Coffee Table, 1929–53
Designer unknown
Imperial Furniture Company
(Grand Rapids, Michigan)
Cherry

Lent by a private collection


From the day in 1848 when the first circular saw and lathe were installed in Grand Rapids, Michigan, it is impossible to detect in the entire record, one sign of artistry, or one sign of any effort to establish a really contemporary American style. The complete history is one of downright pandering to any God-forsaken idea that filtered through from antique furniture history books, decorators, buyers or magazines.

Not a single piece of furniture has come out of this hotbed of vulgarity, sterility and ignorance that would indicate that its so-called designers have seen anything in the contemporary architecture of America as an inspiration for new and fresh furniture. They have made no effort to replace the dowdy caricatures and reproductions of antiques, which have always formed their major market.

The commercial furniture groups have foisted off on the American public the most frightful grab-bag of deformity, garishness, and pretentiousness ever put together in the entire history of human habitation.
  —T.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings, 1944