Quistgaard Cast Iron Stove / Fireplace  

Very interesting. I will look around for you. I'd be very curious to see more photos, especially with the doors on; there must be some other angle where it looks more like a Quistgaard design?

appreciated Leif. Photos of the door will have to wait a few weeks unfortunately -- this item in storage at a remote location and won't be back til then.

Very interesting indeed. I have never heard of such a thing. However, here are two bits of info that might lead somewhere:
1) From the NYT obit for JHQ: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/02/arts/design/02quistgaard.html?_r=0
"For Christmas, the 14-year-old Jens requested, and received, a blacksmith forge and anvil."
2) One of his earliest designs was the Anker line for De Forenede Jernstøberier, which was an association of Danish companies that made cast iron products. Perhaps he did other early designs that have since been forgotten.
Would you happen to be located in Denmark?

thanks -- appreciate all those thoughts. and i'm actually in the US unfortunately.

Very interesting piece! You may want to contact Mark Perlson-He wrote the Danish Pepper book and is very knowledgable when it comes to Quistggard designs. He can be contacted through his blog-the link is below:
http://www.danishpepper.com/contact.html
I am very curious to hear what you discover. Please keep us updated.

dvs,
Unique piece.

Some day I would like to understand why Iens Harald Qvistgaard was so fond of rendering his name according to Latin orthography. Latin did not have the letters J or U, so this is how his name would have been rendered perhaps in some of the earliest Danish to be written in the Latin alphabet (shortly after Christianity was brought to Denmark, I suppose). In fact, to drive the point home Iens has even replaced the space with an interpunct, which is barely known outside of classical Roman stone inscriptions. We also see this in the IHQ on many Dansk pieces.
The other strange thing is that some Dansk pieces use the modern JHQ.
I suppose perhaps Iens would have argued that Jens is the same spelling of the name. Historically the bottom of the J is just a flourish the scribe could add to an I.

Some Danish guy here actually explained the I vs. J thing a few years ago. I think it was a Dane, anyway. And unfortunately I have forgotten what the explanation was!
edited to add: found it. http://www.designaddict.com/forum/General-discussion/JHQ-vs-IHQ-Quistgaard
and in case anyone wants to hear a couple of Danish guys saying it out loud:
http://forvo.com/word/jens_harald_quistgaard/#da

Yeah, there is that. From that thread I am still not sure if the conclusion is that IHQ is younger or older than JHQ. But that is not really even the question.
The question is why Quistgaard was rendering his name in Latin orthography? What did that mean to him? And to some extent one mightthat it is just an old way of writing the same thing, which is more or less what was said in the thread, and that is true as far as it goes. But in this case it goes beyond that, witness the interpuncts. He really is writing his name in a fashion that only makes sense in the context of classical Roman inscriptions.
It is also clear from his designs that he was interested history. I suppose it might be that he was interested in the era when the Vikings became Christians. Hence the Viking imagery with Latin inscriptions....?
I don't know the answer....

Back on topic: as cdsilva suggest De Forenede Jernstøbrier aka DFJ (with interpuncts!) is a pretty good lead. The company made cast iron furnaces or boilers (not sure exactly what they were). And they don't look too vastly different than this thing. Although they are much, much more industrial looking. We know that they did home related stuff too because of their JHQ cookware.

After looking at this very big album of photos, which has some great photos of Quistgaard's Anker Line, I do not think it was made by De Forenede Jernstøbrier.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/indmus/albums/72157621902412279

thank you all. keep the comments and threads coming. will see if i can get a few more pics and am still doing other research as well. will update as i find anything. much appreciated.
DvS