I just picked up this...well...shelf thing designed by Aksel Kjersgaard. The design is pretty ingenious and I like it a lot. But I'm not sure what it is. A desk? A book shelf? A multi-level table of some sort? Clearly it was designed for a specific purpose because it has that hole in the middle. What's that all about? And then there's the add-on piece with the knob that's really weird. The lady who sold it to me said its purpose is to hold cookbooks (??). I'm baffled. I have something pretty neat here, but I'm not sure what. Can anyone help?
<img class="wpforo-default-im
Hole in the middle for...
Hole in the middle for cables....stenographer's desk? Maybe just a mobile workstation for a administrative worker. You put paper on that shelf so its easy to see while you are typing? Thinking some of the lower shelves could attach to the other side so it would work better as a desk?
Like someone said,
this piece is from the 1970s and it's stamped on the bottom. This is definitely not IKEA. Kjersgaard's stuff is pretty valuable.
In the second pic that I have in my first post, you can see what the add-on piece looks like attached to the shelves. I don't see how it could hold papers. There's no clip or way to attach papers. There are just those slits.
The hole can't be for computer cables because this was made before computers. Maybe it's just decorative.
I've attached a 1stDibs link to one that sold. It doesn't give the price, but it gives better pics than what I posted. It's advertised as a book stand, so that must be what it is. Or maybe it's just a beautiful piece of art and you can use it for whatever you want. I'd still love to know what that extra piece is for though.
http://www.1stdibs.com/furniture/storage-case-pieces/bookcases/aksel-kje...
That photo helped a lot, tktoo. Thanks.
So the hole is for power cords after all. How could Kjersgaard have anticipated the computer age? Maybe this was designed later than the 1970s.
It looks like the add-on piece might be a mouse holder instead of a cookbook holder (still don't get how the seller came up with that one). Except I can't see how it would attach or what purpose the slits and the knob would serve.
Can you post the link to the photo?
Why not contact the company and
find out for sure?
Aksel Kjersgaard
Strandvejen 158 - DK-8300 Odder
Tel. +45 8654 0722 - Fax. +45 8656 0721
E-mail: info@ak.dk
An update
I contacted the company as Spanky suggested and received a terse reply from Jorgen Kjersgaard, presumably the son, saying the mystery piece was designed to hold books and papers. I wrote him back asking him precisely how it worked. Did one add a clip at the top for papers or some kind of shelf at the bottom for books? Was there a way to make it stand at a slant to allow objects to lean on it? And how could you rest something against it when only half of it was over the desk, with the other half over thin air? No response. Oh well. I guess it will forever remain a mystery - part of the desk's enigmatic charm.
interesting
I think tktoo has it right.
Per the company website: http://www.ak.dk/gammel_uk/pc-640.html
"Nissen and Gehl design the Computer Table in such a way that it uses minimal space and still fulfils the need for a Computer Table where you can have all your equipment and at the same time hide all cables in the pillar.
The keyboard shelf and the top shelf are easy to adjust to different heights without using tools."
I don't know why so many sites call it an adjustable book stand and yet nobody has a product photo showing books on it. Did once someone misidentified it and others blindly took it for fact?
http://www.ak.dk/gammel_uk/pc-640.html
Hallo!
This seems to have been posted a year ago, but I can tell you what you've got if you haven't figured it out yet. I bought the same piece about three months ago and puzzled over it myself until last week.
First, let me say that the extra piece you have seems rather rare. Neither the desk available on 1st Dibs nor the one on Etsy has it.
While the extra piece is great for holding magazines, it was designed to hold individual pieces of paper while they were being copied - as in a letter or other piece of correspondence. The slatted, open grid creates negative pressure and you'll see that if you put a piece of paper on the stand while its on the desk, the paper will not slip, slide or move. Ingenious! I love this little gadget, it seems so well thought out and designed and as I said it seems to be something of a rarity. Mine luckily came with one too.
One last thing. In the pictures you show, you've configured it more like a book case with all of the slats facing one direction. I find that the concave slat works best at the first or second highest position - like a desk - with one of the smaller slats reversed two or three positions lower to hold Apple TV, and other Hard Drives and Media. The top takes the monitor and the very bottom takes my Laser Printer and my slippers!
Hope this helps. Enjoy the piece.
All the best,
Tom Swift V
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