The Ideal Home - Original source material for the best in Scandinavian style
12 June 2020 Original Scandinavian furnishings from a North London flat that featured in Ideal Home Magazine in 1962 are coming up for sale later this month.
A Dansk Kobenstyle yellow enamel casserole dish and cover to a design by Jens Quistgaard - estimate £80-120 at Sworders.
Characterised by simplicity, minimalism and functionality, Scandinavian design is an easy fit for almost any home. Modern reproductions and homages abound in retail shops from Ikea to Habitat but for original pieces from the postwar era the auction room is the place to be.
And you might just find that many vintage pieces, that hold their value and save resources, cost much less than a new good-quality reproduction.
A bespoke wall unit and drinks cabinet by France & Søn (estimate £500-800) shown together with a black and white photo of the piece as it appeared in the May 1962 issue of Ideal Home Magazine.
Sworders’ Mid Century Design sale on June 23 – live on thesaleroom.com - provides an opportunity to buy original Scandinavian furnishings and see exactly how they were displayed in a North London flat in the Swinging Sixties.
Thirteen lots in this auction come from the family of Kurt Heide (1919-85), a German émigré who set up the influential London design store Oscar Woollens in the 1960s. He decorated the Hampstead home he shared with his Danish wife Nanna Ditzel (1923-2005), a furniture and jewellery designer, with the sort of mid-century chatells that attracted a list of celebrity clients to his shop. They were only removed from the property when Heide’s granddaughter vacated in the spring.
Many of the pieces, including a suite of Danish teak furniture by France & Søn and a screenprint of Les Champs Elysees by Bernard Buffet (estimate £400-600), are precisely those that appeared in an Ideal Home Magazine article featuring the house and its ice-cool interior in 1962.
Items such as a bespoke teak wall unit with cupboards and a fall front drinks cabinet (estimate £500-800) or a teak and rattan daybed by Peter Hvidt and Orla Mølgaard-Nielsen (estimate £600-1000) can clearly be seen in situ in original black and white photographs.
The 43 photos, offered in two lots estimated at £200-300 each, include many interior shots of the Oscar Woollens shop inscribed Opening May 1960.
Guaranteed, bidders hoping to achieve the Scandinavia look in their home won’t be short of inspiration.
A France & Søn teak and rattan daybed (with later cushions) by Peter Hvidt and Orla Mølgaard-Nielsen (estimate £600-1000) together with a black and white photo as it appeared in the May 1962 issue of Ideal Home Magazine.
