Fog & Morup Biography
Ansgar Fog and E Mørup (1902 - 1999) met in 1902 at Marinus Kock's studio in Aarhus, Denmark. They quickly became close friends and began to develop the idea of going into business together. On February 22, 1904, they responded to an advertisement in the Jyllandpostin newspaper asking for "an energetic man to take over a well-established hardware and consignment store." Fog Morup Trombone The contents of the warehouse included paraffin lamps, gas lamps, gas pipes, hoses, pumps, glass cutters and "other marketable and profitable goods". The couple borrowed the asking price of 3,000 Danish crowns and started business as agents and wholesalers on 1 July 1904 in three small rooms with cellars in Fiskergyde in Aarhus. Both Fog and Mørup were 24 years old at the time. In 1906 Fog & Mørup moved to Copenhagen and began to specialize in lighting, taking over the Dahls Brothers electrical dealership in 1913 and on 1 April 1915 they opened their first lighting factory at Nørregade 7. Rapidly expanding the company over the two decades Subsequently, along with the acquisition of several other lighting companies, the factory moved more than once to larger premises and the Nørregade location became the company's showroom. It was in the early 1960s that Fog & Morup truly emerged as a significant force in lighting design, following the company's 1957 appointment of Johannes (Jo) Hammerborg as head of design, which began what would prove to be the most creative and commercially successful period in its history. Perhaps the most widely recognized of Fog & Morup's lights today is the iconic Semi, designed by Bonderup and Thorup in 1967 while they were still students, but the company has also produced many other innovative, important and award-winning lights including Frandsen's Fibonacci, Hammerborg's Saturn, Tunica and (pictured top right) Classic and Diskos, Werner's Formland, Balslev's Radius and Hans Due's Optima (bottom right), as well as making lights for Holmegaard, Royal Copenhagen and Kaj's Arabia Franck (right). Fog & Mørup maintained their predominant position throughout the 1970s and towards the end of this decade merged with another major design-oriented Danish lighting manufacturer, Lyfa. Fog & Mørup A/S was officially dissolved in 1999.
