Exploring Copenhagen, by Design

Unlike some of our friends, we are lukewarm shoppers, particularly when it comes to household furnishings. We don’t like the overstuffed items we see in the popular stores around the Washington, D.C., area, where we live. But whenever we are in design-conscious Denmark, where furniture is exquisitely made and unpretentious, we confront temptation at every turn.

Inevitably we end up coveting far more than we can buy. As we’ve found over the years, bargains on high-ticket items await Americans in Copenhagen. And there’s no better year to go shopping here than this one, as Danes celebrate the centenary of the birth of one of their greatest designers and architects: Arne Jacobsen.

Jacobsen, who died in 1971, may not be as familiar to Americans as those other icons of modern design, Ray and Charles Eames, but all three shared the ability to create household items of beauty and simplicity that remain timeless today.

Jacobsen’s talents were multiple. Besides being an architect, he was a superb watercolorist, an outstanding gardener and, like the Eameses, a brilliant industrial designer, not just of furniture but also of lamps, textiles, flatware, porcelain and other accouterments of contemporary living. In the 1950s, Jacobsen, Hans Wegner and Finn Juhl, among others, put Denmark on the world cultural map and gave Danish furniture its reputation. Jacobsen, in particular, embraced new technology and materials, using industrial processes to full advantage.

My wife, Liet, and I were in Copenhagen to attend a wedding in July, a perfect time to be there because the Jacobsen centenary was well underway. Denmark has gone all out to celebrate its native son, with some companies reissuing several of his smaller designs in limited editions. A huge retrospective of his work opens Friday at the Louisiana Modern Art Museum, which, its name notwithstanding, lies a few miles north of Copenhagen. The show will continue through Jan. 12.

Nearly everywhere we went in the downtown part of the city, we came upon examples of Jacobsen’s legacy: buildings--the startling block-long Bank of Denmark, with its six-story-tall lobby, for one--and furniture. For sheer ubiquity, nothing beats his Egg and Swan swivel chairs, which crop up in houses, apartments, offices and shops all across the capital.

The chairs are renowned for their sculpted contours and comfort. In recent years they have become the darlings of art directors because of their suave, quintessential modernity. Hardly a month goes by when I don’t spot one or the other in an ad or TV commercial or on a magazine cover. Though more than four decades have passed since they were designed, they are still so popular that production can barely keep up with demand.

Today, European, Asian and American collectors seem ever ready to pay big bucks for Danish pieces from the ‘30s, ‘40s, ‘50s and ‘60s--the prices depending on the items’ rarity and condition.

“There are two things you can sell forever,” said Simon Andrews of Christie’s auction house in London: “the Eames lounge chair and the Jacobsen Egg chair.” Three years ago at a sale in Sweden, an early Egg in tan leather and its accompanying ottoman fetched the highest price ever paid for a Jacobsen piece: $30,000.

Several stores, such as Dansk Mobelkunst and Klassik, have sprung up in Copenhagen to cater to the new demand for the old originals. As a measure of how much the interest in Danish design has grown in recent years, two Americans living in Denmark, Marilyn and Reese Palley, are trying to list every example of Danish furniture designed and produced between the early days of the 20th century and the present. So far, their database, which they are assembling under the sponsorship of the RealDania Foundation, contains more than 10,000 items and 42,000 images. It should be available online this fall.

To immerse ourselves in Jacobsen, we stayed at the 20-story Radisson SAS Royal Hotel, which opened in 1960 diagonally across from Tivoli, Copenhagen’s charming amusement park. Not only was the steel-and-glass structure designed by Jacobsen; so was everything in it, from door handles, faucets, tableware and ashtrays to all the furniture. In fact, the Egg and Swan first saw the light of day at the Royal.

Despite Jacobsen’s international reputation, the furnishings and much else that he designed received less than sensitive treatment during a modernization several years ago. On a previous visit, I saw a Swan, sitting forlornly in a corner, that had been reupholstered in floral chintz and turned into an ugly duckling.

Taste having come full circle, Jacobsen is back. The hotel recently underwent a two-year-long, $10.5-million renovation, bringing it into the 21st century but sacrificing some rare Jacobsen features like the exquisite wenge wood paneling in the guest rooms. In the earlier remodeling, the paneling had been painted white; now it had to undergo the further indignity of being ripped out.

During the hotel’s recent face-lift, many Jacobsen furnishings found their way into the marketplace and the hands of collectors. Though the hotel has been altered, enough of Jacobsen survives here--from the cantilevered lobby with its floating spiral staircase to its top-floor restaurant with views over Copenhagen--to make staying there worthwhile.

Newly manufactured examples of his furniture and lighting are evident in every room, but particularly in No. 606, which has been preserved as Jacobsen conceived it. Light green and restfully serene, the room draws architects, designers and lovers of good design who are willing to pay $513 a night to inhabit it.

Whenever we are in Copenhagen, Liet and I make a point of visiting Illums Bolighus, one of Denmark’s most exciting home furnishings stores, part of a series of elegant, interconnected shops on the city’s walking street, Stroget. Georg Jensen (silver), Royal Copenhagen (porcelain) and Holmegaard (glass) are some of the other stores in the glittering complex.

We furnished the living room of our first apartment largely from Illums Bolighus, and we regard the store as a museum of modern Danish design where, happily enough, everything is for sale. Now, thanks to the worldwide interest in mid-century modern decor, Illums Bolighus is once again featuring Danish furniture classics of the ‘40s, ‘50s and ‘60s, as well as some from earlier decades when the Danish design movement was beginning.

Some pieces displayed at Illums Bolig- hus never went out of production. Others have been recently reintroduced to meet demand. We saw a leather and mahogany handcrafted Chieftain chair designed by Finn Juhl in 1949. Juhl was considered the most cosmopolitan of the Danish designers, and his furniture is particularly elegant in conception and execution. Illums Bolighus prices the Chieftain at $6,374, and it’s worth every penny, especially because only 78 were made in Juhl’s lifetime and the current production is small. The Chieftain was beyond our budget, but there are many more affordable pieces.

The store sells the Egg in hand-stitched wool upholstery for $3,194; in Washington, D.C., it starts at $8,116 and goes up. The sleeker leather version fetches $5,170 in Denmark, $9,871--and more--across the Atlantic. (The hand-stitching accounts, in part, for the cost; only six or seven chairs can be produced in a week by this meticulous method, which enhances the Egg’s flowing contours.)

On this trip, we dropped by Illums Bolighus with a mission. We needed wool fabric in several shades of blue for four chairs, two of them designed by Juhl, which we had bought in the 1960s and had since banished to the basement of our house. Their beautifully crafted teak frames were too handsome to discard, and we held on to them, hoping that someone in the family would see their value. They caught the eye of my younger daughter, Marissa, a furniture designer in New York, who laid claim to them for her apartment and asked us to buy upholstery for them.

With the help of Bo Overgaard, a salesman fluent in English--as many Danes are--we found the right fabric, soft yet tightly woven for durability, and ordered several yards of it. Then we wandered among the furniture on display, excited to see that some of the old classics, once produced only in teak or rich, dark rosewood, are now available in a range of light, fine-grained woods like beech and maple.

As Overgaard explained, it is still cheaper to buy furniture in Denmark and ship it home than to purchase Danish pieces stateside. For one thing, no importers are involved, nor is there a dealer’s markup to inflate prices. What’s more, on orders of more than 300 kroner (about $39) in Illums Bolighus or any Danish shop, Americans are exempt from the 20% VAT, the value-added tax that Danes must pay on their purchases. The saving handily covers shipping expenses. Even taking U.S. import duty into account, Americans who buy in quantity, Overgaard said, can make up the cost of air fare.

Costs can be cut further if you buy during Illums Bolighus’ monthlong sales in January and August.

Another furnishings store we enjoy browsing in is Paustian, which, like Illums Bolighus, sells new versions of 20th century classics. Their line includes Jacobsen and Eames and also the work of contemporary designers around the world, such as Frank Gehry and Philippe Starck. The lofty and airy store on Copenhagen’s waterfront was designed by Jorn Utzon, the architect of the Sydney Opera House in Australia.

Out of curiosity, we spent much of a morning strolling along Bredgade, a sedate street that runs past one of the avenues leading to the four Amalienborg palaces, home of Queen Margrethe and other members of the royal family. On Bredgade are many shops specializing in modern antiques. (Toward its terminus is the Industrial Arts Museum, which houses masterpieces of the Danish design movement. The wing featuring them is closed for renovation but is scheduled to reopen in September. A couple of years ago, Liet and I spent an hour or so examining its chronological display of items, which gives an excellent overview.)

Browsing in the stores, we were relieved to find more reasonable prices than we expected; some of the furniture was going for less than newly produced counterparts. For $1,597 we could have bought a used mahogany-and-black-leather version of Hans Wegner’s the Chair. (Yes, it’s called that, and it’s even honored on a Danish postage stamp.) The airy, long-legged, sculpted Chair is available new--the design remains in production more than 50 years after its conception--at Illums Bolighus for $2,236. That means that two Wegner chairs we own were a once-in-a-lifetime bargain. When I bought them fresh from Wegner’s workshop in the late ‘50s, they were $145 each.

Even our smaller Danish items have shot up in value. A gourd-like stoneware pitcher I couldn’t resist buying when I was a graduate student in Copenhagen in 1954 now goes for $653. And an enameled metal salad bowl we use daily has climbed from $7 to $98.

Designer Danish furniture and household items are obviously a good investment, but they are worth far more than money to us. Not only are our chairs comfortable but they are also exquisitely made, a rare conjunction of traditional craft methods and modern form that has all but vanished in the commercial world of the 21st century. They have yielded years of pleasure. What’s more, they are something to pass on to our daughters and, in all likelihood, their children.

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Guidebook: Retro in Copenhagen

Telephones: To call the numbers below from the U.S., dial 011 (international dialing code), 45 (country code for Denmark) and the number.

Where to stay: Radisson SAS Royal Hotel, 1 Hammerichsgade; (800) 333-3333, 38-15-65-00, fax 38-15-65-01, www.radissonsas.com. Though remodeled, the hotel retains many Arne Jacobsen features, from its cantilevered lobby with a spiral floating staircase to its top-floor restaurant, Alberto K, which offers fine food and superb views of Copenhagen from every table. Doubles from $197.

Where to eat: Restaurant Jacobsen, 499 Strandvejen, Klampenborg; 39-63-43-22, fax 39-63-43-20, www.restaurantjacobsen.dk. Worth a visit if you’re a Jacobsen fan, and not just because it contains examples of his work: It is located in Bellavista, his grand 1930s scheme for coastal living. French-Danish cooking. Lunch for two, with drinks, $30.

Where to shop: Illums Bolighus, 10 Amagertorv; 33-14-19-41, fax 38-14-99-40, www.royal shopping.dk.

Paustian, 2 Kalkbraenderilobskaj; 39-16-65-65, www.paustian.dk. This lofty and airy store on Copenhagen’s waterfront was designed by Jorn Utzon, architect of the Sydney Opera House in Australia.

To buy modern Danish antiques, try these stores: Dansk Mobelkunst, 32 Bredgade; 33-32-38-37, fax 33-32-38-35, www.dmk.dk. The largest shop selling modern Danish antiques in Copenhagen. Klassik, 5 Christian XI’s Gade; 33-33-90-60, fax 33-33-91-30, www.klassik.dk. Modern.dk, 6 Ravnsborggade; 27-111-818, www.modern.dk.

Museums: Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 13 Gl. Strandvej, Humlebaek, site of a Jacobsen retrospective through Jan. 12; 49-19-07-91, fax 49-19-35-05, www.louisiana.dk/dansk. Open daily 10 a.m.- 5 p.m., Wed. 10 a.m.-10 p.m. Adults $9, children $2.60.

For more information: Wonderful Copenhagen, 1 Gammel Kongevej, DK-1610, Copenhagen V; 33-25-74-00, fax 33-25-74-10, www.visitcopenhagen.dk.

Scandinavian Tourist Boards of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, P.O. Box 4649, Grand Central Station, New York, NY 10163-4649; (212) 885-9700, fax (212) 885-9710, www.visitdenmark.com.

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Dale M. Brown is the author of Time-Life Books’ “Cooking of Scandinavia,” a volume in the “Foods of the World” series.