- "Lotus" Table
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By the turn of the 20th century, Minneapolis was a prosperous community with its own thriving Arts and Crafts industry. The city´s leading proponent of "artistic" design was John Scott Bradstreet, whose cooperative craft center, closely modeled on the utopian ideals of William Morris, produced imaginative interiors for a select clientele. One of Bradstreet's most creative works, this tabletop is carved as a lotus blossom, with the pedestal and base as its stem and roots. It has been treated with jin-di-sugi, a Japanese technique for artificially aging wood. The triumphant result is a combination of a traditional tea-table form, Japonisme, and American Art Nouveau design.
Provenance[sold by Robert Edwards 1996]; purchased by MFAH, 1996.
The original owner is not yet known. This table was a part of a set of furniture kept at Albedor by 1928. This lodging was owned by Col E. A. Simmons, head of the Simmons Boardman Publishing Company of NY. This house was not built until 1927-28 so it is likely the furniture was already with the family at that point (infomation provided by Ameila Peck at the MET).
After he died, the lodging became a hotel in 1951 and the furntiure, including the table, was sold to the hotel owners Dr. Harold and Betty Frendt. When the Frendt's sold the hotel, they took the furniture with them to Pennsylvania where the dealer found it.
Exhibition History"American Made: 250 Years of American Art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston," The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, July 7,2012–January 2, 2013
"Art Across America," National Museum of Korea, Seoul, Korea, February 4–May 19, 2013; Daejeon Museum of Art, Daejeon, Korea, June 17–September 1, 2013.
Cataloguing data may change with further research.
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