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American Art Deco Furniture

Donald Deskey American Art Deco Speakeasy Card or Game Table

This American art deco card table was manufactured in 1930 by Schmieg, Hungate & Kotzian; the design is by Donald DeskeyDonald Deskey
American [1894 - 1989] 

Donald Deskey was born in Blue Earth, Minnesota in 1894. In 1912 he left for California with a high school diploma. After a series of jobs, a stint in the army, and attendance at The University of California at Berkeley to study architecture and painting he began in 1920 working in advertising, first Chicago then New York. In 1925 he visited the Exposition International des Arts Decoratifs et Industrials Moderns and the Bauhaus in Germany. He came back to New York in 1926 committed to the modern movement. He created store window displays for Saks- Fifth Avenue and made folding screens for Paul Frankl. Frankl paid Deskey $35 per screen and sold them for $400… a tidy profit. Through his work at Saks, Deskey met the company president, Adam Gimbel and showed him some furniture drawings he had made in Paris. Gimbel was impressed enough that he commissioned Deskey to furnish the interior of his Park Avenue apartment, Deskey’s first...
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(1894 – 1989). It and five other examples were made for a high class speakeasy in the Gramercy Park area of New York City…or so the story goes. The top is of black cork with Bakelite trim and sides. At each corner a nickel extension contains a copper ashtray beneath which a nickel trimmed Bakelite tray slides out, a convenient place for a drink or sandwich. The top sits on a nickel base. The table measures 30” x 30” and is 30” high. The table is marked “SH&K” and numbered “4688” and “6071”. Another table from this commission was dated “April 26, 1930”.

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Reference# AF099

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