The Perfect Table
In 1967 at a shop in Toronto, Mr. Levy discovered this book-matched rosewood dining table; the table’s size and shape perfect according to Estée Lauder, for whom Ira Levy worked for three decades. Mrs. Lauder advised that a 60-inch round dining table was ideal for inspiring conversation, and conversation is exactly what happened at this table. Over the years, Mr. Levy entertained numerous intellectuals, artists and creative individuals at this dining table. Famed artists such as Andy Warhol, Louise Nevelson, Willem de Kooning, John Cage, Merce Cunningham, Aaron Copland and Leonard Bernstein dined at this table as did Joseph and Estée Lauder, Ronald and Jo Carole Lauder, Iranian ambassador Fereydoon Hoveyda, Stella Adler, Bob Dash, John Ashbery, Karl Springer, Rita Moreno and Judy Collins. Although anonymous by design, the table is imbued with a rich history of purpose and utility alongside intangible echoes of those who have sat at it.
From the late modernist interior in Bridgehampton for which the table was initially purchased and a Neo-Palladian house in Connecticut to an apartment in New York and a contemporary house in Arizona, this table has found pride of place in the dining rooms of each home, harmoniously fitting into many interior styles, that Mr. Levy has lived in.
House & Garden, November 1968, pg. 118 illustrates in situ
