A few of my Dansk teak objects, designed by Jens Quistgaard
Jens Quistgaard was quite the man. Witness his portrait in this 1961 Dansk ad:
Jens Harald Quistgaard, 1919-2008
He was often called ‘the bearded Dane’ in Dansk ads, where he was played up as the design genius behind the company’s products. Artistic and European, he could give your home a proper modern look--chic, up to date, appropriately cosmopolitan.
Handled circular teak tray (with two Kaj Franck pitchers for Arabia)
Some collectors go for the colorful Købenstyle, but I am all about the teak. The early teak pieces designed by Quistgaard have simple, beautiful lines. They are constructed of staved teak--pieces of teak butt-joined and glued together like a barrel (does Quistgaard mean ‘cooper’ in Danish?). Strong new glues were developed and the resulting bowls were touted as water tight. A 1958 Dansk ad suggested that you should hurry to get your staved teak pieces, as quantities of these handcrafted objects were limited.
1958 Dansk ad
Well, I have taken that advice to heart and have been buying teak at breakneck speed these days. I generally look for the earlier pieces made in Denmark.
Did Dansk really call this a gondola bowl, or is that just a popular term? I’ve never seen the term used in early Dansk advertisements or catalogues.
Early mark from the gondola-shaped bowl--the duck mark at the center is a bit faint
I am particularly fond of the so-called 'gondola' and 'canoe' bowls, two early models shaped like boats. Many of the teak pieces are quite heavy, but both of these are thinned down to the point where they are relatively lightweight.
These two images give you a better sense of the size relationship of the two boat bowls. The wider ‘canoe’ bowl, came in two sizes—20 and 24 inches in length.
Another type of teak bowl produced in large quantities by Dansk was the salad bowl. The serving bowl was sometimes available in two sizes and individual bowls and wooden servers were also sold. You can see another great salad bowl form, the Viking bowl, here.
This bowl has an oval opening and overhanging the rim is not flat, but slightly raised at the center
This bowl was available in two sizes--the larger seems a bit harder to find.
Oval teak bowl on the left and cavetto bowl on the right
Dansk produced a number of trays and other objects such as a great magazine rack and wonderful ice buckets. You can read more about those here and here.
Circular teak tray
I have multiples of some pieces, so I really should sell some (you can check out the Dansk pieces in my shop here), but I definitely want to keep a group of the better pieces for my deluxe private collection. I’m still looking for cane and lacquer objects--you don’t see a lot of those around. And I’m still looking for an early Dansk product catalogue to help sort out the different models and when they were produced--if you have any pre-1970 Dansk catalogues, please let me know!
1959 Dansk ad
Dansk’s Rare Wood line is a whole ‘nother ball of wax, as is the Festivaal line of lacquered wood. And the flatware! More on those another time.
You can check out Dansk offerings in my shop here.
© All text and images are copyright of Jeni Sandberg