Design 
10 June 2022
Design 
271

Selected by John Dickinson

Monumental Belgian dining table from the Firehouse, San Francisco

c. 1900
carved oak 29 h × 134 w × 90 d in (74 × 340 × 229 cm)
estimate: $50,000–70,000
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provenance: Belgian Embassy, Paris | Collection of the artist | Private Collection
literature: The New York Times Book of Interior Design and Decoration, Skurka, ppg. 157, 158 illustrate this example in situ Modern Americana: Studio Furniture from High Craft to High Glam, Merrill, Iovine, pg. 231 illustrates this example in situ

This work will ship from Wright in Chicago, Illinois.

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This massive Art Nouveau table, thought to be the work of Victor Horta, was commissioned by the Baron D’ Athenan, Belgian Plenipotentiary to the French at the turn of the century for the Belgian embassy in Paris. It was later purchased by Dickinson in the 1960s and used as a dining and work table in his San Francisco Firehouse. 

Making the Ordinary Extraordinary

John Dickinson's Firehouse

In 1965, John Dickinson purchased an 1893 Pacific Heights firehouse moving in with just a few possessions. Over the course of twenty years, he would adjust the interior architecture and furnish his home with a mix of styles, and eventually his own custom designs, to great acclaim; the Firehouse became one of the most published interiors of its day.

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John Dickinson and his San Francisco firehouse residence. Photo by Fred Lyon

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