DANISH.COM: Best of Breed Danish Furniture Designers - Pioneers
Kurt Østervig(b. 1912, d. 1986)
Kurt Østervig started his career as a ship building engineer at Odense Stålskibsværft. He was later hired as a furniture designer by E. Knudsen's Design Studio, one of the leading furniture producers 1930s & 40s.
He became a freelance furniture designer in 1947 working with some of the leading Scandinavian furniture manufacturers of his time.
Østervig?s constant search for new challenges resulted in many original design solutions for furniture used in rest homes, ships, hotels, and movie theaters. He was a master at combining oak with leather and his detailed and perfectly executed drawings were looked upon as works of art.
In the 1960s, one of Kurt Østervig's designs was exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
Why bring up Kurt Ostervig? He's not the best known of the Scandinavian designers - Wegner or Henningsen or Jacobsen would probably fight it out for that honor. But he made beautiful furniture of the highest quality, and he does have a solid reputation among those MCM fans who favor beautiful wood shaped with both genius and loving care.
So anyway, I'm in my local Goodwill store today, and I see these tucked away in a corner:
$5.99. Apiece.
Yes, they're marked Kurt Ostervig.
Of course I brought them home. I haven't decided whether to keep them, or put them on Craigslist. I really don't have room for them, but...they sure are pretty.
Remember when I told you one of the great things about MCM pieces was that you could still find a lot of it around, for astonishingly low prices? And to enjoy it while you still can?
Well, today I'm enjoying it.
