Martin Pierce combines traditional, contemporary
By Furniture Today Staff -- Furniture Today, October 14, 2001
LOS ANGELES — Martin Pierce Furnishings, a design-oriented line of case goods and upholstery, is looking to traditional sources for contemporary looks in its new collections, Hedgerow and Ascot.
The company, founded by English expatriate Martin Pierce, a sculptor and furniture designer, specializes in small production runs of high-style furniture. It sells through design centers and doesn't show in High Point.
Hedgerow features intricate motifs of interlocking branches and tendrils, inspired by the thick hedgerows found in the English countryside, on chair backs, mirror borders and console aprons. All pieces have thicker legs that flare out toward the floor to add style and strength, as well as creating an illusion of the furniture growing out of the floor.
Ascot relies on chinoiserie in the form of sprays of autumn leaves starting on the pediment of an armoire or buffet and winding down part of the front.
The pieces have a Deco flavor designed to complement other styles of furniture.
In England, Smith was known for his wooden sculptures of insects, long a source of fascination to the artist.
Those sculptures of scarabs, wasps, moths and dragonflies, as well as bats, have been reproduced in cast bronze as hardware for case pieces in the furniture line.
Martin Pierce Furnishings sells to the trade through design centers in Chicago; Dania, Fla.; Denver; Los Angeles; New York; San Francisco; Scottsdale, Ariz.; Seattle and Washington, D.C.
| A table from Hedgerow has interlocking branches in solid walnut around the apron and a myrtle-burl veneer in a stylized starburst on the top. |
| The Ascot highboy applies chinoiserie to create a cascading vine. Martin Pierce draws each leaf by hand, then applies layers of gesso, gold leaf and paint for shimmering three-dimensional effect. Wasp pulls are cast in bronze from an original Pierce sculpture. |
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