Rare George Nakashima Custom Kornblut Cabinet
View Similar Items
Rare George Nakashima Custom Kornblut Cabinet
About the Item
- Creator:George Nakashima (Designer)
- Dimensions:Height: 31 in (78.74 cm)Width: 24 in (60.96 cm)Depth: 18 in (45.72 cm)
- Style:Mid-Century Modern (Of the Period)
- Place of Origin:
- Period:
- Date of Manufacture:20th Century
- Condition:Wear consistent with age and use.
- Seller Location:Los Angeles, CA
- Reference Number:1stDibs: U1209049278294
George Nakashima
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.
- George Nakashima, Kornblut Cabinet in American Black Walnut, 1972, New Hope USABy George Nakashima Studio, George NakashimaLocated in Wargrave, BerkshireGeorge Nakashima (1905-1990), Kornblut Cabinet in American Black Walnut, made at the Nakashima Studio in New Hope, Pennsylvania, USA in 1972. This ra...Category
Vintage 1970s American Mid-Century Modern Cabinets
MaterialsWalnut, Burl
- George Nakashima CabinetBy George NakashimaLocated in New York, NYSliding Door Cabinet by George Nakashima. American black walnut, oak, brass. This cabinet features an overhanging top with a long free-edge. 3 sliding doors with 2 side compartments ...Category
Vintage 1980s American Mid-Century Modern Cabinets
MaterialsBrass
$125,000 - Rare Jules Buoy Custom Cabinet / Shelves/ Dry Bar, c 1931By Jules BuoyLocated in Buffalo, NYRare Custom Art Deco, Bauhaus cabinet with removable mirror and ingenious double hinged doors with circular cutout pulls, Designed by architect and designer Jules Buoy, Made for Carlo's Salzedo's Summer Harp Colony in Camden , Maine, Amazing design, color, patina ,Reminiscent of famed designs by Paul Frankl, Donald Deskey, Kim Weber...Category
Vintage 1930s American Bauhaus Cabinets
MaterialsWood
- Vittorio Valabrega Rare Bar CabinetBy Vittorio ValabregaLocated in Waalwijk, NLVittorio Valabrega, bar cabinet, beech, laminated wood, Italy, 1930s A bar cabinet by the Italian artist and designer Vittorio Valabrega from the 1930s. The cabinet features an orga...Category
Vintage 1930s Italian Art Deco Dry Bars
MaterialsLaminate, Beech
- Custom Driftwood Grey Birch Oval Tall CabinetLocated in Chicago, ILExcellent custom designed driftwood gray glazed birch wood tall oval media cabinet with openings to accommodate component cords. Upper opening measures 20" H x 23" W, perfect for a s...Category
Late 20th Century American Cabinets
MaterialsBirch
- T.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings Custom Bar/Cabinet for Kandell ResidenceBy T.H. Robsjohn-GibbingsLocated in Brooklyn, NYUnique, one-of-a-kind, two-door cabinet in exotic hardwood with solid cast brass bamboo frame, and black glass work-surface top, designed as a livingroom bar for the Kandell Penthous...Category
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Dry Bars
MaterialsBrass