Ward Bennett Tri Leg Claw Side Table for Brickel Associates, 1970s

Details

Description

A classic Ward Bennett design, the "claw" table takes its name from the connection where the stretcher grips the legs. … Read more A classic Ward Bennett design, the "claw" table takes its name from the connection where the stretcher grips the legs. Like all of Bennett's work it is subtle, understated, and impeccably crafted. Made by Brickel Associates.

Ward Bennett was a fascinating character in design. He left home and school at the young age of 13 and found work in Manhattan’s Garment District. Within a few years, Bennett traveled to Europe on behalf of a clothing manufacturer to gather ideas for modern garments. He lived abroad as a young man, and when he returned to New York, during the early 1940s, he assisted fashion entrepreneur Hattie Carnegie as a window dresser.

Bennett would also go on to share a sculpture studio with artist Louise Nevelson. He ventured into the world of jewelry design, creating necklaces, bracelets and other pieces with Richard Pousette-Dart. The Whitney Museum of American Art exhibited his sculptures, and it wouldn’t be long before the Museum of Modern Art included Bennett’s personal adornments with accessories by the likes of Alexander Calder, Harry Bertoia and Anni Albers in its 1946 “Modern Handmade Jewelry” show.

Bennett didn’t take the plunge into interior design work until he was 30 years old — his inaugural project was an apartment in Manhattan and his clients were family members. He had no formal training in architecture or decorating — and would ultimately design a mere handful of houses in his life — so for his inviting leather office chairs, marble-topped tables and sleek storage cabinets, Bennett relied only on what he learned in the fashion world. Soon, every time he redecorated his own home — an elaborate apartment comprising former maids’ quarters in New York City’s magnificent Dakota building — it earned splashy coverage in the newspapers.

Bennett’s client list eventually included David Rockefeller and Chase Manhattan Bank, Tiffany & Co., Sasaki, Italian industrialist Gianni Agnelli, and others, and during the 1970s he became in-house designer for Brickel Associates, a role that would endure for more than two decades. His work is on permanent view at the Museum of Modern Art and the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in New York.

Thus table is in very nice original condition. There is some wear to the cap feet but its minor. See the last picture which shows the cap with the most wear.

Height: 15.5 in
Diameter: 19 in See less