Alan Peters
Serving/Side Console Table, 1994

Material: Solid figured Bubinga, contrasting white horn dove tail sections

A console by renowned British furniture maker Sir Alan Peters. The work highlights an architectural, reduced form with its top supported by contrasting, inverted triangle beams. Despite its large scale, the work’s reduced, elemental frame possesses a lightness.

Additionally, the work’s bubinga top and frame are exquisitely figured and rich in color.

“Peters was one of the main exponents of the British craft revival in the 1970s, and most of his work was in solid wood. His furniture was characterized by elegance, simplicity and restrained use of decoration, a feat often requiring more skill than the production of fussy pieces that are superficially more complex.

A perfectionist who worked across a wide range of styles and forms, Peters influenced a whole generation of British craftsmen. But his true legacy was the integrity of his work; he always enjoyed a close rapport with his material, and went to great lengths to acquire the right wood for a particular piece, sometimes buying whole trees to ensure that he could match the grain.

Although, like all leading makers, Peters sometimes exhibited his work, most of it was executed for private commissions, and his pieces were always accessible, his prices reflecting the modesty of the man.

He once observed: ‘If some day someone regards a piece of my furniture as a work of art, that’s fine, that’s a bonus, but it’s not my motive in producing it; that has always been to produce a piece of furniture to which I am happy to put my name.’

Peters was appointed OBE in 1990. Among many other honours, he was elected to the British Craft Centre in 1959 and a Fellow of the Society of Designer Craftsmen in 1968 – the society presented him with its Centennial Medal in 1988. In 2002 he received the Award of Distinction from the American Furniture Society” (“Alan Peters.” The Telegraph, 30 Oct. 2009).