Jens_Quistgaard_Fjord_Pattern_silverware

Dansk Designs (also known as Dansk International Designs starting in 1954) is an American distributor and retailer of cookware, tableware, and other home accessories based in

Mount Kisco, New York Mount Kisco is a Administrative divisions of New York#Village, village and Administrative divisions of New York#Town, town in Westchester County, New York, United States. The town of Mount Kisco is coterminous municipality, coterminous with the ...

. In 2021, the brand Dansk was acquired by

Food52 Food52 is a recipe and cookware website. Founded in 2009 by Amanda Hesser and Merrill Stubbs, formerly of the ''New York Times'', its website is intended as a platform for users to publish recipes and discuss cooking. The company also produces it ...

History

On a trip to

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

in 1954, Americans

Martha Martha (Aramaic language, Aramaic: מָרְתָא‎) is a Bible, biblical figure described in the Gospels of Gospel of Luke, Luke and Gospel of John, John. Together with her siblings Lazarus of Bethany, Lazarus and Mary of Bethany, she is descr ...

and

Ted Nierenberg Theodore David "Ted" Nierenberg (May 20, 1923 – July 31, 2009) was an American business executive and entrepreneur who created Dansk International Designs, a company that sells Scandinavian Design-style cooking and serving utensils and ot ...

went in search of a product to manufacture and produce for a U.S. audience. During a visit to the Museum of Arts and Crafts ''Kunstindustrimuseet'' (today the

Danish Museum of Art & Design The Designmuseum Denmark () is a museum in Copenhagen for Danish and international design and crafts. It features works of famous Danish designers like Arne Jacobsen, Jacob Jensen and Kaare Klint, who was one of the two architects who remodele ...

''Designmuseum Danmark'') in

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...

, they saw a unique set of

cutlery Cutlery (also referred to as silverware, flatware, or tableware) includes any hand implement used in preparing, serving, and especially eating food in Western culture. A person who makes or sells cutlery is called a cutler. While most cutlers ...

on display that combined

teak Teak (''Tectona grandis'') is a tropical hardwood tree species in the family Lamiaceae. It is a large, deciduous tree that occurs in mixed hardwood forests. ''Tectona grandis'' has small, fragrant white flowers arranged in dense clusters (panic ...

and

stainless steel Stainless steel, also known as inox, corrosion-resistant steel (CRES), or rustless steel, is an iron-based alloy that contains chromium, making it resistant to rust and corrosion. Stainless steel's resistance to corrosion comes from its chromi ...

, created by artist-designer Jens Quistgaard.Fox, Margalit
"Jens Quistgaard, 88, a Designer of Popular Tableware, Is Dead"
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'', February 2, 2008. Accessed August 4, 2009. The Nierenbergs tracked down Quistgaard and spoke with him in an effort to convince him to manufacture the cutlery. At first, Quistgaard insisted that the pieces could only be

forged Forging is a manufacturing process involving the shaping of metal using localized compression (physics), compressive forces. The blows are delivered with a hammer (often a power hammer) or a die (manufacturing), die. Forging is often classif ...

by hand, one piece at a time, but Nierenberg was able to convince him they could be mass-produced, leading to Dansk Designs' first product, ''Fjord'' flatware, which has been one of the brand's enduring bestsellers.Fox, Margalit
"Theodore Nierenberg, Founder of Dansk, Dies at 86"
''

'', August 3, 2009. Accessed August 4, 2009. The Nierenbergs established Dansk that year in the garage of their

Great Neck, New York Great Neck is a region contained within Nassau County, New York, Nassau County, New York (state), New York, on Long Island, which covers a peninsula on the North Shore (Long Island), North Shore and includes nine incorporated villages, among th ...

, home, with Quistgaard as its founding designer. The name is the Danish word for ''Danish''. By the end of 1954, Ted Nierenberg attracted orders for several hundred units from stores all around the United States, and the business took off from there.Reif, Rita
"Accessories Designed by Dane Proving Popular in U.S. Homes; Jens Quistgaard, Son of Noted Sculptor, a Born Craftsman"
''

'', October 10, 1958. Accessed August 4, 2009. By 1958, Nierenberg and Quistgaard had expanded Dansk's wares to include teak magazine racks and stools, stoneware casseroles, salt and pepper grinders, and flatware with split cane handles. ''

'' credited Dansk with "creating a stir" with "some of the most popular accessories found in American homes." As the company name suggested, Dansk came to epitomize

Danish modern Danish modern also known as Scandinavian modern is a style of minimalist furniture and housewares from Denmark associated with the Danish design movement. In the 1920s, Kaare Klint embraced the principles of Bauhaus modernism in furniture de ...

design in the urban American market. By 1982, Quistgaard had created more than 2,000 different designs for Dansk of dinnerware, glassware and items for the home. Dansk relocated its headquarters to

, in the 1960s. Dansk was purchased in June 1985 by Dansk Acquisition Corp. in a deal initiated by

Goldman Sachs The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational investment bank and financial services company. Founded in 1869, Goldman Sachs is headquartered in Lower Manhattan in New York City, with regional headquarters in many internationa ...

. Dansk was acquired in 1991 by the Brown-Forman Corporation and incorporated under its Lenox subsidiary. On March 16, 2009, a group of investors led by Clarion Capital Partners LLC purchased the assets of Lenox—including Dansk—and renamed the company Lenox Corporation. As of January 2018, Dansk continued as a brand of Lenox with headquarters located in

Bristol, Pennsylvania Bristol is a borough (Pennsylvania), borough in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is located northeast of Center City, Philadelphia, Center City in Philadelphia opposite Burlington, New Jersey, on the Delaware River. Bristol was s ...

. In May 2021,

, the content-to-commerce platform founded by

Amanda Hesser Amanda Hesser (born 1971) is an American food writer, editor, cookbook author and entrepreneur. Most notably, she was the food editor of ''The New York Times Magazine'', the editor of '' T Living'', a quarterly publication of ''The New York Times' ...

, purchased Dansk from Center Lane Partners with plans to revive the brand. Dansk designs are recognised for their artistic merit and several examples are held in the collection of the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...

References

External links

Official siteDansk collection
in the

Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum is a design museum at the Andrew Carnegie Mansion in Manhattan, New York City, along the Upper East Side's Museum Mile. It is one of 19 Smithsonian Institution museums and one of three Smithsonian facil ...

{{Authority control Companies based in Westchester County, New York Retail companies established in 1954 Home decor retailers 1954 establishments in New York (state) Cutlery brands