Grand Prix
Kay Bojesen's cutlery of 1938, named for the Grand Prix it won at the Milan Triennale in 1951, made in silver and steel by Kay Bojesen ApS.
- Designed by
- Kay Bojesen
- Made by
- Kay Bojesen
- First made
- 1938
Pictures © Kay Bojesen, from kaybojesen.com.
Why it is renowned
The cutlery won the first prize, the Grand Prix, at the ninth Milan Triennale in 1951 and took its name from it.12 The Victoria and Albert Museum in London holds a silver table knife from the suite, made in Copenhagen in 1942 and given by Kay Bojesen's workshop.2 It is known as Denmark's national cutlery and is laid in Danish embassy residences abroad.1
The story
Kay Bojesen first showed the cutlery in silver in 1938, at a solo exhibition at the Art-industry Museum in Copenhagen.1 He saw cutlery as a tool that should serve the meal and not draw the eye, so each piece was shaped to the hand and the mouth.1 The knife handle is square in section with rounded corners, and its blade is a slight oval with a rounded end.2 Most of the suite dates from 1938; other pieces were added later.2 In 1953 he brought it out in matt stainless steel, so that households without silver could use it every day.1 Rosendahl made the steel version from 1991 until it went back to the family in 2009, and in 2011 his granddaughter Sus Bojesen Rosenqvist relaunched it under Kay Bojesen ApS.1 The range now runs from dinner and lunch pieces to fish and shellfish cutlery, serving pieces, children's cutlery and spoons for salt, jam, latte and broth.3
Sources
- About Kay Bojesen. kaybojesen.com, read 1 October 2026.
- Table knife, Grand Prix, Victoria and Albert Museum. api.vam.ac.uk, read 1 October 2026.
- Grand Prix Cutlery, Kay Bojesen. kaybojesen.com, read 1 October 2026.
Last checked 1 October 2026, against the maker's own pages.