On 27 April 2016 PIASA will stage a sale devoted to American furniture from the 1940s- 1980s. The rigorous selection will offer a fresh opportunity to explore the richness of American craftsmanship via iconic works from the New Hope School and its leading figures – Paul Evans, George Nakashima and Wharton Esherick.
Furniture-making in the United States, which had been dominated by industrial production during the 1920s and ’30s, was given fresh impetus by new post-war designers who rejected mass production and focused on working by hand. A period of greater prosperity allowed them to design de luxe, customized furniture in their independent workshops.
This sale pays tribute to one of the most important movements of international design, with a selection of pieces by such leading members of the New Hope School as George Nakashima, Paul Evans and Wharton Esherick – Frédéric Chambre, Associate Vice-President PIASA
New Hope: The Creative Heart of American Design
The small town of New Hope, Pennsylvania, was at the heart of this creative adventure. A number of designers hailed from the region; others, like George Nakashima, settled there to work. Nakashima moved to New Hope in 1943 at the invitation of the architect Raymond Antonin, a former patron, who arranged his released from internment as a Japanese alien. Nakashima would carry out many of his most important designs on Antonin’s New Hope estate.
These included his hallmark Conoid bench (1961) in hickory and American walnut (est. €36,000-42,000) and his Slab coffee-table from 1950 (est. €18,000-25,000). Connoisseurs will also appreciate a table and four New Chairs from the 1970s, inspired by the sleek outlines of European modernism (est. €22,000-28,000).
