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Marilyn Monroe kneeling on a chair.
Maxima Chair by Max Clendinning
Henry Fisker passed away
Henry Fisker
Fisker with WegnerI found this in memoriam today on the FaceBook page of PPMoebler
A legend in Danish woodworking has left us.
Cabinetmaker Henry Fisker was born February 21, 1928 in Vejen, Denmark, and in his childhood he got a close friend in the neighbor’s 5 year older boy Ejnar Pedersen. Henry was trained cabinetmaker from Schou Andersen in Vejen and then moved to Allerød, north of Copenhagen, to work with Ejnar and Ejnar’s big brother Lars Peder Pedersen. They first worked at Knud Willadsen’s workshop at Gl. Lyngevej, where Henry and the two brothers were a major driving force. But when Knud’s workshop burned down and had to close, Ejnar and Lars Peder founded PP Møbler on the corner of Toftevej and Vestvej. Shortly after the new small workshop was completed, Henry was recruited and developed a unique lifework by thoroughly and stubbornly building a craft culture with an uncompromising attitude to quality and a relentless appetite to solve all kinds of craft challenges – including those apparently impossible.
Wood was the fascination for Henry, and he meticulously analyzed the properties of each type of wood in order to obtain the optimal utilization of their qualities and adapt his machine layouts to perfect the processing of each item. Understanding wood and how it behaves when working with it was the objective, and for Henry, machinery was the tool, and he worked intensely and ambitiously to find the best technical solution to a craft challenge. His work was very tangible, but the ideas behind was always innovative and imaginative, and when he worked with the most difficult tasks, Henry often wished he could get around the laws of gravity.
Henry has made a great number of prototypes and productions of furniture designed by designers, artists and architects such as Poul Kjærholm, Finn Juhl, Gunnar Aagaard Andersen, Nanna Ditzel, Ole Gjerløv Knudsen and many others, but most of his work has been focused on development and production of furniture designed by Hans J. Wegner, with whom Henry enjoyed a lifelong friendship. Wegner and Henry had a deep mutual understanding of the craft and a common fascination of wood both as an element of nature and as a material for the craftsman.
Henry, or Fisker as he was called, worked at PP Møbler continuously for more than 50 years and in 2004 he received the Queen’s honorary medal for faithful service. Henry was stubborn and always told his opinion straight, also to the management, and he generously shared his knowledge. He has been a key driving force in building the exceptional quality for which PP Møbler has become world-renowned, and he stands as a brilliant representative of the very spirit of the workshop.
Despite his immense experience, however, he never stopped learning, and he continued to allow himself new insight; as he said: “I’ll never be done with wood. Being a skilled woodworker is a lifelong education”.
Henry Fisker died at the age of 91.
8 legged Rolling Stool by Wendy Andreu
The 8 Legged Stools on Wheels are made following the idea of absurd complexity. The function of the object is emphasized by over exaggerating its features. The 8 legs bring a certain heaviness to the piece that needs to be carried by wheels.
The sculptural stools are carefully handcrafted in steel, and patinated following two types of hues: Black Shaded color way and Decay color way.
Weny Andreu was born in 1990 in Oloron-Ste-Marie, France.
She graduated Cum Laude from Design Academy Eindhoven.
Re Edition of the HOPMI Chair by Gerrit Rietveld
The Hollandsche Patent Metaal Industrie or “HOPMI” was a manufacturer of several metal specialties. Parts for Bicycles for instance as locks. It also manufactured 2 HOPMI chairs designed by Gerrit Rietveld somewhere in 1932. One of the two was acquired by a Dutch Univereity professor, Prof. Lanjouw from Utrecht, whose heirs have given this chair on loan to the Central Museum of Utrecht in 2008. The Utrecht Central has the largest collection of Rietveld chairs. Then this chair was actually rediscovered. I posted about the discovery in 2008 already.
Later a Dutch architect, Victor Veldhuizen van Zanten got the idea to create a limited edition of 250 Hopmi Chairs in cooperation with a grandson of Gerrit Rietveld, Egbert Rietveld, who runs the label Rietveld Originals.
According to My Modern and photo’s of their site the limited edition was produced by Precision Engineered Products Inc. There is even a one page site rietveldhopmistoel.nl
The photo here I took at the home of a friend who has bought one of te limited edition chairs.