The only time I’ve ever seen a J39 was in Iceland in 2017.

Claire, Mara, and I had an afternoon to kill in Reykjavik, as we waited for our mini camper to be returned, cleaned, and readied for our week-long trip. A quick survey of the little city pointed us in the direction of Hallgrímskirkja, the city’s famous modern cathedral at the top of a hill.

We stopped to look up at the iconic structure, designed to resemble much of the Icelandic landscape we were eager to see in the coming days, and then entered through a series of doors.

Head on a swivel, taking in the vastness of the nave, I stopped just shy of a full 180, and rushed back, just to the right of the doors through which we just walked. There it was, in the flesh. A single J39 chair. A chair I had grown so fond of, I had actually followed the hashtag, #J39 on Instagram. I had never seen one in person, though was well aware of its wide use in Denmark. But here? A single, modest chair, placed in this iconic Icelandic church which was anything but modest.

As the organ player belted out a slew of long chords, I snapped pictures of the chair, picked it up, turned it over, admired it. The patina and color it had taken on caught me by surprise but it’s reference to the Shaker furniture I had seen countless times before was clear and apparent. My travel partners circled back and asked if I was ready to go. I hadn’t really seen much of the cathedral, but was more than pleased with the visit.