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Natural Hybrids

Four modern riffs on one historic design

Photo by Dylan Vitone for
Carnegie Mellon University

George Nakashima

“Conoid Bench” by George Nakashima (1974) with free-edge black walnut slab and Windsor-style spindled back. From the private collection of Carnegie Mellon University.

Who was he? George Nakashima (1905-1990) was a woodworker and furniture designer in New Hope, Pennsylvania who inspired such reverence that he was known as the “elder statesman of the American Craft Movement.” Why was he such a big deal? He had an uncanny ability to make exceptionally elegant furniture out of slab wood full of knots, burls, and cracks. His pieces combine Japanese folk traditions, Shaker style, and Colonial-era Windsor chairs. As his work gained popularity in the 1970s, he designed lines for Knoll and Widdicomb-Mueller, as well as some 200 pieces for the New York home of Nelson Rockefeller. Is he still popular? You bet. Diane von Furstenberg and Steven Spielberg are two notable owners of his work. His “Arlyn” table—made from an oversized cross-section of a redwood burl from California’s Muir Woods—sold to a Florida collector for $822,400 in 2007.

For more information on featured products and suppliers, please see our Buyer's Guide.
 

Get the look
 

	1. Hand-carved spoons by Live Wire Farm, $10-$50 each		2. Andoong teak pedestal base by Ironies, $3,750
	3. Walnut burl vessel by Neal DeVore, $475		4. SBW desk stools by SMC Furnishings, $650 each

  Photos provided by Live Wire Farm, Ironies, Zanisa, and SMC Furnishings