Discover Vintage America — January 2012
The uncommon wood bench
Wood benches offer elements of introspection and soul to your home. But, in decorating schemes, you rarely find them. They’re generally relegated to a hallway, mud room or found at the foot of a bed as a utilitarian piece of furniture where a busy person might drop a bag, store a blanket or change a pair of shoes. Even in the garden, they’re mostly included in public garden areas. Home gardens too often shun benches, suggesting sitting in the garden is not the appropriate act of a serious gardener because serious gardeners always have something rather important to accomplish: a flower to dead head, weed to be rid of, stake to drive, bug to chase down or some parched soil to quench.
The Garden Bench
Anyone whose soul is
inspired by a garden (and that includes the gardener) ought regularly to use
the garden bench to sit and contemplate the beauty surrounding him. British
garden writer Mirabel Osler best sums this up for all who garden in her book The Garden Bench: "Sitting in your
garden is a feat to be worked at with unflagging determination and
single-mindedness – for what gardener worth his salt sits down. I am
deeply committed to sitting in the garden."
After acquiring this primitive garden bench at KCAuctionCo.com, I placed it under a painting in my kitchen where I can visit it many times a day. While not as old as the story of Elijah and the Widow of Zarapheth, my ancient bench is, however, rich with its own history. The widow’s story begins with a drought, a famine and the sacramental gift of her (and her son’s) last bread and oil to the God-sent visitor Elijah and it ends, of course, in ways both edifying and inspiring while exemplifying the widow’s faith and hospitality.
In a like manner, this humble and distressed garden bench has borne its own host of garden visitors, been privy to countless conversations and carries all the romance, stories and memories of numerous gardens of flowers and foliage inside my home where I can imagine, enjoy and be fed by them daily.
The Guest Bench
Other cultures got in on the
hospitality and comforting benefits of the bench even while their style remained
primitive and austere. Benches such as this were defined as Java Primitive and became very popular
with European dealers in the early 1900s. This beautifully designed teak bench
elegantly conforms to contours of the bodies of its visitors.
The Art Bench
Japanese-American wood craftsman, George Nakashima, probably
understood best the spirituality and community benefits of the bench.
Drawn to forestry, trained in architecture and guided by the Indian guru Sri Aurobindo, Nakashima created masterworks of woodcraft during an internationally acclaimed career that spanned 53 years (1937-1990). His body of work is functional, meditative, cognitive and real. He brings servitude to design without the imposition of ego. He achieves a visual voice to the Spirit in Nature.
When asked to describe his work he said simply and conclusively, “I prefer to let the natural forms speak for themselves.”
Design writer Durwin Rice lives in Kansas City, MO. He can be reached at designcolumnist@discoverypub.com.