David N. Ebner Dressers
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 Dressers
Wood
19th Century Georgian Antique David N. Ebner Dressers
Brass
1890s English Anglo-Japanese Antique David N. Ebner Dressers
Wood, Lacquer
19th Century British Victorian Antique David N. Ebner Dressers
Mahogany
2010s Mexican Modern David N. Ebner Dressers
Wood, Plywood
18th Century American Federal Antique David N. Ebner Dressers
Brass
19th Century American Sheraton Antique David N. Ebner Dressers
Cherry, Maple
Mid-19th Century American Rustic Antique David N. Ebner Dressers
Wood, Cherry
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern David N. Ebner Dressers
Walnut
1810s American Hepplewhite Antique David N. Ebner Dressers
Brass
Late 20th Century American Campaign David N. Ebner Dressers
Brass
21st Century and Contemporary Vietnamese Neoclassical David N. Ebner Dressers
Wood
Late 19th Century American American Empire Antique David N. Ebner Dressers
Mirror, Mahogany
