Long Low Cherry Table by George Nakashima, New Hope, Pennsylvania, 1956
View Similar Items
Long Low Cherry Table by George Nakashima, New Hope, Pennsylvania, 1956
About the Item
- Creator:George Nakashima (Designer)
- Dimensions:Height: 11 in (27.94 cm)Width: 120 in (304.8 cm)Depth: 30 in (76.2 cm)
- Materials and Techniques:
- Place of Origin:
- Period:
- Date of Manufacture:1956
- Condition:Wear consistent with age and use.
- Seller Location:Los Angeles, CA
- Reference Number:1stDibs: f88531605064640833fs
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.
- 19th Century English Late Victorian Satinwood Work Table Painted, 1880sLocated in Roma, RMSmall English work table, late Victorian period, finely painted with floral motifs and on the top with a dancing angel with basket of flowers. Rare item of furniture. To be restored ...Category
Antique 1880s English Late Victorian Industrial and Work Tables
MaterialsSatinwood
- George Nakashima Triangular Cherry TableBy George NakashimaLocated in West Palm Beach, FLGeorge Nakashima Cherry Wepman Table Large form with legs posting through the top Expressive Free edgeCategory
Vintage 1950s American Tables
MaterialsCherry
- George Nakashima, Coffee Table, American Black Walnut, New Hope, USA, 1982By George Nakashima Studio, George NakashimaLocated in High Point, NCAn American black walnut coffee table designed by George Nakashima and produced by Nakashima Studio, New Hope, Pennsylvania, United States, 1...Category
Vintage 1980s American Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
MaterialsWalnut
- George Nakashima, "Slab" Coffee Table, Oak Burl, Oak, New Hope, USA, 1962By George NakashimaLocated in High Point, NCAn oak burl and oak "Slab" coffee table designed and produced by George Nakashima, New Hope, Pennsylvania, USA, 1962. The top presents with a "butterfly joint" typical of Nakashima.Category
Vintage 1960s American Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
MaterialsOak
- 19th Century Pennsylvania Dutch Farmhouse Harvest TableLocated in Rio Vista, CALarge, rustic 19th century Pennsylvania Dutch American farmhouse table, harvest table, or work table. Features a nearly 10 foot long plank top...Category
Antique 19th Century American Rustic Farm Tables
MaterialsPorcelain, Wood
- George Nakashima TableBy George NakashimaLocated in West Palm Beach, FLSpectacular "Q" Table/Bench Created in 1964 by George Nakashima, Expressive Free edge Walnut and very long table for Nakashima Table Signed with a Roman Numeral iii on the underside...Category
Vintage 1960s American Tables
MaterialsWalnut
$39,500