Daells Varehus catalogues available online!

[Laura Chase]

Daells Varehus is an old Danish department store. I don't know much about it, just that it has a very long history, but if someone does, please do let us know, I'm sure some of the other Danes here know something.

Even though the catalogues are in Danish, I'm sure many of you might enjoy them anyway, lots of illustrations. I think it's quite unique to have all these catalogues collected and scanned, available for all to see! KB is the Danish royal library.

Just ask if you have trouble navigating (since it's in Danish), but it's pretty straightforward. You just click on the year you wish to look at and then press zoom when you want to look at a specific catalogue.

When it says for example "Gyldig fra 1 September 1930 til 1 Marts 1931", this means that the offers in the catalogue are available in that period, in this case 1st of September - 1st of March 1931.

http://www.kb.dk/images/billed/2008/sep/daellsvarehus/

 

[ShrinkingViolet]

That's absolutely amazing, now I know I'm going to spend way too much time flicking through these. I don't know an awful lot about Daells Varehus either, except that it wasn't exactly a high-end department store but rather a discount one. I wonder if the fashions reflect that?

 

[Laura Chase]

Oooh, that explains why it was on Nørregade, which, back then, wasn't the nicest part of town. So Magasin du Nord was the fancy store?

Magasin du Nord back in the day:

Magasin du Nord today:

Daells Varehus building from the 30's, the way it looks today, I guess it's undergone some renovation:

Daells Varehus in the 80's (I think), when it still functioned as a department store:

 

[Adelaide]

I randomly chose 1943 and found out this could be really pleasant rainy day diversion. Thanks for posting this!

A.

Edited to add: I'll bet their discount wares weren't the same as our discount wares today, quality wise.

 

[ShrinkingViolet]

I think they've restored it according to its original "Funkis" (Scandinavian functionalism) style.
But OH YES, Daells Varehus was always a cheapo and slightly embarrassing place to shop. I remember getting shoes and sports clothes from there as a child in the 1980s - nobody had any money in Denmark then. There was always a messy and chaotic atmosphere in there.
They had this wonderful neon sign, saying "Flere og flere gaar om ad Nørregade" (More and more people choose to stop by Nørregade), isn't it still up? I have to check that tomorrow.

 

[Mary]

Love it!