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I was asked to design and build a dining room set of a light wood for a Hawaiian couple, and I suggested curly maple. While this is not a Hawaiian wood, it has exceptional figure and density. I appreciate the fact that the movement of light across the surface provides endless interest, and increases with age. My clients appreciated this wood and the sculptural surface of the Doric columns of the pedestal bases for the table.
The elliptical table edge was augmented by a inlay of black walnut, which matched the flower detail on the back splat of the chairs. This delicate contrast provided some interest in an otherwise blond landscape of curly maple. Overall, this dining room served as a nucleus for light in its placement between several windows and skylights. The furnishings often blended into the light at different times of day, becoming weightless.
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This client saw images of the Mackmurdo Chair I had designed for a client in Los Angeles. She wanted to have a dining room set with 6 of these chairs, made in cherry wood. The table was to be a new but very basic design, in order to allow the chairs to stand out. For this purpose we chose curly maple wood for the table, which provided great contrast to the ebonized back splats and rich cherry wood of the chairs.
The Art Nouveau Mackmurdo Chair was derived from an original design by Arthur Heygate Mackmurdo (A. H. Mackmurdo) in 1888. The backsplat of the chair mimics the famous Art Nouveau graphic design he had made of a thistle plant. Only two such chairs were made for his own home in the outer Hebrides. Of these two, only one survives in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.
We had seen this chair published on several occasions, but were pleased to examine it carefully at the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC in 2000, as part of a traveling exhibition of Art Nouveau Design. My interpretation uses modern technology to create a multi-layered, curved and molded back splat, which was then cut with lasers based on a drawing that I had made and supplied. In this replication, the chair is significantly stronger than the original, and the delicate thistle design retains the boldness of its ‘hard-edge’.
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This couple contacted me with the expressed desire for an exceptional dining room in order to entertain their large extended families. They wanted a classic round table that would expand into a large oval through the integration of two independent drop-leaf side tables. Their family of four would dine regularly on the 84” round table, and the side tables would be attached to form a 17-foot long table for special gatherings.
A classic Regency design was chosen, with filled mahogany as the primary wood, and an inlaid satinwood band around the entire perimeter. The round table is supported by two turned tripod pedestal bases, while each side table has two turned Regency pedestals joined by a cross brace to provide additional strength. The elaborate sliding mechanism that allows the four sections to connect required much engineering, but came together perfectly. The proportions of the drop leaf side tables are elegant when placed along the walls beneath imported sconces, but function as discrete components of the full table when so employed.
The Federal period painted chair chosen to accompany this table is itself a hallmark of American Furniture design, built in 1820 for the daughter of a Salem, MA merchant of the China Trade. The sole remaining original is housed at the Winterthur Museum in Delaware, Maryland.
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In the 1980s, I was asked to submit an entry to a bicentennial exhibition of American Furniture, held at the Harrison Grey Otis House in Boston. I produced a set of six hand-carved mahogany chairs with a finely carved center splat and crest rail, and bent-laminated and carved stretchers. The slip seat was upholstered with a blue bargello fabric. The matching table was not to emerge until seven years later, as a number of much welcomed private and commercial commissions kept me from building my own designs in those early years. The table when built shared a similar bent-lamination in the base of the two solid mahogany tripod pedestals. A hand carved molding surrounds the sinuous, curving form of the solid mahogany table top.
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In 1986, I had been retained to build a classic Regency Pedestal table for a New Hampshire couple that collects high-end antiques. They had recently acquired a set of fine Chippendale chairs, and needed a table to match. As they were quite pleased with that first commission, they came to me in 1998 for additional furnishings for a second home in Naples, Florida.
The table design they chose was a much more elaborate example of Regency period design than their first commission. The design retains the classic oval top with inlaid satinwood border, reminiscent of their New England dining room. However, the pedestal bases of the new table are deeply carved in the Philadelphia style.
The chair they decided upon was from the same time period, but quite another cultural perspective. The Biedermeier period in Austria was a reaction to the excessive ornamentation of earlier European furniture, and emphasized simpler forms rather than surface detail. The primary wood of the period was birch, a light-toned wood that was locally available. Our clients liked the clean lines of this chair design, but chose to stay with cherry wood to match the table.
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After I built the Salamandre Glass Showroom in Portsmouth, New Hampshire in the 1970s, I began to receive recognition from the entrepreneurial class that was discovering the potential of this old seaport village. This 1982 commission was for the rural home of one such businessman, who had relocated from the Midwest for the opportunities that this greater Boston community offers to this day.
While this solid cherry table is more reserved than much of my later work, I was able to expand my design repertoire in the design of the chair. The carving on the crest rail, back splat and apron of the chair helped to formulate the art nouveau motifs that I still explore today. The two armchairs emphasize the continuity of sinuous line.
I was able to use leather for the seat and back splat, which supports a clear definition of the form, and a more uniform coloration. This armchair appeared in an exhibition in Boston, and was selected for publication in the Boston Globe on 11-16-1984.
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A client had purchased a home in Westchester and has renovated the dining room to lookout over the rear gardens. I had completed their new kitchen with upper and lower cases in oak, with clean and simple lines. In 1990, they requested a dining room set with the same essential perspective, and we developed a design based on the Arts and Crafts Style.
By that time, I was living and working in Hawaii, and had gained awareness of the magnificent woods of these tropical islands. I convinced them to consider koa, an Hawaiian acacia wood that was dark but had unusual figure and depth of color.
This entire project was built of solid koa wood, which has increased considerably in price as it becomes more endangered. This is an exceptional value, one that could not be reproduced today.
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This 2007 grouping was conceptualized as an informal dining area for daily family use, while the complimentary formal dining room was reserved for entertaining. The round, curly maple, pedestal-base table features an inlaid marquetry shell design of various exotic woods. The 4-legged walnut pedestal is centered on a raised curly maple dais for further stability.
The 180-degree, curved, curly maple upholstered banquette/bookcase is built into the floor, and well as the structural columns that support the great expanse of the room. While this can be removed the intention is stability for daily use by children inclined to climb aboard. It served its functional purpose well, while still being unique and elegant in appearance. The entire banquette is arranged to face out to a tidal inlet and pond, usually inhabited by swans and native birds of the adjacent sanctuary.
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The client is an antique dealer who travels between Hawaii and Asia for business. He had acquired four Ming Dynasty Chairs and wanted a matching table. We copied the elegant cloud-form brackets and lines of the chair, and created a table with a walnut-framed black granite top. We wanted this to appear as if floating above the structural base, so the design features a low cross-brace that strengthens and unites the legs of the table.
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This Art Nouveau inspired dining room set was designed and built for the country house of a couple who also collect art. The clients wanted simplicity with originality, and visible craftsmanship. They saw another chair we had designed, and asked for a variation as part of a dining arrangement.
We worked closely with these clients for several months, while refining drawings to reflect their vision and process, as well as our own. We enjoy working directly with clients to arrive at a design that they have ownership in, one that they choose to live with on a daily basis.
The chairs were made of two woods - all vertical surfaces cherry, horizontal surfaces of walnut, with a hand-carved and faceted seat. The table was also constructed with vertical elements of cherry and horizontal elements of walnut. The edge-banding around the tabletop was curly cherry. The legs and brackets are abstractions of dragonflies.
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I had worked for these clients on their home in New York, and was engaged to build furnishings for a new residence in Florida. When they expanded onto the adjacent lot 1n 1998-2000, I was able to be part of the initial design phase with the architects, and designed and built the architectural doors, windows, staircase and bar kitchen of the Great Room, as well as the furnishings. In a third expansion in 2006-2007, the original wing of the house was expanded and re-visioned, and this dining room was a part of that concept.
It was determined that the furnishings be of a light colored wood, and curly or tiger maple was chosen as the primary with black walnut as the secondary wood. The curly maple table design emerged as a variation of the several pedestal-based Regency period tables that I had made for other clients. It retains the inlaid border of classic Regency tables, while reversing the color contrast to a light table with a dark walnut inlay. This pedestal base was selected from a series of others that I had designed for this commission, and inverts the traditional tripod post of the classic Regency form.
The chairs for this dining room drew upon Art Nouveau forms and lines that I have been exploring for over 30 years, and retain specific carved motifs seen in other pieces, such as the Tamworth Chair. In many lights, the exceptional curly maple of these chairs becomes the predominant design element, therefore a simple solid textile was selected to emphasize the form.
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I was one of six furniture designers/makers selected to contribute to an exhibition in the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship, Rockport, Maine. The theme was "Setting the Table", and each furniture maker was assigned to a team that included an interior design firm, and an art gallery. Each group was to collaborate on a finished vignette; a dinner set in a room-like environment, complete with table and two chairs, art work, carpets, and table ware.
I was fortunate that my collaborators were The Gallery at Frenchman's Bay and Margo Moore Interiors, both well-established Maine firms. Our initial meetings during the winter months were wonderfully creative, interactive and far-reaching in scope. As summer approached, we all became very busy with our individual clients, and interactions less frequent.
Having recently spent time with urban clients who bemoaned the lack of space for a 'real' dining room, I thought this was the time to revisit the functionality of the drop-leaf form. As a result, I scaled back the original concept in favor of this drop-leaf table with shaped and carved legs and edge moldings. The chairs themselves have extensive shaping and carving, as well as steam-bent stretchers and supple leather upholstery. In all, I appreciated the opportunity to explore the drop-leaf form, to work with our dear collaborators, and to experience the shared opportunities that this exhibition offered.
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