Tray Table Attributed to Jens H. Quistgaard for Richard Nissen, 1960s

The postwar-era work of Danish sculptor and designer Jens Harald Quistgaard is still exceedingly popular in living rooms, dining rooms and kitchens in the United States, Europe and Japan, particularly in the homes of mid-century design enthusiasts. Having created serving pieces and barware for Dansk Designs for 30 years, Quistgaard produced striking Scandinavian modernist designs that married function with sophisticated form.

After demonstrating artistic talent at a young age, Quistgaard was gifted a forge and anvil so that he could work in his mother’s kitchen. He built toys, jewelry and hunting knives under his father’s tutelage. Later, he spent years learning from local artisans how to produce wood, metal, ceramic and glass models. Quistgaard’s career path solidified during his apprenticeship as a silversmith with legendary Danish silver firm Georg Jensen.

By 1954, Quistgaard had become known for his designs in Denmark when American entrepreneur and businessman, Ted Nierenberg, discovered his work. The two formed a partnership to mass-produce Quistgaard’s wares in New York while the designer remained in Copenhagen. 

The long-distance relationship flourished for three decades, during which millions of Quistgaard pieces were manufactured in the factories of Dansk Designs, Nierenberg’s company. Owing primarily to the partnership between Dansk Designs and Quistgaard, many Americans became familiar with Scandinavian modernism. In the postwar era, American tastemakers sold the citizenry on the “Scandinavian dream,” suggesting that, like us, the inhabitants of the Nordic nations valued home, hearth, family and good craftsmanship and design, as well as democracy. 

The designs for Quistgaard’s Købenstyle line and other collections during the mid-1950s were revolutionary, with bowls built like barrels and charming, lightweight monochrome tableware in enameled steel. Quistgaard utilized exceptional materials in the creation of his coveted cookware and serving pieces, opting for warm teak and exotic woods and reintroducing steel as a go-to option for kitchen wares.

Quistgaard’s designs won numerous awards and are held in the collections of museums all over the world. His work can be found in the Victoria Albert Museum, the Louvre, the Museum of Modern Art and elsewhere.

Find vintage Jens Harald Quistgaard decorative objects, serveware and other furniture on 1stDibs.

Richard Nissen was born in Denmark in 1928. After graduating in 1943, he began working in the factory. Nissen became operations manager in 1952, and in the 1950s, he decisively changed the profile of the wood products factory in the direction of being a manufacturer of design items. In 1955, he began the production of applied art in collaboration with the sculptor Jens H. Quistgaard, and in 1957 he bought the factory from his father. Nissens Trævarefabrik came to play a major role in the Danish Design wave, and for several years Richard Nissen employed about 220 people In 1970, however, internal divisions arose in DANSK Design, and Richard Nissen interrupted the year after the collaboration and continued on his own.