Slab I Coffee Table

George Nakashima
Slab I Coffee Table, 1956

Dimensions:
56 × 25 × 13 in (W x D x H)
142.24 x 63.5 x 33.02 cm

Material: American Black Walnut

An early Slab I Coffee Table by George Nakashima, dating to 1956. The work is formed from a single board of American black walnut, its irregular profile and pronounced grain determining much of the table’s character. A concave section in the surface, resulting from the milling process, remains visible as part of the slab’s material history.

First developed in the 1940s, the Slab Coffee Table was among Nakashima’s earliest designs and established an approach that would remain central to his work: allowing the individual qualities of the wood to guide the finished form.

Reflecting on the conceptual basis of the Slab tables, Mira Nakashima wrote that they were “designed to express the character of a particular slab. Crotch figures, knots, rotted-out sections, and interesting profiles are used as expressions and not considered defects” (Nature, Form, and Spirit, 2003, p. 106).

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.