Robert Aibel

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.

Musicians are well acquainted with the practical uses for a vintage, new or antique music stand, which typically consists of a flat, inclined surface that is elevated upon a freestanding column or tripod for the purposes of reading sheet music. Music stands are often lightweight and mobile and may also be adjustable in height as well as with respect to the angle at which the platform is tilted.

Prior to purchasing a music stand, consider the function you intend it to serve. While musicians will primarily use it in the room where their musical instruments are kept in order to read music while honing their craft, will you use it for another purpose?

An antique music stand can be used in a home office to keep a heavy reference book, such as a dictionary, open alongside your desk as you work. Alternatively, in a living room, an old music stand can be an elegant surface against which you can lean a work of art such as a painting or a photograph for prominent display. For decorative purposes or for a musician whose rehearsal space isn’t tied to a specific room, music stands made from a lightweight material are better for portability. But if you’re interested in a stand produced in a heavier material, it will create a bold statement but will likely need to stay in roughly the same place.

Metal music stands are common because they’re fairly lightweight. They are intended to be practical and easily transported to different venues. Some wood music stands are also lightweight. Depending upon the time period, furniture designer and manufacturer, an antique wood music stand might be supported by an alluring triangular plinth base and can sometimes bear decoratively carved embellishments as well as brass arms with candleholders.

On 1stDibs, find a collection of vintage, new and antique music stands as well as other kinds of stands and storage cabinets that can support your efforts to keep your media and creative pursuits neat and orderly in your home.