Clarence Teed
Sofa, c.1960

American black walnut with loose cushions, signed

Based in Kansas City, Teed was a highly respected and award-winning “designer-craftsman,” In 1966 he was elected president of the Missouri Craftsman Council and was a founding member of the Kansas City Woodworker’s Guild. As he said of his approach, “I think woodworking can be an art form since one must think creatively as a painter must conceptualize what he wants to do through his brushstrokes. That’s why I call myself a designer-craftsman… innovation of form in the form of communication of an emotion is difficult no matter what medium one chooses to work through. In a Kansas newspaper article about his career it was said that “Wood pieces by Teed often take the form of sculptured furniture…’