Finn Juhl Prototype Sewing Box Poul Lund Estate

This sewing box was sold by Bruun-Rusmussen in the early 2010s from the estate of Poul Lund. In the early 1940s Lund was the sales manager of the Bovirke “brick and mortar” retail store during its days under the ownership of Carl Brørup who produced many famous Finn Juhl designs starting no later than 1947. In 1951, Brørup died and by 1952, Poul Lund was the owner of the Bovirke store. (It is interesting that Ejnar Pedersen of PP Møbler who started making FJ furniture for Bovirke under contract in around 1953 referred to Finn Juhl as the “owner”).. The rest of the Brørup empire, for instance his other store, Nyt Hjem, and CB Møbler which appears to have been a factory did not go to Poul Lund. However, Lund and Finn Juhl obviously got along well enough because Finn Juhl brought along the copyrights to all his Brørup designs and Bovirke became the new brand. In 1953, the Brørup oak leaf logo was retired for a graphical treatment of Finn Juhl’s new Reading Chair design, showing just how important Finn Juhl was to the newly conceived Bovirke store. He and Lund would continue to collaborate on new designs until at least 1960, when the market for new Finn Juhl designs was gone, although a number of his early successes continued to sell well into the mid 1960s.

Poul Lund’s son, the architect Jørgen Lund, knew this to be a Finn Juhl design, although the date was not known to him being as he was a small child in the household at that time. From my own research I can add an educated guess. In 1949 Finn Juhl designed various case pieces following this pattern of separating the case from the frame. His Silver Chest that was displayed at the Guild that year is a well known if extremely rare example. A low sideboard for Carl Brørup’s Nyt Hjem, resembling the well known Niels Vodder design from 1954, is another. And most importantly he designed a suite for Søren Willadsen, using forms related to the Chieftain, that included a tall linen cabinet, analogous to how the Silver Chest was presented with the Chieftain. Willadsen supplied many danish market furniture stores, like Bovirke and Nyt Hjem, and some Bovirke pieces show indications they were made in Søren Willadsen’s shop presumably under contract. More importantly, the construction of the internal trays in the sewing box exactly matches the trays in tall linen cabinet. Therefore, I am guessing that the sewing box dates to 1949 and is one of the many lesser known designs, or indeed unknown designs that have turned up recently. Given that Carl Brørup and Bovirke outsourced the production of many designs to companies like Sibast, PP Møbler, and Søren Willadsen it could be that it was a Brørup production made by Willadsen.

I have seen one other of the design, done in walnut, which would have been a run of the mill wood choice for 1949, compared to the much more expensive and difficult to work with (then, prior to Charles France’s innovations in 1954), and with various small differences that suggest production refinements. These changes and the fact that it was in the estate of Poul Lund suggest it was a prototype for a design that was produced in likely no more than a few units.

There is a significant cigarette burn inside the box, which was noted and photographed by Bruun-Rasmussen. While normally such a thing would be a detriment to a piece, in this case, it is a convenient permanent “brand” showing that it is the very same sewing box that someone in the Lund family burned, probably, nodding off while smoking and darning socks! The sewing box was privately imported to Canada and sold shortly after auction by a collector I know and then by a stroke of luck I found it again.

Designer: Finn Juhl
Maker: Very likely made in the workshop of Søren Willadsen possibly on contract for Carl Brørup / Bovirke
Year of Design: likely 1949
Model: unknown, but likely close to 72 as it likely dates to the same time as the BO72
Original Retailer: none as it remained in the Lund estate until Poul’s death
Price: on asking