Hvidt & Mølgaard-Nielsen Teak Chests, ca. 1965
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GUEST:
We purchased this last year at an estate sale in Fargo.
APPRAISER:
Oh, really?
GUEST:
And it was a good price, so, I love it.
APPRAISER:
What did you pay?
GUEST:
We paid $60 for this. Full price was $120, but second day it went down to $60.
APPRAISER:
And so did you see it set in the room?
GUEST:
Yes, they had it set up with barware in it.
APPRAISER:
It is a really wonderful piece of teak Danish modern furniture. The thing about this 20th-century furniture is, it's got loads of labels on the back of it. This piece says, "Made in Denmark." This is how we know where it was made, this Soborg Mobler. It's basically a furniture manufacturing company. There's also a stamp for John Stuart Incorporated. And the interesting thing about it is that John Stuart was a retailer. He did do some manufacturing in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He also had an outlet in New York City. So he sold high-end Danish furniture. The mystery, though, is, who made this piece? And that is really revealed by the little handles on the front of it. So, you can see, this is a tambour.
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
What I love about this furniture, this tambour, is that it's a form that you see in the late 18th, early 19th century. And they're still using it, it's just so serviceable. But here it is in a piece of furniture from the 20th century. So this tambour is made with a canvas backing, and they've glued pieces of wood, strips of wood, on it, so that it folds very nicely. The handles are known from two furniture makers, designers, out of Denmark. It's designed by the firm of Peter Hvidt and Orla Mølgaard-Nielsen. They were in business in Copenhagen from 1944 to about 1975. Mølgaard studied with the grandfather of Danish modern furniture. And his name was Kaare Klint. If you look at, though, this sort of cabinet, and understand that it has superb finger joints on the bottom of this section, and then also on the top....
GUEST:
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER:
When we look at the top of this thing, we see it's totally finished. And whenever you see a piece of furniture like that, with a finished top, you've got to know it was meant to be seen. It probably is two pieces, two chests that are standing on top of each other. I also noticed on the base that there is a shadow for where legs would have existed on this top piece.
GUEST:
Ah.
APPRAISER:
So, I think it's, you, you got a twofer here. And then there is this other sliding door here, which is all cabinets. But the... You know, the thing about the Danish modern furniture is that they were really working off of the Bauhaus influence from Germany in the 1920s and '30s. And so it was clean line, very, very serviceable, and really meant to be useful.
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
And we know that Denmark had a close relationship with Indonesia, which is where a lot of this teakwood comes from. They were trying to lock up the spice trade in the 17th century. There's still a relationship today with Denmark and Indonesia. The Danes were also experimenting with plywood, and part of this is actually a veneer on top of it.
GUEST:
Oh, okay.
APPRAISER:
So we have a Hvidt-Mølgaard teak chest on chest which was made probably in the mid-1960s, so 1965. And I think it's $2,000 to $3,000, maybe, as a nice auction estimate. What a steal! Right?
GUEST (laughing): Oh, my gosh, $60!
APPRAISER:
Yeah.
GUEST:
That's fantastic.
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