Dining table by Paul Kafka
Object No. 2004/151/1
Paul Kafka is one of the most significant furniture makers to have worked in Sydney in the immediate post-war period. Born in Vienna in 1907, the son of a Viennese furniture maker, he worked in his father's factory and later studied furniture design and interior decoration at the Academy of Arts in Vienna. In 1939 Kafka and his wife emigrated to Australia and established a furniture making factory, first in Elizabeth Street, Sydney and by the late 1940s larger premises in Botany Road, Waterloo. Here he employed designers and 20-30 tradesmen producing custom-built furniture principally for eastern suburbs clients. In the 1960s he turned more to producing specialised furniture for hotels and motels. Kafka died in Sydney on 15 May 1972. At a time when Australia was just emerging from its post-war isolation Kafka produced stylish, well-made furniture for a discerning clientele composed mostly of European immigrants living in the eastern suburbs. Kafka's training and early practice in Vienna during the 1920s and 30s is reflected in the references to the art deco style that continued to inform his work during the 1950s. This is particularly evident in his characterstic use of strongly-striped veneers and geometric detailing, albeit with a contemporary interpretation. Kafka's practice included the design of individual pieces for clients as well as built-in fittings and complete interiors. Much of his furniture bears his company's small metal label.
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Summary
Object Statement
Dining table, extension, wood / glass, Paul Kafka, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, c. 1955
Physical Description
Dining table, extension, wood / glass, Paul Kafka, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, c. 1955 Table, extension, wood/glass, Paul Kafka, Sydney, about 1955. Extension table of zebrawood veneers on a [coachwood] carcase, the rectangular, grey-tinted mirror glass top with a blackwood edge and two retractable leaves on slides beneath; the four veneered, square tapered legs each terminating in a brass stud.
PRODUCTION
Notes
The table was designed by Kafka's company but may not have been the design solely of Kafka himself. According to former Kafka employees (Neil Sear, George Surtees) his main designer and draftsman during the 1950s was Allons(?) Worms (now deceased). Given Kafka's background it seems likely he would have collaborated closely at the initial design level, with Worms resolving detail and completing the final design drawings. Manufacture of the table is attributed to Kafka's company on the basis of its style, materials and construction as well as the verbal evidence of Tyrone Dearing (Sydney dealer), the vendor to the current donor, who recalls purchasing it in the early 1990s from a house in Bellevue Hill with other examples of Kafka furniture in it. Much, but not all, Kafka furniture bears the company's metal label. According to Neil Sear, a former employee, Kafka employed skilled craftsmen, (including a number of Italians) and was fastidious about quality workmanship and finishing. The workshop was organised along traditional lines with individual furniture makers responsible for work from start to finish, as opposed to the 'production line' methods used by many furniture companies at the time. Polishing was completed by a skilled frenchpolisher. Dated to about 1955 on the basis of its stylistic relationship to other work by Kafka and in the knowledge that the bulk of Kafka's domestic furniture was produced between the late 1940s and early 1960s.
HISTORY
Notes
The table was bought by the donor from Sydney dealer Tyrone Dearing. According to Dearing he purchased the table in the early 1990s from a house in Bellevue Hill with other Kafka furniture in it. However Dearing has not held any records relating to this sale and does not recall the address of the house.
SOURCE
Credit Line
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program by Keith Beard and Brian John Shaw, 2004
Acquisition Date
18 November 2004
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