Across Mine-Filled Waters with Peder Moos

The uncompromising Danish cabinetmaker Peder Moos has created several of the furniture pieces at Bruun Rasmussen’s international spring auction for design – including a unique stool, which was part of the exhibition ”Danish Art Treasures – through the ages” in London in 1948. The preview opens on Thursday 25th February and the auction is held on Thursday 10th March.

In the fall of 1948 two Danish Navy ships left Copenhagen harbour with a cargo consisting of several thousand years of Danish cultural history. Their destination was the British capital and the mission a large-scale exhibition named "Danish Art Treasures – through the ages" at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. The exhibition was an attempt to raise awareness of Danish culture, but also an expression of Denmark's diplomatic interests after World War II, where Denmark wanted to express its gratitude to Great Britain for their role in the conflict as part of the Allied Forces.

From National Treasures to H. C. Andersen Safety Rope

Architect and Professor Kaare Klint was hired as curator for the exhibition, which united a strong team of national ministries, museums and private art collectors. The bar was set high, and the 685 items included everything from national treasures and modernistic crafts to Medieval Christian art and a safety rope belonging to Hans Christian Andersen. Opening day was celebrated with pomp and circumstance: the entrance was flanked by a replica of the Jelling Stone, the Copenhagen Royal Chapel Choir sang hymns and both the English and Danish regent couples participated. The exhibition was a huge success with audiences, but it also received its share of criticism – because how could one justify risking the entire Danish cultural heritage in a voyage across the mine-filled waters between Denmark and Great Britain?

Moos’ Unique Stool in London

One of the exhibited items was a beautiful stool in rosewood, designed and manufactured by the uncompromising Danish architect and cabinetmaker Peder Moos.

”The unique furniture piece has now found its way to our spring auction and stands as a testimony to Moss’ exquisite abilities as a cabinetmaker. Like no other, he managed to highlight the living quality of wood as a material. Given the times he worked in, where machines were truly moving into the carpenter’s work places, Moos must be regarded as something of an anachronism. He maintained the traditions of the craft and remained faithful to the workbench and the hand drill. The method was extremely time consuming and costly, and therefore most of his production was made to order” says Peter Kjelgaard, head of the design department at Bruun Rasmussen Auctioneers in Copenhagen.

The stool was first shown at the Cabinetmaker Guild Exhibition in 1948, and it is probably here that a representative for the exhibition in London discovered it at the last minute and asked the buyer, a Mrs Moesgaard, for permission to bring it across the North Sea. It was one of the few privately owned objects in the exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum, and in the extensive catalogue it appears with the added number of 629a.

At the auction we can present an ensemble of Moos' other unique furniture - three nesting tables, an armchair and a coffee table.

Preview: 25-29 February in Bredgade 33 in Copenhagen

Auction: 10 March at 4 pm at the same address

Peder Moos: A unique Brazilian rosewood stool with tall, open sides. Numerous inlays and woven openwork seat of boxwood. Seat weave pinned with circular rosewood inlays. Signed Moos 1948 and monogram. Made 1948 by cabinetmaker Peder Moos. With exhibit paper label from V&A, London. H. 42./57 cm. Estimate: DKK 400,000-600,000 / € 53,500-80,500