PHILADELPHIA, PENN.- Freeman’s October 28 Pennsylvania Sale was led by the “Thunder Table,” a long oak trestle table crafted by Wharton Esherick (1887-1970) as a commission for the Hedgerow Theatre in Rose Valley, Penn., in 1929. It sold for $187,500 and was one of ten lots from that commission included in the auction. The same year the table was made, Esherick’s daughter attended the theatre and took part in the company’s stage adaptation of Christopher Morley’s book Thunder on the Left. A curvilinear carving appears in one of the table board’s ends featuring a pose by the play’s leading actors Dudley Vaughn and Smith Dawless.

Among the other Hedgerow commissions in the sale was a spiral staircase that sold for $81,250. Esherick made only a few staircases in his career, with the example at his studio rising to the status of an icon of American Twentieth Century design.

Twenty-six lots of works by New Hope craftsman George Nakashima (1905-1990) were led by a “Conoid” bench in American black walnut and hickory from 1976 that sold for $46,875.

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