What's this hoop back teak (?) chair in Rockefeller estate?  

The Racket Chair, designed by Helge Vestergaard Jensen and made by the cabinetmaker Peder Pedersen. First shown at the 1955 guild exhibition.

Ah, thanks! It sure is beautiful.

The chair, as well as a daybed from that same year, was quite the departure from the norm at the time and had mixed reviews. It also received the rare additional pages in the Grete Jalk volumes, which was afforded to only important designs.

And the string was nylon.

Having spent months working at the Rockefeller estate at Pocantico Hills in 1991, I was astounded that virtually every item on that property was some kind of unique treasure. Not just the architecture, furnishings, or decorative and fine art, but even the gardens and individual trees. That generation of the family had exquisite taste and the means to express it, certainly. Different universe.

Those are gorgeous pieces.

tktoo, I thought the house and grounds also looked very comfortable. Grand, but on a very human scale. Well lived-in.

The critiques posted by cdsilva are interesting. I can see why the design didn't take off in a big way. If it was in my house it would be an art object and I don't have the floorspace for something that people wouldn't be allowed to sit in.

Two of us were left alone all day in the main house at "Kykuit" to pack the contents for storage as part of preparations involved in turning over operations to the National Historic Trust. The hardest part was deciding which bathroom to use. I'd come home on weekends and ask my then fiancee, "Do you think we could fit a marble fireplace next to the toilet somehow?"

Were you able to tour the Japanese House or the Playhouse by chance? The carriage barn or orangerie? How about that subterranean grotto?

I only saw a few photos! But even in pictures it was obvious that it was not in the same class as a lot of homes belonging to old money. ( im thinking of the ones that are more about the people who decorated the rather than the people who live in them. Or just more about money than people.)

At that time, Nelson was the last one to have resided in the main house and he had passed years prior. Happy was in the Japanese House with her Secret Service detail, so off-limits to us. Though she did come up to the big house a few times while we were working. David was pretty much in charge then. He and family lived on-and-off in various other houses on the property (3000 acres).

It was quite an experience to have that place to ourselves every day. Staff might pop in a few times during the week, but, otherwise, we were free to explore. On nice days, we'd sometimes lunch on the veranda overlooking the Hudson or up on the roof where you can see the skyscrapers of Manhattan.

I don't remember any modern furniture in the big house. Maybe a few random pieces in the art gallery. These chairs may have been in David's Ringing Rock house in Maine or another property.

what a killer experience, tktoo!

my,

Aunt Mark

"...exquisite taste and the means to express it."

Gosh, that's a magical way of putting it, Tktoo.

If only those two traits collided more frequently. I think the world would be a more interesting place and artists/designers more prominent.

Of course, Kyle, the Rockefellers hired the best consultants to help them with their purchases and not every acquisition or decision was particularly well-advised. A "Brancusi" bronze in the collection, for instance, was a forgery and the oversized "Miro" in the music room was a copy that Nelson had commissioned before the original that he'd hung there went to MoMA. I guess he liked it that much, but WTF?