Table

Although the great majority of Dunand's clients were French, one of his most important design projects was realized in America: a penthouse apartment in San Francisco designed for Templeton Crocker (1884-1948), the millionaire grandson of the founder of the Union Pacific Railroad Company. Completed in 1928, the apartment contained a master bedroom, dining room, and breakfast room by Dunand; other rooms were designed by Jean-Michel Frank, Pierre Legrain, and Madame Lipska. The apartment was dismantled and sold in 1959. The "sponged" surface of the table is characteristic of lacque arraché, a technique Dunard favored, wherein a final coat of lacquer is applied over a roughened layer—in this case, metallic gray over black. By polishing the entire surface, the raised peaks of the black lacquer are revealed, creating a mottled yet smooth effect.