Sideboard

Karl Emanuel Martin (Kem) Weber arrived in San Francisco in 1914 to supervise construction of a pavilion at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition celebrating his native Germany. Unable to return to Europe after the outbreak of World War I, Weber settled in California and brought to the west coast an aesthetic he had developed under the tutelage of the German architect Bruno Paul.

This double pedestal sideboard is part of a suite designed by Weber for the Grand Rapids Chair Company. (See MMA 1985.86.2 for an example of an armchair that was part of the suite.) In each chartreuse lacquered pedestal of the sideboard, four vertically stacked drawers with rounded front edges are separated by horizontal silvered banding. Each pedestal is raised on a recessed dark wood foot, and the two pedestals are joined with a recessed dark wood top, carved with an abstract frieze, and three recessed horizontal stretcher-like shelves. The suite was shown at the Rike-Kumler department store in Dayton, Ohio in 1928.