Madsen & Schubell

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Henry Hans Schubell was born on February 23. 1906 in Elsinore, Denmark. After completing school, he became an apprentice cabinetmaker in Elsinore. After 5 years he finished his apprenticeship, and was awarded a bronze medal for his work. When he turned 20 he moved to Copenhagen, where he worked for various cabinetmakers. I 1929, at the age of 23, he was employed as foreman at the cabinetmakers "Winter & Winding, where he supervised the production of furniture until 1945. I 1944 the firm received a request from an upholsterer named Arnold Madsen, who had an idea for a chair. Arnold Madsen was having difficulties finding a cabinet maker who would be able to do the woodwork based on a little plaster model, which he had made. Henry Schubell succeeded in producing the wooden frame so that the chair could be put into production. Arnold Madsen was so impressed by his work that he suggested that they form a partnership where Henry Schubell would design the furniture and produce the wooden frames which Arnold Madsen would then upholster and market. The workshop was established in the inner city of Copenhagen, in a backyard, Gothersgade 158B. Their joint venture was named "Madsen & Schubell".  

Their cooperation was structured as follows. Henry Schubell, designed the majority of the models and produced the chair frames in their joint firm,"Madsen og Schubell" The chair frames were then sold to Arnold Madsen's firm "A. Madsen's upholstery firm" where the upholstery was done. The completed furniture was then sold to various furniture dealers as products from "Madsen & Schubell". The cooperation between Henry Schubell and Arnold Madsen was so successful that they purchased a factory building, situated on the address "Biblioteksvej 55" on the outskirts of Copenhagen, where there was enough space for both firms.