Dining table model no. FJ 44

Designed by Finn Juhl for the 'Copenhagen Cabinetmakers' Guild' exhibition for Niels Vodder

Denmark 1944

The important and distinctive ‘FJ44’ extendable dining table was designed by Danish architect Finn Juhl and crafted by master cabinetmaker Niels Vodder for the Cabinetmakers’ Guild Exhibition at the Kunstindustrimuseet in Copenhagen, where it was first shown in 1944.

Their collaboration between Juhl and Vodder, which began in the late 1930s and continued through the 1940s and 1950s, was one of the most significant in Danish modern design. Vodder’s unparalleled craftsmanship brought Juhl’s highly sculptural and often complex ideas to life—pieces that challenged traditional methods of furniture making with their fluid lines, asymmetry and organic form. In discussing Niels Vodder, the Danish architectural journalist, Henrik Sten Møller refers to the cabinetmaker as an ‘original craftsman with a distinct sense of humour’; he then goes further to explain possibly why Vodder had ever agreed to collaborate with Juhl: ‘The reason why Niels Vodder became Finn Juhl’s cabinetmaker was that nobody else wanted to produce his furniture. They thought the furniture too strange and furthermore often technically complicated’ (Patricia Yamada, ed., Finn Juhl Memorial Exhibition, exh. cat., Osaka, 1990, p. 18).

Cabinetmakers’ Guild, Kunstindustrimuseet, Copenhagen, 1944

Finn Juhl and Inge-Marie Skaarup, Denmark

Inge-Marie Skaarup, Frederiksberg, Denmark

Acquired from the above by Niels Vodder Jnr, Copenhagen, 1988