Rainer Daumiller

In 1959, at the age of twenty, Daumiller moved to Denmark. He enrolled in the Artisan School's Furniture Department in Copenhagen - the institution that would become Designskolen - in 1960, studying under Ole Gjerløv-Knudsen and Ole Vestergård. His graduation project was furniture in acrylic, a deliberately unconventional material choice at a time when Danish furniture production was dominated by teak and rosewood. It signalled an ongoing interest in materials that suited the moment: sustainable, honest, and locally available.

Through the late 1960s and into the 1970s, Daumiller lived on a farm commune in rural Denmark, where he developed the ideas that would eventually become his most recognisable work. He arrived in Hirtshals on the northern tip of Jutland in 1975 and began collaborating with the local sawmill, Hirtshals Savværk. The armchair he developed there was launched at the Bella Center trade fair in 1977 and went into full production almost immediately. Solid pine, a rounded triangular backrest, and a slight outward splay on the legs gave the chair a sculptural presence that sat comfortably between rustic and modern. It was a deliberate counter-proposal to the precious hardwoods that had defined Scandinavian design's mid-century reputation.

Hirtshals Savværk went on to produce Daumiller's chairs and tables for close to twenty-five years, distributing through Danish retail networks to Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Norway, and Japan. The Hirtshals pine collection became one of the defining pieces of the Nordic natural-materials movement, arriving just as ecological consciousness began to reshape consumer taste in Western Europe. Daumiller died in 2022, the same year the Danish furniture brand GUBI reissued his armchair in certified solid pine, using the original construction methods.

On the auction market, Daumiller's furniture has developed a steady following across the Nordic countries, Germany, and beyond. The 55 lots recorded on Auctionist are concentrated at Stockholms Auktionsverk locations in Düsseldorf/Neuss, Cologne, and Hamburg, as well as Auctionet - reflecting strong demand in German-speaking markets where the original pieces sold widely in the 1970s and 1980s. A complete set of dining chairs and a table has reached over 26,000 SEK at Swedish auction. Sets in original condition continue to trade between 8,000 and 26,000 SEK depending on size and condition, while sofas in EUR have cleared 8,200 EUR. At 1stDibs, vintage Daumiller sets list for USD 800 to over USD 10,000. The GUBI reissue has brought younger buyers to the original vintage pieces, and the combination of provenance, sustainability narrative, and distinctive silhouette keeps prices firm.