Finn Juhl separated the frame of a chair from its seat, so the upholstered shell appears to sit inside the wooden structure rather than on top of it. The result looks lighter than it is.
He presented the Pelican Chair at the Copenhagen Cabinetmakers' Guild Exhibition in 1940, and it is the clearest example of him letting sculpture lead.
The 1955 sideboard shows the other side of his practice. The cabinet appears to float on a slender steel frame, and the sliding doors are finished in blocks of colour rather than wood. Those colours came out of Juhl's interest in Goethe's colour circle, which arranged colours by how they relate to one another rather than by spectrum order. The doors were chosen to sit in harmony, and it is the reason the piece still looks deliberate rather than dated.
For other seating from the same period, see modern lounge chairs and modern armchairs.
The storage is the strongest part of this collection and the part most people are looking for.
Designed in 1955, with a cubist influence that shows in the way the case is broken into blocks. The cabinet sits on a slim powder-coated carbon steel frame with wood feet, which is what gives it the floating look.
From GBP 1,364.50. The Mobelaris version is 196 cm wide, 45 cm deep and 90 cm high, in solid American walnut veneer hardwood with a walnut veneer top, and sliding doors in a blue and white scale. It weighs 50 kg.
Two things follow from those numbers and neither is obvious from the photographs:
Worth knowing before it turns up. The sideboard is delivered to kerbside in an export wooden crate, and assembly is legs only, with instructions included. At 50 kg or more, every storage piece here is a two-person job from the kerb to the room.
Five seating pieces from four designs, and they are not interchangeable.
From | W × D × H (cm) | Seat height | Weight | Upholstery | Lead time | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
No. 45 chair | GBP 544.50 | 70 × 77 × 85 | Not published | 18 kg | Fabric on solid ash | 48 to 72 hours |
Pelican Chair | GBP 814.50 | 80 × 81 × 69 | 41 cm | 22.5 kg | Hand-sewn wool | 12 to 16 weeks |
Poet two-seater | GBP 1,454.50 | 138 × 83 × 87.5 | 42.5 cm | 40 kg | Wool on walnut | 12 to 16 weeks |
Chieftain chair | GBP 1,494.50 | 99 × 91 × 94 | Not published | 18 kg | Black leather on solid walnut | 12 to 16 weeks |
Chieftain sofa | GBP 1,829.50 | 148 × 91 × 94 | Not published | 39 kg | Black leather on solid walnut | 12 to 16 weeks |
The 1940 design, and the reason Juhl is remembered as a sculptor as much as a designer. The wraparound arms enclose the sitter, which is where the name comes from.
The Mobelaris version sits on a reinforced fibreglass and wood frame with ash legs, in hand-sewn wool, and arrives fully assembled. It comes in black, orange, light green, light pebble grey or grey.
Note the proportions: at 69 cm high it is a low chair, lower than most armchairs, and deeper than it is wide. It is built for sinking into, not for sitting upright at a table.
Both in solid American walnut with black leather, and both arrive fully assembled. The chair is 99 cm wide; the sofa uses the same 91 cm depth and 94 cm height across 148 cm, so the two read as a pair.
The No. 45 is solid ash with high-density foam and fabric upholstery, fully assembled, and the only piece in this collection held in UK stock. The Poet is a small two-seater rather than a full sofa, on a walnut frame with wool upholstery, and suits a room where a full sofa would dominate.
Finn Juhl was a Danish designer whose work separated the frame of a piece from its upholstered shell, so the seat appears to rest inside the structure rather than on it. He is best known for the Pelican Chair, presented at the Copenhagen Cabinetmakers' Guild Exhibition in 1940, and his cabinetmaking, including the 1955 sideboard, is as characteristic as his seating.
The Finn Juhl sideboard is his 1955 storage design: a cabinet with coloured sliding doors and trays that appears to float on a slim steel frame with wood feet. The Mobelaris version is 196 cm wide, 45 cm deep and 90 cm high, in solid American walnut veneer with a blue and white door scale, and weighs 50 kg.
The colours came from Juhl's interest in Goethe's colour circle, which arranges colours by how they relate to one another rather than by position in the spectrum. The door panels were chosen to sit in harmony rather than contrast, which is why the piece reads as considered rather than playful.
196 cm wide, 45 cm deep and 90 cm high, weighing 50 kg. That is longer than most sideboards, close to two metres of wall, but unusually shallow at 45 cm. The shallow depth is what lets it work in a hallway or a narrow dining room where a deeper cabinet would block the walkway.
To kerbside, in an export wooden crate. Assembly is legs only, with instructions included. At 50 kg it needs two people to move from the kerb into the room, so plan for that rather than expecting a room-of-choice delivery. The media unit and the Nyhavn desk are heavier still, at 57.5 kg and 55 kg.
The Pelican Chair is Juhl's 1940 design, with wraparound arms that enclose the sitter. The Mobelaris version is 80 cm wide, 81 cm deep and 69 cm high, with a seat at 41 cm, on a reinforced fibreglass and wood frame with ash legs and hand-sewn wool upholstery. It weighs 22.5 kg and arrives fully assembled.
Credenza is the usual alternative, and in modern furniture the two terms describe the same thing: a long, low storage piece. Credenza was historically a dining-room term, while sideboard had wider use. The Finn Juhl sideboard here is 90 cm high and 196 cm wide.
Alongside the sideboard and the Pelican Chair: a matching media unit, the Nyhavn desk, the Chieftain chair and its sofa, the No. 45 chair and the Poet two-seater sofa. The media unit shares the sideboard's 45 cm depth, and the Chieftain chair and sofa share the same depth and height.
From GBP 544.50 for the No. 45 chair, GBP 814.50 for the Pelican Chair and GBP 1,164.50 for the Nyhavn desk, up to GBP 1,364.50 for the sideboard and GBP 1,829.50 for the Chieftain sofa. Every piece lists a five-year warranty. Prices on the grid above are current and include any active sale. Each piece is sold as a reproduction, and every Mobelaris product page states that the item is not manufactured by or affiliated with the original designer.
The No. 45 chair is held in UK stock and dispatches in 48 to 72 hours. Everything else in the collection takes 12 to 16 weeks. Each product page shows its own estimate under the Add to Cart button, and timings are confirmed by email once the order is placed.
