Kornblut Cabinet
Vintage 1970s American Mid-Century Modern Cabinets
Walnut, Burl
1990s American American Craftsman Books
Paper
People Also Browsed
21st Century and Contemporary Swedish Mid-Century Modern Table Lamps
Textile
21st Century and Contemporary American Mid-Century Modern Flush Mount
Steel, Brass
21st Century and Contemporary French Art Deco Table Lamps
Steel
21st Century and Contemporary French Brutalist Night Stands
Oak
2010s British Scandinavian Modern Lounge Chairs
Sheepskin, Beech
2010s Italian Modern Chandeliers and Pendants
Metal, Brass
20th Century French Mid-Century Modern Stools
Wood, Pine
Early 2000s American American Craftsman Books
Paper
Vintage 1940s Italian Mid-Century Modern Wardrobes and Armoires
Chestnut
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Credenzas
Walnut
Vintage 1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Chairs
Velvet
21st Century and Contemporary American Mid-Century Modern Lounge Chairs
Fabric, Wood, Walnut
Mid-20th Century Turkish Kilim Turkish Rugs
Wool, Natural Fiber, Organic Material
Vintage 1960s Danish Mid-Century Modern Sideboards
Teak
2010s Spanish Modern Chairs
Wood
Vintage 1980s Italian Modern Floor Lamps
Metal
Recent Sales
20th Century American Cabinets
20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Cabinets
Walnut
Vintage 1960s American Mid-Century Modern Cabinets
Walnut
Vintage 1980s American Cabinets
Rosewood, Walnut
Vintage 1960s Night Stands
Walnut
Vintage 1970s American American Craftsman Night Stands
Walnut
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Bookcases
Walnut
Vintage 1970s American Modern Cabinets
Wood
20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Cabinets
Vintage 1960s American End Tables
Walnut
Vintage 1970s American American Craftsman Cabinets
Maple, Walnut
George Nakashima for sale on 1stDibs
A master woodworker and M.I.T.-trained architect, George Nakashima was the leading light of the American Studio furniture movement. Along with Wharton Esherick, Sam Maloof and Wendell Castle, Nakashima was an artisan who disdained industrial methods and materials in favor of a personal, craft-based approach to the design. What sets Nakashima apart is the poetic style of his work, his reverence for wood and the belief that his furniture could evince — as he put it in the title of his 1981 memoir — The Soul of a Tree.
Born in Spokane, Washington, to Japanese immigrants, Nakashima traveled widely after college, working and studying in Paris, Japan and India, and at every stop he absorbed both modernist and traditional design influences. The turning point in Nakashima’s career development came in the United States in 1942, when he was placed in an internment camp for Asian-Americans in Idaho. There, Nakashima met a master woodcarver who tutored him in Japanese crafting techniques. A former employer won Nakashima’s release and brought him to bucolic New Hope, Pennsylvania, where Nakashima set up a studio and worked for the rest of his life.
Nakashima’s singular aesthetic is best captured in his custom-made tables and benches — pieces that show off the grain, burls and whorls in a plank of wood. He left the “free edge,” or natural contour, of the slab un-planed, and reinforced fissures in the wood with “butterfly” joints. Almost all Nakashima seating pieces have smooth, milled edges. Nakashima also contracted with large-scale manufacturers to produce carefully supervised editions of his designs. Knoll has offered his Straight chair — a modern take on the spindle-backed Windsor chair — since 1946; the now-defunct firm Widdicomb-Mueller issued the Shaker-inspired Origins collection in the 1950s.
Nelson Rockefeller in 1973 gave Nakashima his single largest commission: a 200-piece suite for his suburban New York estate. Today, Nakashima furniture is collected by both the staid and the fashionable: his work sits in the collections of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Smithsonian Institution, as well as in the homes of Steven Spielberg, Brad Pitt, Diane von Furstenberg and the late Steve Jobs.