Art Collectors Table

Finn Juhl designed the table for his and Niels Vodder's stand at the Cabinetmakers' Guild Exhibition at the Danish Museum of Art & Design in 1948, which they named "An Art Collector's Study". House of Finn Juhl found this stand particularly intriguing, inspiring the company to create "An Art Collector's Study Anno 2018" for the Salone del Mobile exhibition in Milan. At the fair, the 48 Chair and the 48 Sofa Bench were relaunched. Half a year later, House of Finn Juhl chose to relaunch yet another design from Finn Juhl's well-curated 1948-stand.

Even though the small table was a part of Finn Juhl's watercolours, depicting the composition of the stand - as well as the fact that detailed sketches revolving around the shape of the table exist, it cannot be spotted in any of the photographs from the 1948-exhibition. One can only guess as to why the table itself never made it into production. However, a rather qualified guess is that it became too intricate and time consuming for master joiner Niels Vodder to produce at the time. Even today the production is an advanced process, with very low degrees of tolerance and where precision in every detail is vital to the design as a whole.

In its closed form, The Art Collector’s Table presents itself with a simple, graphical expression, but it contains a very special hidden feature. Upon closer inspection, the richness in detail will unfold before your eyes; The split tabletop can be unfolded, revealing a glass case - a treasure chamber for the collector's most valuable objects. While the table is unfolded the leaves still function as two separate tabletops on which one can place a cup of coffee, while admiring the objects on display in the glass cover.