Kay Bojesen

Why it is renowned

Kay Bojesen's cutlery, first shown in silver in 1938, won the Grand Prix at the ninth Milan Triennale in 1951 and took its name from the prize.¹² It is known as Denmark's national cutlery and is used in Danish embassies around the world.¹ His wooden monkey of 1951 was shown at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London in the 1950s, his designs sold abroad as well as in Denmark in his lifetime, and the monkey has since become a design classic known worldwide.³¹

The story

Born in Copenhagen in 1886, Bojesen trained in Georg Jensen's silver workshop from 1907 and became a silversmith in 1910.¹ He turned to functional, undecorated silver, and in 1922 won a toy competition held by the association Dansk Arbejde, which started his work in wood: cars, trains, horses, dogs, elephants and soldiers of the Royal Guard, each with limbs or parts that move.¹³ In 1931 he started Den Permanente, a shop and exhibition for Danish crafts.¹ He made the monkey in teak and limba in 1951 for a children's room exhibition, as a coat hook with long arms that reach down to a child's height; 600 sold in the first month.¹³ The Grand Prix cutlery came in matt stainless steel in 1953, and in 1952 he became purveyor to the Danish court.¹ He died in 1958. Rosendahl took over the rights to the toys and makes the wooden figures today, and in 2011 his granddaughter Sus Bojesen Rosenqvist founded Kay Bojesen ApS and relaunched the Grand Prix cutlery in silver and steel.¹³⁴

What to know it by

• Grand Prix¹1938Kay BojesenCutlery, prize at the Milan Triennale 1951
• Monkey¹1951Kay BojesenTeak and limba, with hooked hands and feet; made by Rosendahl
• Elephant³Kay BojesenOak
• Bear³Kay BojesenOak and maple
• Royal Guard³Kay BojesenSoldiers of the Danish Royal Guard