Dining Table from the Rosenberg Residence, East Hampton, New York, circa 1969

Marcel Breuer, a graduate of the Bauhaus and close personal and professional friend of its director, the architect Walter Gropius, is well known for his designs in tubular-steel furniture and experiments with incorporating aluminum and bent plywood in contemporary furniture. Later in life, Breuer became intrigued with harder substances, such as concrete and stone, both in his architecture and furniture designs. The dining table on offer is an outstanding example of that phase of his career.

Arnold Rosenberg, an established portrait photographer trained by Irving Penn, and his wife, Rochelle, commissioned the architect Herbert Beckhard in 1969 to design a moderate home in a wooded section of East Hampton, New York. Beckhard, who had studied under Breuer and later collaborated with him on a number of projects, created a house consisting of two separate rectangles composed of cypress wood. The Rosenbergs apparently wanted a table that would both complement the shape of the house while contrasting its wooden exterior, and Breuer, Beckhard’s mentor, was the ideal choice.

The granite table’s simple geometric form and impressive stature clearly depict Breuer’s fascination with transforming solid materials into sculptural forms. Similar granite tables were designed by Breuer for the Armstrong Rubber Company Building (New Haven, Connecticut) and the Geller House (Lawrence, New York) and is highly reminiscent of Breuer’s own office desk that he designed in 1954.