David N. Ebner Benches
Master woodworker David N. Ebner is an integral contributor to the American Studio furniture movement. Along with like-minded artisans such as George Nakashima, Sam Maloof, Arthur Espenet Carpenter and Wharton Esherick, the New York native advocates for the craft of well-made furniture that is not mass-produced. As Ebner himself has stated, “[I am] creating the antiques of tomorrow.”
Ebner was born in 1945 in Buffalo and attended the School for American Craftsmen at the Rochester Institute of Technology. There, he studied under celebrated American furniture maker Wendell Castle who taught Ebner “the artistic approach” to woodworking. After graduating, Ebner sought to further his education at the London School of Furniture Making. Then, following a two-year stint in the US Armed Forces, he decided to pursue a career as a woodworker and furniture designer, opening a studio on Long Island, New York, in 1973.
As a devotee of Castle’s teachings of creating furniture as a form of functional art, Ebner eschewed the trend of making furniture out of plastics and other synthetic materials — which gained steam with the likes of venturesome Scandinavian modernist designer Verner Panton during the 1960s and 1970s — embracing instead the American Craftsman style that formed the basis of the American Studio furniture movement.
Working with a range of woods, Ebner has designed sculptural live-edge dining room tables, shapely bamboo stools and side tables characterized by swooping organic curves, and statement-making cabinets in lustrous sapele wood, each elegantly hand-carved. “... Each piece is treated as an art object with concern for my material and honesty to its inherent qualities,” Ebner has said. “For me, one’s creative ability is demonstrated in the diversity of the pieces and what one learns from change.”
Ebner has exhibited extensively throughout his career, including shows at the American Crafts Museum and Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in New York, the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum in Lincoln, Massachusetts, and the Guild Hall Museum in East Hampton. His works are in permanent collections at the Smithsonian Institute, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and the Art Institute of Chicago.
Find vintage David N. Ebner chairs, tables, benches and decorative objects on 1stDibs.
21st Century and Contemporary American American Craftsman David N. Ebner Benches
Wood, Paint
21st Century and Contemporary American American Craftsman David N. Ebner Benches
Maple
21st Century and Contemporary American American Craftsman David N. Ebner Benches
Bronze
21st Century and Contemporary American American Craftsman David N. Ebner Benches
Bamboo
2010s American Rustic David N. Ebner Benches
Steel
21st Century and Contemporary American David N. Ebner Benches
Cherry
20th Century Mid-Century Modern David N. Ebner Benches
Wood
Late 20th Century North American Post-Modern David N. Ebner Benches
Upholstery
Mid-19th Century American American Craftsman Antique David N. Ebner Benches
Birch, Mahogany, Pine
Mid-20th Century Mid-Century Modern David N. Ebner Benches
Wood
2010s Danish Modern David N. Ebner Benches
Steel
21st Century and Contemporary American Minimalist David N. Ebner Benches
Steel
1960s American Mid-Century Modern Vintage David N. Ebner Benches
Fiberglass
1840s Swedish Biedermeier Antique David N. Ebner Benches
Birch
Mid-20th Century Mid-Century Modern David N. Ebner Benches
Wood
21st Century and Contemporary German Modern David N. Ebner Benches
Wood
21st Century and Contemporary American American Craftsman David N. Ebner Benches
Cedar
21st Century and Contemporary American David N. Ebner Benches
Bronze
20th Century American American Craftsman David N. Ebner Benches
21st Century and Contemporary American David N. Ebner Benches
20th Century American David N. Ebner Benches
