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©2005 Yoav S. Liberman
Shahnameh - traveling book ark, 2004
Found steel table, butternut wood, cherry, oak, walnut, maple, brass.
As with most of my previous projects, the principle that guided my work on the traveling book ark, was to give new life to found objects and discarded wood. In designing this table I continued to develop a theme of my recent work: to build a new piece as an ensemble of the original found parts, and new parts that are added to, or mounted on top of it.
In many respects I am informed by themes present in campaign furniture of the 19th century and Knockdown furniture of the modular type. Campaign furniture was designed for easy assembly and dismantling, allowing the furniture to travel with its users be they scientists, explorers or military personnel. Campaign furniture designed for storage often consisted of components that could each be used separately.
I based the traveling book ark on a green office knockdown table that I found at the discarding area at Harvard Yard. I was originally drawn to this table because of its elegant proportions and balanced tapered legs that culminated in slim casters. The table, painted an army-green color typical of American office furniture from the 1940s, might once have been a typewriter table or an advent table (a serving table put next to a dinner table). Its legs, made of sheet metal, are stamped with delicate beaded ridges that not only create a design distinction but also strengthen the structure.
All of this immediately drew me to the table when I first discovered it, but it had another hidden feature that I uncovered only later on: the table could be disassembled. That it took me some time to discover this is testament to how sophisticated and precise the fabrication techniques of Knockdown furniture can be.
After long deliberation and many sketches I decided upon a design for the piece which would consist of the original office table, with a significant modification: I would build a drawer compartment and mount it on the original table, to serve as a base for the ark that would display a rare book.
In the spirit of campaign furniture, the piece can be dismantled. When removing the ark, the piece can serve as a side table--a place to toss the morning paper, or to write letters. For shipping, one can dismantle the drawer compartment and even disattach the legs from their metal base.
Picture 2 shows how the legs are installed into the original metal tabletop and the new drawer compartment is mounted on it. Picture 3 shows the ark of the book installed on the table and Picture 4 shows the open glass lid and a book inside. I used cherry, oak, walnut and cedar for the construction of the new parts.
I crafted wooden buttresses and attached them along the inner parts of the metal legs of the old metal table. The wood for the buttresses was salvaged from the ruins of a 19th-century mill in Worcester. This marriage of discarded parts supports the new components of the piece both physically and symbolically.
I used miter joints, dovetail joints and many groove joints to connect the wooden parts together securely. I bought four new brass casters to replace the old resin & steel ones and installed three new concealed brass handles at the front of the drawer. The drawer front I carved in a pattern that will echo the curves that I created in other parts of this table. The glass lid is placed in a rabbet on the lid frame and is then sealed from above with walnut stop beads, fastened down by brass screws. Brass screws, one of my favorite fasteners, are used abundantly here, from the legs to the lid. In joining the wooden additions to the legs I used small screws near the slim feet and gradually increased their size towards the top of the legs, where they reach maximum thickness.