Three generations. One name on the door.
From an apprenticeship at a Copenhagen furrier's workshop to a third generation with a furrier's diploma.
Three generations of furriers
The name on the door has been the same since 1946. So has the craftsmanship.
Karl Viggo Stampe
Founder · 1946–1992
Poul Viggo Stampe
Director · 1992–2014
Michael Stampe
Furrier & CEO
The boy who became a furrier
Karl Viggo Stampe lost his mother at twelve and grew up in a children's home in Copenhagen — a boy from the countryside with an accent that set him apart.
He trained as a furrier, worked his way up and, as a young man in his early twenties, bought the firm that had been his own place of work. In 1946 the Stampe name went on the door, and he led the company right up to 1992.
The manufacturer
The eldest son, Poul Viggo Stampe, took over after a hard time for the whole trade in the late eighties and early nineties.
Under him the company grew again and took over several other fur businesses — among them the old Copenhagen house Levinsky.
The two sons in the name
The company name is K. V. Stampe & Sønner, and there are two sons: Poul Viggo and his brother Henrik Viggo Stampe.
Henrik Viggo sat on the board for more than 25 years and, from the mid-nineties, chaired Levinsky after the house had joined the family.
The sister who built the Aarhus shop
The second generation was not only sons. Their sister Kirsten Stampe ran the Stampe shop on Søndergade in Aarhus for many years — her own company carried her name, and the shop has been at the same address since 1987.
Today it is their cousin Anne-Marie Stampe who stands in the Aarhus shop and carries it on.
The furrier
Michael Stampe is a trained furrier like his grandfather and became managing director in 2014. He buys the skins at auction himself and still stands at the cutting table.
He runs the company together with his brother Mike, his sister Malene and his cousin Anne Marie — and the fourth generation is on its way in.
A good fur is not something you buy for a season. It is something you pass on.
Read on
The family is one chapter. Here are the others.
The fur adventure on Mors
How a furrier's workshop became one of the island's biggest employers.
Levinsky since 1869
An old fur house from Østergade that became part of the family.
About us
The timeline from 1946 to today, gathered in one place.
Sources
This page draws on the family's own archive and on publicly available sources. Every image is Stampe's own unless another source is given beside the image.