Is this cabinet by Finn Juhl for Niels Vodder?  

More photos

That is one very unusally constructed drawer for a Danish piece. Surprising.

I thought I had a catalog page on this piece. Finally found it. Niels Vodder made and desiged, although very much in the style of Finn Juhl. From an Illums Bolighus:

Thank you so much for that - would you happen to have a year for that refence please? I've been right through the Design Museum online catalogues, but not found this reference - keep on getting lost in daydreams about it being Finn Juhl, but honestly, the knowledge that it's a Niels Vodder is amazing.

Thanks again - super happy 😀

Illums Bolighus (slaps forehead). That's where I saw it.

And for the online record, on the following page in IB, Niels Vodder is listed as the designer of the low cabinet as well.

No clear date in my catalog, but based on the pieces within, looks like late 50's.

I can also add that Niels Vodder's model numbers during the 40's and 50's were basically the designers initials, followed by the year a piece was designed and put into production. If there were multiple pieces put into production that year by the same designer, then they end up receiving the same model number, sometimes with an "a" after the year. The Chieftain chair was model FJ-49a.

While Vodder used designers' initials with the year, retailers often chose to use "NV" instead no matter who the designer was, as their codes were based on distinguishing between multiple manufacturers.

Hence as per the first Lunning catalog listing in post #7, the low credenza, NV-54, was designed in 1954 (or at least put into production in 1954).

That Illums Bolighus is from sometime no earlier than 1960. There is a reprinted snippet from a newspaper in the beginning that is dated 1959.

My guess is the early 60s.

I think that Niels Vodder design this in about 1955. I feel certain I have some bit of documentation on that somewhere, if I can think where that is. Or maybe I saw another catalog that showed the model number, which is the year of design.

I have this piece. It's interesting that my drawers are constructed differently. I have a 1961 illlums catalogue with the cabinet in it. Maybe not finn juhl directly, but I find it odd that it would be acceptable to take his design without credit, though I don't have first hand knowledge of how those disputes would have played out.

My friend has the low version and neither of ours are branded. I got mine from an architects estate in the usa. I spoke to the daughter and she thought it was brought back to the usa after military service in europe.

I'll post up pics of mine when I have a chance.

I should mention that illums catalogue is hardly the authority on designer credits. What is also funny is that a few NY state dealers had already been through the estate before I bought my cabinet. No one knew what it was, though unfortunately for me they did know what an elizabeth chair is, so I missed out on that since I'm from Canada.

Some more pics.

showing the difference in construction.

These are definitely not Finn Juhl designs, even though they look so very much like they would be. Nice cabinet though.

I have not bumped into inaccuracies in the Illums Bolighus catalogs I've looked at. I am curious: do you know of any?

I haven't found any outright mistakes in my 1961 catalogue, however it doesn't list the producers. Also, many pieces have no information. For example, the catalogue will just say sofa, or chest, when in those cases it was a TH robsjohn gibbons for widdicomb sofa I've owned, or the chest or drawers dansk mobelkunst has listed as Jorgen Berg for cabinetmaker William Christensen.

It's a helpful resource for sure, but not comprehensive.

Illums Bolighus was intentionally obfuscating the maker's in the catalogs so that buyers would not have the information to cut them out of the middle, and so that other retailers would not steal the names of their vendors. Common sales practices, although it is unhelpful to us nowadays. Illums Bolighus was especially thorough in this obfuscation.

Many other retailers would use the maker's initials and model number, which is actually fairly helpful to us, or they would at least use a consistent code for the maker, so that by finding one known piece the maker of all can be learned.

It is also very common for lesser known designers to be dropped from catalogs. However there was never any particular logic to which designers or designs would merit naming the designer. I know of an Anton Dam catalog that excised Arne Vodder's name on some pieces, yet used G. Thams' name on his. And I've seen plenty of instances of the extremely famous designers being only named for some of their pieces in a catalog.

So, Illums Bolighus is definitely not comprehensive in telling us everything that could be told, but considering the amount of false information out there, what I care about is that the information it does provide is accurate.

And this is one instance where it does provide us the information that Niels Vodder designed the very Finn Juhl looking sideboard, even if it was extremely in the style of Juhl.

Not that further evidence is needed, but it's always good to have additional corroboration.

Here is a 1972 Den Permanente page, which cites NV as the designer of the low sideboard, while citing FJ as the designer of other pieces in the same photo (Judas table and Egyptian chairs). DP's credibility and accuracy can be considered even higher than IB's.

'72 would have been well after the NV-FJ colloboration ended, which is when earlier discussion speculated when the credenza was most likely designed.