Ejner Larsen & Aksel Bender Madsen

Larsen and Bender Madsen became acquainted at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. Their acquaintance developed into a lifelong friendship, and in 1947 they began to design together in their spare time, continuing until Larsen's death in 1987. Starting in 1947, they annually exhibited at the Copenhagen Cabinetmakers' Guild Furniture Exhibition together with various other cabinetmakers. From the mid-50s, they worked closely with cabinetmaker Willy Beck for over 25 years. Together, the duo developed a number of Danish classics - over 300 designs in total - always working in a clean, simple style that produced timeless designs. Larsen and Bender Madsen's furniture has been exhibited within Denmark and internationally, including at La Triennale in Milan, Italy, in the USA at the Design in Scandinavia exhibition and The Arts of Denmark exhibition. Several of the designers' works have been purchased by museums around the world, including the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Humlebæk, Denmark and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Larsen and Bender Madsen won the Copenhagen Cabinetmakers' Guild Annual Prize in 1956 and 1961, as well as several other awards in furniture and art competitions.

Today, this design duo’s works are among the most highly sought after by collectors of Scandinavian design. Their pieces were most often produced only on a very small scale and by master cabinetmakers (rather than larger scale factories for mass production), making some designs very rare indeed.