Design

Germany, 1931
Pearwood, oak
Signed to side of top: "TO HANNAH WHARTON ESHERICK + YORK"; dated to top corner: "MCMXXXI"
H: 25, W: 73 3/4, D: 27 in.

Sold along with two Wharton Esherick drawings, "York and Hannah Working to Feed Wharton" and "Munchen" Germany, 1931
Graphite on paper
Both dated 1931, "Munchen" signed by the artist
H: 8 1/4, W: 10 in. ("York and Hannah..."); H: 10 3/4, W: 8 3/4 in. ("Munchen")

Note
The present lot was made by Wharton Esherick in Holzhausen, Germany, in the summer of 1931, for artist Hanna Weil Fischer. He was assisted in the project by York Fischer, who would marry Hanna the following year. The table was designed as a work table for Hanna, who was at the time producing finely crafted, small-scale sculpture in ivory (there is a hole drilled in the top, which originally held her carving rig). Following the model of his 1929 Thunder Table, Esherick took two heavily warped boards (in this case, one long board, cut in half and flopped end-to-end), creating a surface of unusual complexity. These are secured to an oak trestle base with running dovetails, preventing further movement. The base is formed and carved in the Expressionist style (which was at its height at that moment in Germany), with the legs broadly splayed with prismatic triangles running up their exterior surfaces and a dynamic burst of rays on both sides of the stretcher.

The last image is a digital reproduction of a drawing Esherick made of the table at the time of its creation. The location of the drawing is unknown and it is not included in the sale of the present lot.
Illustrated
Mansfield Bascom, Wharton Esherick: The Journey of a Creative Mind (2010), pp. 118-9 (the present lot illustrated on p. 119)

Exhibited
Daring Design: The Impact of Three Women on Wharton Esherick's Craft, James A. Michener Art Museum, September 10, 2021 - February 6, 2022