ARMONK, N.Y. --Theodore D. Nierenberg, a founder and long-time president of Dansk International Designs, the highly influential modern tabletop and housewares company, died on July 31, according to published reports.
Nierenberg, who was 86, was an engineer by training but, according to his obituary in The New York Times, he happened to see a set of teak and steel flatware at a Copenhagen museum in 1954. He immediately searched out the designer, Jens Quistgaard, and obtained the rights to mass reproduce the products and founded Dansk. Quistgaad went on to become the founding designer for the company, remaining with Dansk through the mid-1980s.
In 1958 the New York Times called Dansk products “some of the most popular accessories found in American homes today.”
Nierenberg continued to run the company until he sold it in the mid-1980s. It is now owned by Lenox.
He is survived by his wife, four children and ten grandchildren.
