Provenance
G. David Thompson, Seal Harbor, Maine; Delorenzo 1950, New York; Phillips de Pury & Luxembourg, 20-21st Century Design Art, December 8, 2003, Lot 150; Geoffrey Diner Gallery, Washington D.C.; Sebastian + Barquet, New York
Literature
George Nakashima, The Soul of a Tree, A Woodworker's Reflections, Tokyo, 1981, p. 173 for a similar example; Derek E. Ostergard, George Nakashima, Full Circle, exh. cat., American Craft Museum, New York, 1989, p. 133 for a similar example; Mira Nakashima, Nature, Form & Spirit: The Life and Legacy of George Nakashima, New York, 2003, p. 200 for a similar example; Todd Merrill and Julie V. Iovine, Modern Americana: Studio Furniture from High Craft to High Glam, New York, 2008, pp. 130-131 for a similar example
Catalogue Essay
The present table is listed on a customer order card, dated May 23, 1964, on file at the George Nakashima Studio in New Hope, Pennsylvania. The table was among a series of works commissioned at that time by Mr. Thompson. Although his address is listed as Pittsburgh, the card indicates the works were shipped to him in Seal Harbor, Maine.

Phillips de Pury & Company would like to thank Mira Nakashima, Soomi Amagasu and the Nakashima Studio for their assistance cataloging this lot.

Burls (burrs in Britain) protrude from trees like blisters, rough and irregular. Rounded outgrowths, burls result from injuries to trunk or infections below the bark. Wood fibers, traumatized, contort—the more intense the infection, the more explosive and erratic the burl. In World Woods in Color, William Lincoln writes: “Burrs have the appearance of tightly clustered dormant buds, with darker pith forming tiny knot formations like a mass of small eyes…” (Fresno, 1996, n.p.)

Despite their abnormalities (or rather because of them), burl woods have been highly prized by cabinetmakers for centuries. Burls “…have a joy and exuberance that greatly enhances the tree’s charm,” wrote Japanese American woodworker George Nakashima (The Soul of a Tree, Tokyo, 1981, p. 94). Buckeye, walnut, oak—his rare burl table tops, reserved for special private commissions, are among Nakashima’s most elaborate and expressive designs and are a demonstration of his virtuosic abilities. The misshapen burl, like a knot, renders it difficult to cut and form with traditional woodworking tools. “Sawing this ‘treasure’ calls for the precision of a diamond cutter,” he wrote (Tokyo, 1981, p. 91).

Nakashima’s devotion to timber spanned five decades, an extended meditation on man’s kinship with nature. Most of that time was spent at his studio in the woods outside New Hope, Pennsylvania—“Penn’s woods,” as he called it, in reference to the Duke of York’s land grant to William Penn in 1682. Acutely aware of the hidden history of trees, Nakashima believed them to be witnesses to, and participants in, the long march of time—an ongoing journey. Nakashima considered his own furniture to be a second life for the trees he felled. “When trees mature, it is fair and moral that they are cut for man’s use, as they would soon decay and return to earth. Trees have a yearning to live again…” (Tokyo, 1981, p. 93).
Artist Biography
George Nakashima
American • 1905 - 1990
Working out of his compound in rural New Hope, Pennsylvania, George Nakashima produced some of the most original and influential furniture designs of the post-war era. Nakashima aimed to give trees a second life, choosing solid wood over veneers and designing his furniture to highlight the inherent beauty of the wood, such as the form and grain. To this end, his tables often feature freeform edges, natural fissures and knot holes. Nakashima was an MIT-trained architect and traveled widely in his youth, gaining exposure to modernist design the world over.
The signature style he developed was the distillation of extraordinary, diverse experiences, which led to the establishment of his furniture-making business in 1946. In particular, his practice of Integral Yoga, which he studied while working under the architect Antonin Raymond on the construction of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry, India, had a lasting impact on his philosophy as a designer.
After returning to the U.S. in 1940, Nakashima's family was interned in an American concentration camp, a horrible ordeal that nevertheless introduced him to traditional Japanese joinery by way of a Nisei woodworker he met in the camp. He incorporated these techniques and also drew on American vernacular forms, such as the Windsor chair. These diverse influences have resulted in immense crossover appeal in the world of twentieth-century design collecting.
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11

George Nakashima

Exceptional free-form “Minguren I” coffee table

1964
Japanese burl, oak.
15 1/4 x 42 1/4 x 29 in. (38.7 x 107.3 x 73.7 cm).
Together with a copy of the original order card from the George Nakashima Studio.

Estimate
$80,000 - 120,000

Sold for $86,500

The Collection of Halsey Minor

13 May 2010
New York

1
Richard Prince
Untitled (Almost Original)
Estimate $60,000 - 80,000
Sold for $182,500
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2
Mark Grotjahn
Untitled (Black Butterfly over Lime)
Estimate $300,000 - 400,000
Sold for $362,500
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3
Florian Maier-Aichen
Untitled (Mount Wilson)
Estimate $100,000 - 150,000
Sold for $158,500
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4
Marc Newson
Prototype “Lockheed Lounge”
Estimate $1,000,000 - 1,500,000
Sold for $2,098,500
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5
Takashi Murakami
Flower Ball (3-D) Kindergarten
Estimate $400,000 - 600,000
Sold for $602,500
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6
Marc Newson
Prototype “Pod of Drawers”
Estimate $500,000 - 700,000
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7
Ed Ruscha
Higher Standards/Lower Prices
Estimate $1,500,000 - 2,500,000
Sold for $1,426,500
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8
Richard Prince
Nurse in Hollywood #4
Estimate $5,000,000 - 7,000,000
Sold for $6,466,500
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9
Charlotte Perriand
Important “Bibliotheque Murale,”
Estimate $100,000 - 150,000
Sold for $314,500
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10
Mark Grotjahn
Untitled (White Butterfly MG01)
Estimate $800,000 - 1,200,000
Sold for $1,426,500
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11
George Nakashima
Exceptional free-form “Minguren I” coffee table
Estimate $80,000 - 120,000
Sold for $86,500
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12
Ed Ruscha
Angry Because It’s Plaster, Not Milk
Estimate $2,000,000 - 3,000,000
Sold for $3,218,500
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13
John Baldessari
Two Cars, One Red, in Different Environments
Estimate $300,000 - 400,000
Sold for $338,500
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14
Marc Newson
“Orgone Stretch Lounge”
Estimate $400,000 - 600,000
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15
Richard Prince
The Chatterbox Hotel
Estimate $800,000 - 1,200,000
Sold for $902,500
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16
Florian Maier-Aichen
Above June Lake
Estimate $100,000 - 150,000
Sold for $152,500
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17
Marc Newson
“Event Horizon Table"
Estimate $250,000 - 350,000
Sold for $242,500
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18
Takashi Murakami
PO + KU Surrealism Mr. DOB –Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple, Pink
Estimate $700,000 - 1,000,000
Sold for $602,500
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19
John Baldessari
Pink Pig, 2305 Highland Ave., National City, Calif.
Estimate $400,000 - 600,000
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20
Walton Ford
Loss of the Lisbon Rhinoceros
Estimate $550,000 - 750,000
Sold for $1,022,500
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21
Diego Giacometti
“Hommage à Böcklin” console
Estimate $150,000 - 200,000
Sold for $602,500
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22
Ed Ruscha
Long, Stormy
Estimate $800,000 - 1,200,000
Sold for $842,500
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The Collection of Halsey Minor

13 May 2010 New York

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Provenance

Literature

Catalogue Essay

Artist Biography

George Nakashima

11

George Nakashima

Exceptional free-form “Minguren I” coffee table

The Collection of Halsey Minor

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13 May 2010
New York