Glove Cabinet

The Glove Cabinet, designed by Finn Juhl for his wife Hanne Wilhelm Hansen, was presented by Ludwig Pontoppidan at the Cabinetmaker’s Guild Exhibition in 1961. This exhibition marked Finn Juhl’s 25th anniversary and became his last exhibition of that kind.

Finn Juhl’s 1961 exhibition became the focal point of strong criticism, especially from designers such as Børge Mogensen and Arne Karlsen, who were followers of the Klint School of furniture design. Their view was based on a social aesthetic functionalism, where unnecessary decoration was frowned upon.

But time has proved his critics wrong. Finn Juhl’s designs indeed possess longevity. With his artistic approach to design, Finn Juhl was one of the few who mastered both functionality and delicate detail. Although women no longer wear gloves like in the 1960s, Finn Juhl’s reinvention of the traditional chest of drawers still stands the test of time more than 50 years later.

This jewellery box of a glove cabinet, with its exclusive cherrywood and brass exterior combined with a daring colourful interior, seems today like an extraordinary tribute to both the past, present and the future.