Esherick’s fame increased, but it took several more decades until significant pieces were offered for

Studio spiral stairway, 1930, with side stair, 1940, oak. Show with "Oblivion," 1934, walnut.

sale. In the spring and summer of 1996, the Moderne Gallery sold the World’s Fair table and chairs to Larsen (offered at $150,000) and smaller pieces ranging from a pair of walnut trays ($2,000) to a pair of end tables ($10,000) to others. On October 21 and 22, 2006, Rago Art and Auction Center in Lambertville, New Jersey, auctioned a group of Esherick material including a faceted Victrola cabinet that sold for $90,000 and an oak dining table for $156,000. A three-part walnut screen ornamented with stylized wheat sheaves, fields and ebonized birds brought $312,000. John Sollo, a partner at Rago, calls the piece, which blurs the line between sculpture and furniture design, “the best object I ever saw in my whole life.”

Like the screen, everything Esherick designed possesses an element of experimentation or, as he would put it, of play. Indeed, he declared to anyone who asked about his work, “If it isn’t fun, it isn’t worth doing.” The spirit of fun and inventiveness is certainly among the many reasons Esherick’s furniture is so appealing. The man who enjoyed making it so much would want you to enjoy using it.

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Marilyn Fish is a freelance writer on decorative arts and the editor-in-chief of Style 1900 magazine, the quarterly journal of the Arts and Crafts movement.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

►LongHouse Reserve
133 Hands Creek Rd.
East Hampton, N.Y.
631.329.3568
www.LongHouse.org

►Moderne Gallery
Philadelphia
215.923.8536
www.ModerneGallery.com

►Phildelphia Museum of Art
Philadelphia
215.763.8100
www.PhilaMuseum.org

►Rago Arts and Auction Center
Lambertville, N.J.
609.397.9374
www.RagoArts.com
 
►The Wharton Esherick Museum
Paoli, Pa.
610.644.5822
www.Levins.com/Esherick.html

BOOKS

Half a Century in Wood by Mansfield Bascom
(Paoli: The Wharton Esherick Museum, 1988)
 
The Wharton Esherick Museum Studio and Collection
(Paoli: The Wharton Esherick Museum, 1977; second edition, 1984).