960, carried houses Bruun Rasmussen and Bukowskis surpassed anything we could have imagined.” an estimate of $12,000 to $15,000 when it of Stockholm have been selling the sold for $14,535 at Bruun Rasmussen The top lot was a world-record-setting Poul this past June. category longer than anyone else, have Henningsen Spiral wall light, circa 1955, more of it to sell, and often more of the 75 which went for £253,250 ($399,375), handily outstripping its top-level works, consigned by Scandinavian and American £150,000 high estimate. All of the succeeding sales held each owners who purchased directly from the original sources, and fall have been meticulously curated, and the results have been understood and appreciated the difference between hand- exceptional. Their October 2015 sale earned £5,199,644 crafted and mass-produced goods. Both houses now sell to an ($7,879,720) and set four world records. The Moos table broke international clientele, as dealers and collectors watch their the previous record set by a Finn Juhl Chieftain chair from offerings with eagle eyes and open purses. And for the right lots, 1949, which brought £422,500 ($671,775) at Phillips London “prices can go crazy,” says Peter Kjelgaard, head of design sales at in September 2013. Of the chair, Alexander Payne, worldwide Bruun Rasmussen. In September 2014, the house sold Lassen’s director of design, said, “It’s a master class in cabinetmaking, Tired Man chair (of which only about 50 were ever made) for architecture, and material.” Other record sales included a 1.42 million DK ($246,938) (est. 500,000 DK, $87,000), Wegner prototype armchair that earned £122,500 ($194,775), and a second Lassen chair for 900,000 DK ($156,510). In addition a Flemming Lassen armchair at £98,500, ($156,615), and a to the auction houses, Nordic dealers like Dansk Møbelkunst in Moos worktable for the same amount. According to Payne, Copenhagen and Paul Jackson in Stockholm cater to a broader the sale scheduled for last month was even more selective. market of international buyers and collectors. “We decided to look for quality over quantity; when you find In the maturing market, a growing body of knowledgeable great works, you want to make the most of them.” buyers and discriminating collectors are now creating strong The high point for Scandinavian design at Sotheby’s was the demand for the best pieces. When asked what constitutes “best,” June 2016 single-owner sale of works collected by the New York– dealers and auction houses agree that it’s the earlier works, mostly based Wyeth showroom, which featured 28 lots of Scandinavian from Denmark, by designers who partnered with cabinetmakers in design and saw the auction house’s most expensive sales in that the Danish Cabinetmakers Guild, which from 1927 to 1966 category to date. Top lots included five Wegner pieces, among staged annual exhibitions of new designs. Made with skills that them a rare circa-1953 easy chair that sold for $100,000 were honed and passed down in a centuries-old tradition (est. $60–80,000), an executive desk that went for $87,500 in Denmark, these represented the epitome of modern design ($50–70,000), and another hard-to-find chair for the same meshed with superb craftsmanship. Famous partnerships amount. This peak, however, stands in contrast to several sales included Finn Juhl and Niels Vodder, Kaare Klint and Rud that failed to meet expectations, including Piasa’s Scandinavian Rasmussen, and Hans Wegner and Johannes Hansen. Design sale, held last February. “The market appreciated a huge Spurring the most heated competition are the unique pieces amount in the last several years, so it’s natural that it levels off,” says crafted entirely by hand, or those made in limited quantities. USSEN M S Wright of the dip, while Trimble notes that such a softening is in That includes work by individuals like Moos, who crafted all his Ra line with patterns seen in other markets as serious buyers emerge. own designs. Among the top-of-the-list names are early RUUN B Home base for this market is understandably where the master Klint, who trained most of the cabinetmakers at the BLOUINARTINFO.COM | OCTOBER 2016 ART+AUCTION “Scandinavian design is always going to be desirable because it’s so user-friendly.” —Evan Snyderman, R & Company Furniture School of the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, after combination being a seating piece of rosewood in and his follower Ole Wanscher.