The Glove Cabinet | Finn Juhl | 1961
The Glove Cabinet, designed by Finn Juhl for his wife Hanne Wilhelm Hansen, was presented by Ludwig Pontoppidan at the Cabinetmakers’ Guild Exhibition in 1961 as part of a collection of bedroom furniture. The Glove Cabinet is made from exclusive Japanese cherry wood, with drawers painted in Finn Juhl’s warm and cold range of colours. The cabinet is supported by burnished steel legs finished with wheels and brass fittings.
Please note that the actual colours and materials may vary due to different screen balances and settings. While the version shown is supposed to be viewed only as an example, individual material photos can be found via our material page.
Design:
Finn Juhl
Year:
1961, relaunched in 2015
Materials:
Solid Japanese cherry with drawers in a warm and cold range of colours. Legs in burnished steel and wheels and fittings in brass.
Model and Dimensions:
FJ 6100 W: 69 cm | D: 35 cm | H: 52 cm
The Glove Cabinet, designed by Finn Juhl for his wife Hanne Wilhelm Hansen, was presented by Ludwig Pontoppidan at the Cabinetmakers’ Guild Exhibition in 1961 as part of a collection of bedroom furniture. The Glove Cabinet is made from exclusive Japanese cherry wood, with drawers painted in Finn Juhl’s warm and cold range of colours. The cabinet is supported by burnished steel legs finished with wheels and brass fittings.
Design:
Finn Juhl
Year:
1961, relaunched in 2015
Materials:
Solid Japanese cherry with drawers in a warm and cold range of colours. Legs in burnished steel and wheels and fittings in brass.
Model and Dimensions:
FJ 6100 W: 69 cm | D: 35 cm | H: 52 cm
A Tribute to the Past, Present and the Future
The exhibition in 1961, where Finn Juhl presented the Glove Cabinet, marked Finn Juhl’s 25th anniversary and became his last exhibition of that kind. The exclusive cabinet opens up like a jewelry box and reveals a daring and colourful interior.
Finn Juhl’s designs indeed possess longevity. With his artistic approach to design, Finn Juhl was one of the few who mastered both functionality and delicate details. The Glove Cabinet was originally designed by Finn Juhl for his wife, Hanne Wilhelm Hansen as an elegant storage for her glove collection. Although women no longer wear gloves like in the 1960s, Finn Juhl’s reinvention of the traditional chest of drawers still stands the test of time more than 60 years later. Today the Glove Cabinet is an extraordinary tribute to both the past, present and the future. The delicate Glove Cabinet can also be spotted in Finn Juhl’s own house in Ordrup north of Copenhagen.
One Last Experiment
Finn Juhl partakes in the Cabinetmakers' Guild Exhibition in 1961 where he presents the small and delicate Glove Cabinet as part of a bedroom suite which was originally designed for Hanne Wilhelm Hansen. The bedroom is experimental in its expression and stands in stark contrast to much of Finn Juhl’s earlier work. He consciously seeks out a different expression and the room invokes a playfulness in terms of shapes and materials.
The experimental 1961 exhibition became the focal point of strong criticism, especially from designers such as Børge Mogensen and Arne Karlsen, who were followers of the Klint School of furniture design. Their view was based on a social aesthetic functionalism, where unnecessary decoration was frowned upon.
Finn Juhl took a humoristic stance when he responded to the criticism: “But why should we take the joy out of everything? It is completely wrong of these two stern critics to warn the young against using their imagination - and pointless too, by the way, for they will probably do so, no matter what” he rebutted. Curiosity and inventiveness are defining characteristics of Finn Juhl’s work both as an architect and a furniture designer. This became especially apparent at the 1961 exhibition.
