Posts Tagged ‘DONALD DESKEY’

Art Deco Tables: DINING TABLE, MAPLE CONSOLE TABLE, BRITISH DRUM TABLE, FRENCH MAHOGANY TABLE, BRITISH DINING TABLE

ART DECO TABLES
AFTER WORLD WAR I, designers working
in the Art Deco style created tables of extraordinary richness and originality. continuing the Art Nouveau tradition in a less flamboyant manner.
TRADITIONAL FORMS
Many Art Deco furniture designers based their designs on traditional table forms, such as the early oak trestle table and the drop-leaf designs of the 18th century. They used richly figured timbers, such as walnut, yew, and mahogany, and decorated their tables with crossbanding in exotic woods, such as ebony and tulip wood.
Emile-Jacques Ruhimann and Jules Leleu created writing tables, dressing tables, and pier tables that echoed the forms favoured by the French ehenistes of the l8th and I 9th centuries. They used exotic materials, such as lacquer and expensive wood veneers, and their tables often featured decorative details, such as drawer pulls of ivory, slender legs terminating in sabots of gilded bronze, and table tops covered with leather, sharkskin, or marble.
The Irish-born designer Eileen Gray designed finely crafted and exquisitely lacquered tables whose abstract shapes
were frequently defined by different-coloured lacquers and costly inlays of foil and mother-of-pearl.
BOLD INNOVATIONS
The furniture designers who followed a more Modernist Art Deco path, such as Marcel Coard and Pierre Chateau in France, and Donald Deskey in the United States, made tables for a wide variety of uses in bold geometric shapes, such as cubes, cylinders, and pyramids. They used innovative materials characteristic of the machine age, including mirror glass, chrome, and tubular steel, and interpreted traditional forms, such as the tilt-top table with great ingenuity.
Pierre Legrain combined luxurious and machine-age materials with severity of form in a striking low table entitled “Python”, which he designed in 1928 for Pierre Meyer. Made entirely of wood, the long, rectangular top and two supports are entirely sheathed in snakeskin. The supports fit into a rectangular base, which is the mirror image of the top, but is veneered in nickel plate. Two nickel-plated ovoid discs encircle the square supports, completing the symmetry of the design.
The stepped top of the table is a distinctive Art Deco feature.
The octagonal shape of the table top is innovative and striking.
The substantial apron adds strength to the table design.

BRITISH DINING TABLE
This solid, architectural table is from a table and six chair set designed by H&L Epstein. Made from walnut, the table top is octagonal in shape, with black-lacquered banding running around the edge. Two rectangular block legs
with block feet, connected to each other by a rectangular panel, support the table top. The crossbanding around the edge and the thick inlaid band of crossbanding across the table top add a subtle but decorative touch to the distinctive markings of the walnut veneer.
c.1935.
The overhanging top is reminiscent of early trestle and refectory tables.
The two box-shaped table legs replace the usual four
supports at either end
The central support links the two table legs.

FRENCH SIDE TABLE
This rosewood side table, designed by Michel Dufet, is composed of geometric forms, which are characteristic of the Art Deco style. The circular rosewood surface has a glass top, and is placed on two rectangular supports. The
whole table is supported on a lipped tray base. Furniture designers who favoured the Modernist thread of the Art Deco style created all kinds of tables with strong geometric outlines, including interlocking circles, triangles, and cubes. c.1930.
This 12-sided table is decorated all over with mirrors to create an unusual, completely mirrored surface. The table top is supported by slightly tapering square legs. c.1930.
This geometric occasional table is made from walnut and has an octagonal, crossbanded top that is raised on a rectangular column. The column is centred on a square, spreading base.
This Lucie Renaudot rosewood, mahogany, and ivory-inlaid side table, has a circular top with ivory dentil edging. The stepped, square-section legs are united by a square undertier. c.1925.
This table is made from walnut and has a circular top, attached to tapering square legs that support the whole table. The table top is covered with a mirrored surface. c.1930.
OCCASIONAL TABLE
WALNUT TABLE
Maker’s label
FRENCH MAHOGANY TABLE
MIRROR TABLE

BELGIAN COFFEE TABLE
FRENCH U-SHAPED TABLE
Designed by De Coene Freres, this Belgian lyre console table stands on a lipped tray base. The base supports a highly polished lyre-shaped frame, a popular feature of the Art Deco style. The frame in turn supports a narrow, rectangular table top. c 1930.
This rosewood coffee table, designed by De Coene Freres, is veneered in walnut and has two legs made of chrome tubing. Two crossed, lipped tray bases support the U-shaped structure. The chrome tubular legs reinforce the rectangular table top, which has rounded corners. c.1930.
This graceful French side table has a rectangular top with a stepped edge. It is supported by a tulip-shaped structure, rather than conventional legs, with decorative chrome detailing at the base. The table has been restored and piano varnished, hence its glossy black appearance. c.1930.
BELGIAN LYRE CONSOLE TABLE

BRITISH DRUM TABLE
This sturdy oak drum occasional table is designed in the style of Betty Joel. A broad central oak cylinder supports three circular table tops, each arranged one above the other. c.1935.
BRITISH QUARTETTO TABLE
The quartette table is designed by H&L Epstein and is made from burr maple. The set of four small tables of graduated size nest together and are supported on square legs. c.1930.
CHROMIUM TABLE
This chromium-plated occasional table has a circular top inset with a black glass panel above three curved supports. The supports are attached to a circular ebonized base on flattened bun feet.
MAPLE CONSOLE TABLE
This console table has a maple top with a moulded mahogany edge, and a single drawer at the front. The two U-shaped supports are united by a stretcher beneath and have arched feet.
AMERICAN DINING TABLE
This extension dining table, designed by Paul Frankl, has a white rectangular gesso top with gently bowed edges and two 30.5cm- (12in-) long leaves that rest on two curved mahogany supports. Each of the mahogany supports
incorporates three V-shaped slats. The robust, architectural nature of this piece is typical of Paul Frankl’s furniture designs, which reflected trends in contemporary architecture. The chevron pattern of the supports is reminiscent of key design elements on the Chrysler Building.
DINING TABLE
This elegant dining table is part of a table and eight chair set. The table has a simple rectangular top, with pull-out extensions. A pedestal base, with two C-shaped supports, carries the solid table top. The eight chairs
that accompany the dining table have solid backs with upholstered seats. The graceful interaction of interlocking arcs and rectangles adds a powerful three-dimensional and
distinctively avant-garde element to the shape of the conventional rectangular dining table.

American Art Deco Furniture: MAPLE DESK, CHINA CABINET, PAINTED SCREEN, COMMODE, ILLUMINATED BAR.

ALTHOUGH THE UNITED STATES did not
participate in the 1925 Paris Exhibition, the Exhibition was still hugely influential there. Many American designers, including Eugene Schoen, visited it, and it was covered by American newspapers and magazines. Also, the following year, a tour of more than 400 objects that had been displayed in Paris was organized by Charles Richards, director of the American Association of Museums. He had been impressed by the Exhibition and hoped to initiate
“a parallel movement” in the United States by mounting the tour.
New York department stores, such as Lord & Taylor and R.H. Macy Company, also helped to publicize the Art Deco style by putting on exhibitions in the late 1920s of Art Deco furniture by leading Parisian designers. Eugene Schoen emulated his French contemporaries by creating pieces in rare and exotic woods, incorporating marquetry and inlays, coloured lacquers, and subtle carvings. His forms were architectural, with
their clean lines and restrained, stylized decoration, and his cabinetmaking was of the highest quality.
A NEW DIRECTION
A parallel Art Deco movement did blossom in the United States, but it developed along different lines to those of Europe. A handful of innovative designers, such as Paul Frankl, K.E.M. Weber, and Josef Urban, who had been born in Europe, combined the French Art Deco style with those of the Bauhaus (see p.386) and the Wiener
Werkstatte in their designs. Instead of producing expensive luxury pieces, they created well-crafted, functional pieces that could be mass produced.
Donald Deskey, the principal interior designer for New York City’s Radio City Music Hall, created dramatic, highly charged furniture. It combined the luxurious elements of French Art Deco with the more functional and rectilinear features of the Bauhaus style, which made full use of the latest technology. Deskey used the rare woods, lacquer, and glass loved by French designers but combined them with modern materials, such as aluminium and Bakelite, to embellish his opulent furniture designs.
American designers welcomed the machine age with open arms. They decorated their furniture with machine motifs, such as interlocking cogs and wheels. They celebrated speed and dynamism with the increasingly streamlined look of their furniture inspired by automobiles, ocean liners, and locomotives, and motifs based on dramatic bolts of lightning. They made bold use of Cubist-inspired geometric shapes and jazzy abstract patterns, arid iucludcd iconic American molds based
on the modern city and way of life, such as the skyscraper.
The industrial designer K.E.M. Weber established a Californian version of Art Deco. His distinctive furniture was mostly made from metal and glass and often had skyscraper-like features. Weber created sleek, functional furniture for private commissions as well as designs intended for mass production, using new materials such as chromed metal, sprung steel, and laminated wood. He also designed lavish Art Deco furniture for dazzling Hollywood film sets, which were largely responsible for transmitting the American Art Deco style to the world.

Eugene Schoen designed this maple desk for Schieg Hungate and Kotzian. The heavy rectangular desktop, with moulded sides, sits on block feet. The supporting table underneath, which has a semi-circular cut-out, carries the desktop section. c.1935
Signed and dated Robert W Charter
1928.
CHINA CABINET
This simple, rectilinear cabinet was designed by Paul Frankl. The limed, slate grey base and case of the lower section provide a striking contrast to the three ivory doors with semi-circular brass pulls. On top of this is is an unadorned china cabinet with a limed ivory finish. The three shelves of the cabinet are enclosed by two sliding glass doors.
MAPLE DESK
PAINTED SCREEN
This dramatic, three-panelled wooden screen by Robert Winthrop Chanter features two zebras locked in combat, painted in black and tan on an ivory background. The back of the screen is decorated with diagonal stripes in black with silver foil, in imitation of a zebra’s stripes.
The screen is signed and dated in the lower right corner. Chanter’s screens were greatly admired, and this example was commissioned by the Broadway composer Kay Swift and her husband. Screens were popular during the Art Deco period and this particular piece is of the utmost luxury, as emphasized by the use of silver foil. 1928.

PAINTED CHAIR
This William L. Price painted chair has moulded legs and an intricately carved backrest. It was designed for the dining room at Traymore Hotel, New Jersey, which was demolished in 1972.
STEEL STOOL
One of a set of four patinated steel stools, this stool has an upholstered, padded seat and a pierced apron cast with scrolling foliage. The stool has turned supports, linked by stretchers, with a maker’s label.
COMMODE
Designed by John Widdicomb for a department store, this commode has a geometrically inlaid top above a single long drawer, with stylized inlay. The twin inlaid and figured panel doors enclose three drawers. H 111.75cm (44in). FRE
ILLUMINATED BAR
Made from black lacquer with an exotic wood veneer, this illuminated bar has a central cabinet with fluted doors and a mirrored interior.
It was in 1925 that Frankl really came into his own as a furniture designer with his renowned range of custom-made furniture inspired by the New York skyline and the skyscrapers that soared above his New York gallery. Typical Frankl “skyscraper” designs, which frequently evoke the pure lines found in the work of the Dutch painter Piet Mondrian, include tall, stepped chests of drawers, cabinets, and bookcases boasting an architectonic, rectilinear form. They were made from oak or California redwood and were sometimes
“Skyscraper” chest This rare Paul Frankl chest is asymmetrical, with long and short drawers, a single cabinet, a pull-out enamelled shelf in red and black, and geometrically shaped brass pulls.

The late 1920s saw the emergence of a Modern movement” of innovative American furniture designers. Inspired by European immigrants, including several key members of the Bauhaus, they explored new materials such as tubular metal. American Modernism was relatively small-scale, but it set the stage for a generation of industrial designers who from the mid-1930s reshaped interiors with enormous flair.
American Art Deco furniture falls into three broad categories: commercial copies of formal French pieces in exotic wood veneers and inlay; innovative and avant-garde work, which was never produced in large quantities and is scarce today; and industrially produced, mostly metallic and laminated wood furniture, based loosely on Bauhaus concepts. Produced from the 1930s until after World War II, this third category is much collected today.
PAUL T. FRANKL
Frankl (1886-1958), an Austrian architect and engineer, emigrated to the USA at the outbreak of World War I. He began designing and manufacturing furniture in New York City c.1920, working in a traditional European formal style. By the mid-1920s he was designing economical, compact, practical, modular furniture, inspired in part by the architect–designers Walter Gropius (1883-1969) and Le Corbusier (1887-1965). The best Frankl furniture (1925–c.1930), produced Linder the tradename “Skyscraper”, was inspired by the evolving New York skyline. Bookcases and tall cabinetry of stepped, rectilinear form are typical, often with a black, red, or pale-green lacquer finish with silver-leaf edging. Natural woods, including California redwood and oak, were also used, with a red, black, or silver trim.

Dressing tables, desks, and mirrors arc also found, often with mirrored-glass tops or shelving and Bakelite drawer-pulls, which suggest a slightly later date. Bookcase cabinets usually have simple wooden pulls. Skyscraper furniture was designed to be economical, and standards of cabinetry are basic.
During the inter-war years Oriental interiors were extremely fashionable in the USA, and Frankl produced lacquered furniture such as dining-chairs, cocktail bars, dressing-tables, and small tables, usually in black, pale green, or red with gold- or silver-leaf details, sometimes with brass fittings. This furniture is less popular than the Skyscraper range, because collectors prefer pure, Modernist lines, particularly if they evoke the works of the Dutch
painter Piet Mondrian, who was
also inspired by mid-1920s New
York architecture.
DONALD DESKEY
The designer Donald Deskey
(1894-1989) collaborated with Frankl during the late 1920s,
designing screens and large
cabinetry in lacquered and metallic-leaf finish with vivid, jazzy
decoration featuring zigzags. He also produced more mainstream designs for numerous other American manufacturers, working mostly in hardwood veneers. He is best known as the principal interior designer for New York’s Radio City Music Hall,
which preserves many of his pieces in situ. Pieces with Radio City provenance occasionally appear on the market and are eagerly sought.
Between 1927 and 1931 Deskey worked in partnership with Phillip Vollmer, designing furniture in Bauhaus taste, made of metal and glass, sometimes together with Bakelite and cork. Most of Deskey’s work is unsigned, but his designs are well recorded in contemporary catalogues, and many specialist dealers in the USA recognize them.
FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT
Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959) is one of the best-known and most influential American architects and designers. Any designs attributed to him command a premium, particularly the Modernist oak creations from the first decade of the 20th century. However, his later post-war commercial furniture, mostly oak and maple tables and low, horizontal seating, is currently of little more than decorative value.
Most of Wright’s work cannot be considered Art Deco, but some of his furniture of the inter-war years appeals to Art Deco enthusiasts. The best examples were designed for Wright’s residential buildings, and are therefore extremely scarce. Pieces for commercial interiors were made in larger numbers and are more common today. Enamelled metal furniture, such as that made for Wright’s S.C. Johnson Administration Building (Wisconsin) in 1937, and several types of wooden chair are relatively common on the market.

THE CRANBROOK ACADEMY OF ART
In 1925 the Finnish architect Eliel Saarinen (18731950) began work on the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, near Detroit, Michigan. In 1932 he became president and art director of the academy, serving there until his death. The building retains many of the original furnishings that he designed.
In most of Saarinen’s designs a formal, Scandinavian influence is evident in the elegant lines and relatively small scale, although some are comparable to the more organic style of the Wiener WerkstRte designer Dagobert Peche (1887-1923). Saarinen preferred rich wood veneers and natural materials, which he sometimes Used in combination with steel or polished metal.
The Cranbrook Academy, like the German Bauhaus school, is best known for its influential alumni. The most celebrated Cranbrook graduates from the 1930s are Florence Knoll (b.1917), whose name appears on much American Modernist furniture made under her direction; Charles Eames (1907-78), who designed laminated wood, leather, and fibreglass furniture for the Herman Miller Co. and others from the late 1930s; and Eero Saarinen (1910-61), Eliel Saarinen’s son, who collaborated with Eames as well as pursuing an independent career as both an architect and a furniture designer. Popular designs were produced over several decades (some are still made); earlier pieces can be identified by tags and generally higher-quality craftsmanship, as well as by wear and tear. Followers of Eames whose work is of interest to collectors include Gilbert Rohde (1894-1944), who designed Bauhaus-influenced tubular steel furniture produced by the Herman Miller Co., and George Nelson (1907-86).
OTHER AMERICAN ART DECO FURNITURE During the 1930s, American Modernism took root throughout the USA, partly because so economical a style of design was appropriate to a country in the grip of the Depression. Leading designers include Russel Wright (1904-76), Walter Dorwin Teague (1883-1960), and Raymond Loewy (1893-1986), who all specialized in industrial-style commercial products and lighting, using new materials such as aluminium, chrome, and plastic. Karl Emmanuel Martin (”Ke”) Weber ,1889-1963) studied under Bruno
Paul in Berlin before moving to California in 1914. He designed both individually commissioned and mass-produced furniture, typically in laminated wood, chromed metal, and sprung steel.
The architect Eugene Schoen 1880-1957) designed elegant furniture in Modernist materials including glass and nickel. Examples of tubular steel furniture influenced by the
Bauhaus include -pieces designed by Wolfgang Hoffman (1900-69), son of the famous Austrian designer Josef Hoffman (1870-1956), during the 1930s. Prestigious firms included John Widdicomb, Johnson Furniture, and Barker Brothers Furniture Co., all in Los Angeles, and S. Karpen of Chicago, all of which employed leading designers.

Paul T. Frankl
•    COLLECTING rarely found outside New York City; Oriental style is less popular than Skyscraper; collectors prefer signed pieces in unrestored condition; surface restoration is common as decoration is easily worn
Marks
Authentic Skyscraper pieces are stamped “SKYSCRAPER FURNITURE, Frank) Galleries, 4 East 48th Street, New York”
Donald Deskey
•    VALUE interesting provenance, such as Radio City Music Hall, adds greatly to value
•    COLLECTING Deskey-Vollmer signed pieces are more desirable than Deskey’s later, traditional designs; vivid, jazzy designs are very collectable – beware of fakes
Marks
Some pieces of Deskey-Vollmer have a metal tag
Frank Lloyd Wright
•    COLLECTING Art Deco style is less valuable than pieces from c.1900 to 1910, but more valuable than post-1945 pieces; original condition is all-important; provenance from notable interior schemes adds greatly to value
Marks
Wright furniture is rarely marked, but is well documented and easily identifiable through style
Saarinen and The Cranbrook Academy of Art
•    COLLECTING Saarinen: designs are scarce but well documented; Eames: very collectable, particularly early work
Other designers
•    COLLECTING identifiable pieces by lesser-known American designers are rare but still not greatly sought after; provenance is important in determining value; commercial furniture is less valuable than domestic
Marks
Pieces are rarely signed by the designer but may bear a maker’s or retailer’s mark; Weber pieces may bear a tag from Lloyd Manufacturing Co.