Mid Century Teak Coffee Table Arne Hovmand Olsen

This beautiful Danish teak table designed by Arne Hovmand-Olsen for Toften Mobelfabrikken. It has lipped sides, turned-up ends and a ‘floating’ top thanks to its brass spacers add to its overall sleek, top quality feel. There is also an under tier for magazine or other storage. This rare, premium table dates back to that golden era of Scandinavian furniture design – the 1960s—and is refinished in Danish oil. Hovmand-Olsen was revered among designers; this perfectly proportioned table a fine example of his fluid and organic style. Born in Kirkeby Sogn in 1919, Hovmand-Olsen’s talent for drawing and design was marked out from an early age. In 1938, he began a carpentry apprenticeship with the cabinet maker Peder Olsen Sibast at his furniture factory on the Danish island of Funen. He enrolled in Århus’s technical school in 1941 to gain an understanding of fashion design and set up his own furniture studio after graduation. Hovmand-Olsen also designed furniture for companies such as Alf Juul Rasmussen, A. R. Klingenberg & Søn, Bramin, Elven Geertsen, J.L. Møller, Jutex, Mogens Kold Møbelfabrik, P. Mikklesen, Pedersen & Knap, and Skovmand & Andersen. His furniture was only sold in Denmark, but his reputation grew when it began to be exported to the US. Connoisseurs will recognise his distinctive style—simple, clean lines, organic curves and tapered legs, touches he also used in the seating, tables and secretaries he produced. And like many of his design contemporaries, he favoured high quality grained woods such as teak and rosemary. The condition is overall very good. Some wearing towards one of the end lips, but nothing to strike the eye, see all pictures.