Home Interiors: The top vintage and classic design buys for 2024

Vintage dealer Geoff Kirk of Kirk Modern reveals the vintage originals and modern design classics worth investing in

Every year I annoy Geoff Kirk of Kirk Modern, one of our premier vintage dealers here in Ireland, to give me his trending forecast. He has a long record in sourcing vintage originals and iconic mid-century modern design classics from around the world, and he does not disappoint for 2024.

What Geoff terms his “headline” picks for investment furnishings are Finn Juhl, Peter Hvidt, and Grete Jalk. Some of these pieces, especially the furnishings, are wildly expensive, but look over their features and train your eye for cheaper second-hand and high street buys to tweak the look to suit your budget.

Finn Juhl Whisky chair, c.1948. Vintage examples from €15,000-plus.

FURNITURE

The house of iconic designer, architect and demi-god of Danish modern Finn Juhl (1912-1989) is still in business. The firm offers new pieces in a similar spirit. Juhl’s Chieftain chair, c.1949, is most familiar for its staging in a 2018 Carlsberg commercial under the backside of purring Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen. 

This year the firm has introduced new versions of its ash reading chair, delivering this diner or occasional in oak and walnut, or painted up in black; POA, finnjuhl.com. Secondhand, model 197 Juhl diners are a good entry point; from around €1,000 for four.

Geoff Kirk of Kirk Modern, Dublin.

Architect and designer Peter Hvidt (1916-1986) is a more affordable Danish master than Juhl, in well-renovated examples, with prices matching the lower end of bespoke contemporary design. With a quick scan, I found a platform-style, teak Minerva sofa by Peter Hvidt and Orla Molgaard-Nielsen for France & Son from the 1950s for €2,600 from a Polish seller on Etsy.

Grete Jalk (1920-2006), another Dane and a legend in Scandinavian design, is known for her sleek work and wide influence on the establishment of modernist design. Famed for her folded form 1963 GJ chair in ply, featured in museum collections, accessible work includes airy open armchairs and sofas starting around €1,200 in good vintage condition.

Trusted sellers of 20th-century design like Geoff can source these and other quality, known makers to order.

This Grete Jalk Danish teak sofa/day bed from the late 1960s/early 1970s sold for €1,200.

TABLEWARE

Iconic tableware and fixtures in stainless steel and brass are having a moment and the magic of honest metal is likely to flash even brighter in 2024.

Geoff suggests choices from Pierre Forsell (1925-2004) for his crafted Swedish brass sconces, salt and pepper cones and candlesticks; from €50. Twenty-four pieces of new flatware, originally designed for the SAS Royal Hotel in Copenhagen in 1957 by Arne Jacobsen (1902-1971), come in around €350, from various suppliers.

Drift coffee set by Robert Welch, from €246, robertwelch.com.

I’m intrigued and delighted by Geoff’s inclusion of Robert Welch MBE (1925-2000) who set up a workshop in an 18th-century silk mill at Chipping Campden in the English Cotswold Hills in 1950. I lived 15 minutes from the studio as a teenager and remember Welch’s table pieces as local and international favourites. They remain superstars of British design. 

A silversmith by training, Welch is credited with introducing stainless steel cutlery to the middle classes as handsome, functional tableware. His Drift coffee sets are still made in Chipping Campden. Look up the organic and lovely Drift coffee pot, from €168, or as a set on an undulating tray from €246. Windrush candlesticks start at €240; robertwelch.com.

CERAMICS

Geoff advises us to look for “Scandinavian art pottery by smaller producers, and more grounded, craft-based unique designs. For example, the work of Mari Simmulson, Berndt Friberg, Anna-Lisa Thomson”.

This is a reminder to go to local potteries, galleries and craft shops wherever you are, and check out their collections, including here in Ireland. A village studio or graduate show from any art school may stage some very special work by a newly minted maker.

Swedish stoneware by Mari Simmulson, €100-€1800.

The stand-out for me is Russian-born Mari Simmulson 1911-2000, for her folksy, charming Swedish work — joyous pieces you won’t tire of. Mari designed for Gustavsberg and Upsala-Ekeby in the 1940s-1960s, and you can find examples of her dishware, vases, wall plates, bowls, and figurines through dealers online and at very good prices. 

Her pieces, influenced by African and Asian design, female subjects, and motifs influenced by painter Marc Chagall are sought after. For a catalogue see mothersweden.com.

Marked pieces by Simmulson are priced from €100-€1,800 from suppliers including 1stdibs.com. For a small spend, West German mid-century vintage “fat-lava” pots in fiery red glazes are trending and regularly show up on the shelves of charity shops and boot sales tables.

There is a resurgence of interest in Irish artists and designers from the 1960s, adds Geoff: “This would include John Ffrench ceramics, and Kilkenny Design Workshop work by Oisin Kelly.”

Bird platter/wall charger designed for Ardmore Studio Pottery by John Ffrench. Picture: Hawleys Auctioneers

John Ffrench (1928-2010) is a byword for the most respected studio pottery out of Ireland. An Irish-Italian, Ffrench trained in Florence at the Instituto Statale D’Arte, established Arklow Studio Pottery in 1962 and moved to Massachusetts in 1969. Ffrench kept up a studio in Galway. 

Writer Flann O’Brien famously described Ffrench’s small pots as “tortured ashtrays”. Examples of Ffrench’s work sell for thousands, but you can find mid-century pieces designed by him for Arklow for as little as €20-€80 on the second-hand circuit.

Trained under Henry Moore, Oisin Kelly went on to be Professor of Sculpture at the Royal Hibernian Academy and was an artist in residence for Kilkenny Design from 1966. 

He delivered public works including the magnificent statue of Jim Larkin in full flow on O’Connell Street in Dublin, and the much-loved Children of Lir sculpture in Dublin’s Garden of Remembrance. Kelly became well known outside the exhibition circuit for his studies of birds and animals for Kilkenny and regularly included Gaelic script in his work.

Look up his Kilkenny creations — priced from as little as €60, together with the cast-iron male/female candle holders, cast by Waterford Iron Founders. These come up occasionally at 20th-century design auctions with an Irish interest (hammer prices from €1,200).

EIGHTIES

Eighties design is spiking internationally, especially original Memphis Design in bright primary colours, says Geoff. “Original Memphis pieces are beyond most budgets but take a look around designs by Alan Fletcher, Luigi Colani and Joe Colombo, for your fix of brightly coloured plastics,” he adds. 

You might find these molten lovelies to be either pop art or kindergarten, but the Italian firms of Calligaris and Kartell offer a wonderland of transparent plastic-fantastic favourites by good designers.

SUSTAINABILITY

Above all, Geoff’s advice is two-fold. Buy better where you can, choosing authentic, licensed pieces by named designers, and investment furniture that will last a lifetime. Secondly, use what you buy — don’t just slam ceramics up in a glazed cabinet. Having a small museum of ornamental objects isn’t half so cool as taking out a classic Cona coffee maker and assembling it like a thrilled scientist or inviting someone to recline into a restored mid-century armchair.

• See Kirkmodern.com