wood
clear lacquered walnut
oiled walnut
black painted oak
(wood rain visible)
smoked oak
clear lacquered oak
oiled oak
white oiled oak
soaped oak
Finn Juhl
Teenager, Finn Juhl (1912-1989) wanted to become an art historian, having a passion for the fine arts since childhood. His father stopped him and Finn Juhl started architectural studies. Later, when his fame as a designer of furniture acquired, he speaks of himself as an autodidact, in reference to this upset vocation that forced him to walk intellectually on a lonely way. His style owes much to this singular trajectory, with its non academic interpretation of art visible in his work. Finn Juhl started his studies in 1930, a key period which saw the birth of modern design and furniture.
His modern offices in central Copenhagen was greeting his visitors with a huge Japanese fish in paper, symbol of imagination. And rather than addressing the design of a furniture from an functional angle, in the classical manner, Finn Juhl approached his work in the manner of a sculptor, seeking the beauty of the volume and shape, life and expressiveness, an approach that, in the 1940s and 1950s, was then completely new. For Finn Juhl, it was clear that furniture could not be limited to function, but should also express an artistic sensibility.
Dimensions L221 x W44 x H40 cm
Material solid walnut or oak
In 1951, Finn Juhl designed the bench for Baker Furniture in USA, who named it "Rectangular Cocktail table". However, in the original drawing Finn Juhl referred to it simply as "bench", which is the reason why House of Finn Juhl have decided to name it "Cocktail Bench".
The economy was booming in the US during the 1950s. Hollywood and the new upper class had made cocktail parties immensely popular and Finn Juhl was readily impressed by this newfound American extravagance, which he got to experience through his new and influential American friends. For this reason, the Finn Juhl collection now contains not less than two furniture pieces inspired by the American cocktail parties in the 50’s – The round Cocktail Table and the rectangular Cocktail Bench. The bench can also be spotted in Finn Juhl's own house north of Copenhagen and is well suited as a table for art, a stack of books or a lamp.
