Made by cabinetmaker A. J. Iversen. Venereed mahogany, with brass handles. Denmark, 1940s. The drawers of 3 different heights, increasing from top to bottom. The top three, the middle three and the bottom two have the same height. Height 135 cm, width 75 cm, depth 50 cm.
Son of of art historian Vilhelm Wanscher (1875-1961) and and painter Laura K. Baagøe Zeuthen (1877-1974), Ole Wanscher (1903 – 1985) studied under Kaare Klint at the Kongelige Danske Kunstakademi (Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts).
Working for the best Danish cabinetmakers of his time including Peter and Poul Jeppensen, Rud Rasmussen, France & Son and A.J. Iversen, Wanscher designed pieces influenced by 18th Century English furniture, and by Chinese, Greek and Egyptian earlier decorative art.
Under the guidance of his father and Klint, Ole developed an interest in history of design that brought him to write books about furniture history. Furniture Types (1932), Outline History of Furniture (1941), English Furniture C.1680-1800 (1944) and History Of The Art Of Furniture (1946 -1956) are some of his writings.
He was amongst the founders of the Cabinetmakers’ Guild Exhibition, the event where makers and designers were showing their prototypes. The exhibition, whose catalogues are probably the best reference books for Scandinavian 20th C Design, was held annually in Copenhagen from 1927 to 1966.
In the 1950s Wanscher succeeded Klint as professor at the Kongelige Danske Kunstakademi (1955) and took part to exhibitions in Denmark and abroad including ‘Design in Scandinavia’ (US 1954 – 1957) and ‘Neue form aus Danemark (Germany 1956 – 1959).
He won the gold medal at the Milan Triennale and the Copenhagen Cabinetmakers’ Annual Prize in 1960.
(Reference book for this biography: ‘Scandinavian Design’ by Charlotte & Peter Fiell, Taschen 2002).
