$19,000
Estimate: $10,000 - $20,000
The Pennsylvania Sale featuring The Hedgerow Theatre Collection
Auction: October 28, 2020 10:00:00 AM EDT
White pine.
H: 28, L: 77, W: 34 1/2 in.Provenance: Made by the artist for the artist's home, Sunekrest, Paoli, Pennsylvania, 1924
Re-designed by the artist, 1938
Sold to Hedgerow Theatre, Rose Valley, Pennsylania, 1940
The Hedgerow Theatre Collection
LITERATURE:
Wharton Esherick, Studio & Collection, Eisenhauer, pp. 17, 32, 35-36 and 38 (for a discussion of Hedgerow Theatre)
Wharton Esherick, The Journey of a Creative Mind, Bascom, pp. 59-60, 106, 108-109, 120, 123, 131-136, 162-164 and 239 (for a discussion of Hedgerow Theatre and illustrations of related works)
Wharton Esherick and the Birth of the American Modern, Eisenhauer and Farrington, pp. 30-35, 112-127 (for a discussion of Hedgerow Theatre and illustrations of related works)
Drawings by Wharton Esherick, Rochberg, introduction (for a discussion of Hedgerow Theatre), nos. 56-61, 66-78, and 98-105 (for drawings related to Hedgerow Theatre)
NOTE:
This pine table, said to have been constructed utilizing the base of an old piano as the table's top, was crafted by Esherick in 1924. The table is thought to have been used by Esherick at the family's home Sunekrest prior to 1938. That year Esherick removed the original, low-relief carving he had inscribed to the table's edges and enhanced the table's form by reshaping its legs, thus simplifying the design and removing surface ornament. The selling price of the table was $125 and it eventually found its way to Hedgerow Theatre in 1940. The table has resided in the Theatre's Green Room for many years, but surely functioned in other spaces as well. The hourglass-form legs reflect the artist's turn from earlier, angular forms to the curvilinear shapes which became the hallmark of his designs from the 1940s through the 1960s.