Theodore Nierenberg | Dansk founder, 86

Theodore D. Nierenberg, 86, who started Dansk International Designs in his suburban New York garage and helped popularize Scandanavian-themed tableware and cookware in American kitchens and dining rooms, died Friday at his home in Armonk, N.Y., of pancreatic cancer.

The company's motto was "from the kitchen to the dinning room table" because its pieces' sleek, clean lines were functional and beautiful, said his daughter Karin Weisburgh.

The Dansk line included wooden salad bowls and trays, stainless-steel flatware embellished with exotic woods such as teak, glassware and porcelain-coated steel casserole dishes with lids - known as Kobenstyle - in an array of colors. For a time, the company also produced textiles.

Mr. Nierenberg and his wife, Martha, started the company in their garage in Great Neck, Long Island, in 1954, after a trip to Europe in which they were taken with the work of industrial designers. They later moved their company to Mount Kisco, N.Y.

While in Copenhagen, the Nierenbergs met the Danish designer Jens Quistgaard after seeing a set of his teak-and-steel flatware at a museum there. Quistgaard became Dansk's founding designer and, working from Europe, he stayed with the company until the 1980s.

Mr. Nierenberg commissioned Wusthof, the German company, to produce his flatware and dinnerware for about 20 years. He also used plants in Poland, Japan, France, and Denmark to produce other product lines.

The company was sold in the 1980s and is now owned by the Lenox tableware and giftware company. - AP