Sideboard attributed to Takashi Okamura & Erik Marquardsen
Sideboard attributed to designers Takashi Okamura & Erik Marquardsen, produced by O. Bank Larsen Møbelfabrik in the 1970’s in Denmark. This compact, yet highly detailed credenza, features 3 drawers and an open compartiment, hidden by a teak sliding door. The slightly slanted corners, the tapered oak feet or the sculpted handles, the quality of this design becomes clear in the details. The edges on both back ends have using marks and the inside shelf is a new one. Overall condition is good. There’s still a darker circle on the top, but we left this untouched to keep the warm patina and lovely woodgrain on this extraordinary piece.
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Dimensions:
W: 173,5 cm
D: 46 cm
H: 70,5 cm
Weight: approx. 45 kilo
Material: teak, oak
Erik Marquardsen was born in 1949 in Nykøbing, Denmark where he was trained to become a cabinet maker and designer by master cabinetmaker Karl Olsen Toreby in the late 1960’s. He met with Takashi Okamura at the School of Applied Arts in Copenhagen.
Takashi Okamura was born in Nagano, Japan, a region known for excellent furniture craftsmen who work with Kiso Hinoki, a type of cypress. He went to Denmark in 1971 when he was 21 years of age. “In Japan, I studied interior design at a vocational school, but I wasn’t particularly interested in furniture design at the time”, Okamura said in a 2022 interview* . “However, I became interested in Scandinavian design in general, and that led me to want to see it firsthand by visiting the Nordic countries..When I arrived in Denmark I felt Danes share some sort of emotional connection with Japanese people, and our sensibilities overlap in some way. This is also probably one of the reasons why Danish design is so popular in Japan”.
In Denmark, he first studied at the School of Applied Arts in Copenhagen and then set up an office with classmates working from an empty flat from a girl from school. “We were in a semi-basement room, and the girl who rented the room lived elsewhere, so we used it without informing the landlord. We just set up a phone and started taking orders”, Okamura recalled.
Takashi Okamura & Erik Marquardsen have been working together ever since. In 1973 they created Design O & M, a design agency that worked for many Danish, Swedish, Italian and Japanese manufactures like Getama, Carl Hansen & Son and Hay.
Their main activity is the design of furniture but they also made many studies of industrial design products, graphic design and layout. One of the most intense collaborations was with Skipper Furniture. This collaboration started in 1981 and it has resulted in a large number of chairs and sofa models for both private and public spaces, including places such as The Royal Theater in Copenhagen, Billund Airport, and Vejle Opera House. They won international prizes for their work like the Japanese Good Design Award.
Design O & M is still active today. Okamura’s daughter Aya runs a consulting business connecting Japan and Denmark, and in one of her projects, Takashi designed the “Olive Barstool which is still being produced today. “If you look closely, there’s still plenty of room to create”, says Okamura. “This is because the ways furniture is used and the ways people live are always changing. If we think about who will use it and how, I believe that new and exciting designs that can be shared with the world will continue to emerge from Japan”.
*(source: interview written by Seiji Ando on ayanomimi.com)
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