Zephyr Leif Renner

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Zephyr Leif Renner

Dedicated to Danish Modern Furniture as Art

03/10/2026

The was spectacular as a whole but I loved the details so much. Here are a few. You want a see this place. And many many thanks to for giving us the tour!

12/09/2025

Final sale! Finn Juhl sewing box circa 1949 from the estate of Poul Lund, owner of Bovirke: $2000 OBO. Finn Juhl Bo63 4 side chairs $3000 OBO. Johannes Aasbjerg Langbordet coffee table $1500 OBO. Finn Juhl Tivolí sofa by OneCollection $1500 OBO. Let me know if you are interested in any of this! Thank you

01/04/2025

Elite danish design was a very small world. Finn Juhl, Arne Vodder, Just Lunning, Poul Lund, George Tanier, Helge Sibast, and many others knew what the Palette’s story was. We don’t. We put our own preconceptions, financial incentives, pride onto it. The Palette challenges us. Here is the Palette in 1957: a message from Finn Juhl to Arne Vodder. The Palette was just the symbol and everyone who knew the story understood the message. Let’s back up: Lunning was a quiet genius Danish American behind Danish Modern. He found a market for Finn Juhl amongst wealthy New Yorkers in his Georg Jensen store, just as his father had with silver. In the mid 1950s he separated the furniture business out. 1957 was his first furniture catalog. Going back again: in 1952 Juhl and Lund became the came to control Bovirke. Juhl allowed the old booth that Arne Vodder had put together with the Palette, but he put everyone’s attention on his new booth. And then it seems he made the Palette disappear, until 1957. We can see a confirmation in Arne stamping the 1949 drawing again in 1957. I wonder what Arne was thinking when Lund would have asked him to get the Palette drawing after all this time? The first 9 pages of the Lunning catalog are all Finn Juhl, 25% of the catalog. There is the Palette: Juhl & Lunning saying this belongs to Finn Juhl. But understand the Palette was just a symbol; there was no fortune in the design itself. We know little about the relationship between Juhl & Vodder, probably because neither one wanted to talk about it. We don’t even know why. The rest of the message is hard to understand. Know this: Finn Juhl was a very original designer. Study his designs and they always send you back to Finn, even when they take a detour. The study of a derivative designer always leads you back to the source of inspiration. The Palette is like this, always leading back to Finn Juhl. We need more evidence to piece together the rest of the story. Maybe the evidence did not die with the people who knew the story? It is coming to light bit by bit.

01/03/2025

The Palette was designed in Jan. 1949. The name on the drawing is Arne Vodder. Much less visible above is the Anton Borg & Arne Vodder stamp from 1957. Proof that Arne Vodder claimed copyright… of Finn Juhl’s exact table top and leg concept from a year earlier. But return to the drawing: the handwriting is Finn Juhl’s, or an intentional copy. Look at Juhl’s very unusual letter R or K. Also, the way it is drawn…. Finn Juhl’s style of drawing. Oh, and Borg & Vodder stamped it again in 1957, now that is a very strange coincidence I have to talk about more. But, what the **** is going on here??!

12/31/2024

What’s here and what’s not? Here’s Arne Vodder’s own handwritten caption on the derivative Palette that he designed for George Tanier… in 1952! The same year that Juhl & Lund took over Bovirke with the two booths, the old Brørup & Vodder booth and the new Juhl and Lund booth. What’s not here? The Palette. Arne immediately drew a derivative of it, but for the new retailer, George Tanier, to be produced on license by Sibast. Interesting that Sibast would not sell it in Denmark? And Tanier got the license to sell Vodder/Bovirke and what is absent? The Palette. In Bovirke’s 55 catalog, what is absent? The Palette. It very much appears that Juhl & Lund’s Bovirke refused to sell the Palette from 1952 onwards, until…. I am going to break here, and go backwards next to the new evidence.

12/27/2024

A Palette Table sighting in 1952. Waffen SS officer Erik Brørup was the son of Carl Brørup. He is very likely the reason why this is all so complicated. Nobody wanted to talk about him or his father or whatever it was that happened here. And before we go further, let me note, the Palette was designed in 1949, not a new design. I will go back and fill this part in soon. So before the father died in 1951, architects designed furniture for him and he marketed it selling some through his store Bovirke. It was certainly not a high point in Arne Vodder’s career when he put this exhibition together for Erik. About 6 weeks before, Bovirke was sold to Poul Lund and Finn Juhl’s booth was added to the program. So there were two “Bovirke” booths, one arranged by Arne, one by Finn. The old Brørup empire by Arne and the new Bovirke by Finn. I suspect the Palette was not even available for sale after 1952. Leaving Erik Brørup in the past was the reason nobody wanted to talk about the Palette Table, certainly not openly.

03/13/2024

Here is Baker’s ‘New World’ knockoff of Finn Juhl’s Reading Chair. Baker offered their furniture mostly in ‘Groups’ and Finn Juhl was one of those groups, but his was the only one that was a solo, named designer. New World was an anonymous collection of designs which could be presented together, although Baker was known for mixing at their own discretion. Some of Finn Juhl’s twice annual market presentations were arranged by him and they did not mix in the other Groups, but other times Finn’s designs would be mixed with the likes of New World, Far East, or the occasional small assortment of designs that Baker commissioned and presented however they pleased from a wide swathe of designers: I.M. Pei, Van Keppel - Green, Philip Johnson, Michael Platt, etc, etc including in-house designers. New World itself, in this large format book as catalog, undated, but going by the known dating of Finn’s designs has to be from 1954 or 1955, was at least 65 contemporary designs. The unifying element, insofar as there was one, seems to have been the ebony finish, with teak, cherry, and cane as accent materials. Detail photos of the chair courtesy of . Nice chairs, but not such a good look on Baker. Given that all of Finn Juhl’s Baker designs are not well documented, it is heartening that the ebony finish so clearly distinguishes New World, regardless of how FJ-like it might be.

03/12/2024

Finn Juhl’s Reading Chair by Bovirke was not the first. Before it, he designed one for Baker, a more sculptural version. Finn believed the Americans were the sort of people who would welcome a dining chair that could be used informally too. Looking back, he might have been wrong about that, as this chair is very rare to find. He also might have been wrong that Baker was the company to show his vision to those Americans, because there is another reason why this reading chair is so scarce…. We will get to that next, but for now, here is a photo of the interior of the Baker January 1953 Market showroom, a watercolor, and a Baker book/catalog from circa 1955. (That table is also exceedingly rare, and somewhat like a Baker version of the Nyhavn desk, but as a dining table).

12/06/2023

A set of 6 of Grete Jalk’s wonderful dining chairs designed for Poul Jeppesen, who led one of the most inventive of the high quality furniture factories of the era. In beautiful solid Brazilian rosewood and black full grain leather. A simple form with subtle curves that lets the grainy rosewood show off. For sale.

11/25/2023

In the late 1950s the combination of Brazilian Rosewood and black leather sold very well. Such designs became iconic of that moment in Danish Modern. Here is Grete Jalk’s chair design for P. Jeppesen. A wonderfully understated form with subtle curves that lets the rosewood show off. A set of 6 for sale…

11/24/2023

Happy Finn Juhl Friday people!

11/21/2023

It is a rare day that I change out the sofa in my living room, but this is the day. My Børge Mogensen 192 daybed needs a new home. If you are interested, let me know; it is now unabashedly for sale. And any guesses what sofa found its way home with me yesterday from the snowy Colorado mountains? (If you need a clue, look at the furniture in the background)

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87106

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