George Nakashima
Rosewood Conoid Desk, 1963
Material: Rosewood
A Conoid Desk by George Nakashima dating to 1963. Featuring an extremely expressive Rosewood single board top with defined sap edges, the free edged, organic form serves as a testament to Nakashima’s distinct, nature driven design philosophy and process. The top features a butterfly on its top surface, joining a void, as well as a butterfly on the top’s side surface.
The top is supported by the cross-legged support base signature of the Conoid Desk along with a pedestal housing a bank of three drawers. The pedestal support features Nakashima’s signature exposed, handworked dovetail joinery along the juncture of the top and sides of the case.
Introduced in 1961, the Conoid line was inspired by the curved vault and outward-facing, lyrical space of the Conoid Studio. During this period, the new Cross-Legged Base was used in several designs and iterations, supporting both small and large tables. In fact, the Conoid Desk design was originally referred to as the Cross-Legged Desk taking its name from the base style (‘Nature, Form, and Spirit’, Mira Nakashima, 2003, p. 179).
George Nakashima was born in Spokane, Washington in 1905 to Japanese parents who had immigrated to the United States. Educated and trained as an architect at the University of Washington, Nakashima received his Master’s degree in Architecture from M.I.T. in 1930. After working briefly as an architect in the United States he left for Paris seeking the creative energies of one of the great urban centers of the day. From there he traveled extensively, ending up at the home of his grandmother, living on a farm on the outskirts of Tokyo.
| Dimensions | 54 × 34 × 29 in |
|---|---|
| Artist | |
| Date | 1963 |
| Material | Rosewood |
| Style |
