DesignerDanish
Kay Bojesen
4 active items
Few designers have moved as naturally between fine silversmithing and children's playthings as Kay Bojesen, born on 15 August 1886 in Copenhagen. His path into craft began early: in 1907 he started his apprenticeship under Georg Jensen, graduating as a fully certified silversmith in 1910. Jensen reportedly noted that a young man with his abilities could make it far, a forecast that proved accurate over the following five decades.
Bojesen opened his own workshop in Copenhagen shortly after completing his training, and throughout the 1910s and 1920s he worked primarily in silver. His silverware has a directness to it, clean profiles, minimal ornamentation, an obvious concern with how the object sits in the hand rather than how it photographs. This sensibility drove his most enduring silver commission: the Grand Prix cutlery set, conceived in 1938 and comprising 57 separate pieces. When the set was shown at the IX Triennale di Milano in 1951, it took the exhibition's top prize, after which Bojesen named the collection accordingly. The Grand Prix has since been placed in Danish embassies worldwide and is routinely described as the country's national cutlery.
In parallel with his silver practice, Bojesen began carving wooden toys around 1922. The logic connecting the two bodies of work is consistent: lines should smile, he said, and objects should be round and soft and feel good in your hand. His wooden animals, horses, dogs, hippos, elephants, carry this principle in their rounded joints and moveable limbs. The monkey, first produced in 1951 in teak and limba wood, became the most recognisable of them all, though it arrived late in a career already defined by decades of disciplined craft.
In 1931, Bojesen was among the founding figures behind Den Permanente, the Copenhagen exhibition space and cooperative shop that gathered the best of Danish craft production under one roof. The initiative became one of the more consequential institutional efforts to position Danish design internationally during the mid-twentieth century.
Bojesen remained active in his workshop until his death on 28 August 1958. His designs have since been managed by Rosendahl Design Group. At auction, Bojesen works appear regularly across the Nordic market. The 90 items in our database span collectibles, sculptures, and decorative arts, with top results including a sterling silver coffee set with ebony handles at 14,500 DKK and a teak monkey figure at 9,345 SEK. Danish auction houses dominate the volume, Svendborg Auktionerne, Palsgaard Kunstauktioner, and Bidstrup Auktioner account for the largest share.