Don Shoemaker Furniture

Many of my readers have asked me about Don´s dining room sets with combining cupboards and cabinets. For this week I have decided to write about the Sling dining room set, the favorite among Don´s dedicated customers:

The Sling dining room was the most exclusive dining room set within Don´s repertoire. The complete set consisted of a rectangular dining table with parquetry top handcrafted in cueramo tropical wood, 8 or more Sling dining chairs (with and without armrests) in solid rosewood and a matching cabinet available in three sizes. The dining table´s shape has the unmistakable “Shoemaker” style:

The leather upholstery of these Sling dining chairs could be ordered in different colors as displayed in the vintage catalog page above, however, most Shoemakeristis preferred the traditional black leather…

The shape of the Sling cabinet remained always the same, but depending on the size of the dining room or the amount of different things that you wanted to display, the cupboard started with a 2-door display cabinet, the next version had on one side a 2-door display cabinet and shelves on the other side, and finally the largest model had a 2-door display, open shelves and a small compartment with door in the middle and another vertical display row on the opposite side. The separate sideboard had 1 drawer with 2 doors for the smallest version, 2 drawers with 4 doors for the medium size and 3 drawers with 6 doors for the large model. I have included a picture on the large Sling cabinet, a very impressive piece of furniture in your Don S. Shoemaker dining room.

Copyright © 2011 Karin Goyer. All Rights Reserved.

@donshoemaker.com

When attributing a piece of furniture to Don S. Shoemaker becomes grotesque:

-Who is to blame?

• The consignor (particular? dealer?) that attributes a piece to some important designer, obviously with the hope of a good (profit? scamp?)
• The forger who maybe does not even know that someone is passing the piece as a “vintage” one.
• A designer of a lesser mind whose work in cueramo, cocobolo, granadilla, etc. has been bought with the purpose to deceive and now is in an auction catalog under Don S. Shoemaker´s name.
• The auction house that clearly showed their ignorance or maybe it was greed? Or maybe they were acting in good faith? Finally it looks like a pretty grotesque scamp.

• I saved this attributed dining room set including a rectangular table with 8 matching chairs (found at an auction) for a moment in which I think I am starting to solve the riddle involving attributions…
• The table´s surface is made of laminated granadilla tropical wood and has a very strange stained look. The chair upholstery comes in an odd dark gray cloth (Don always used black or brown leather upholstery, never cloth!), the underside cloth finish looks brand new (see detailed picture). The design is less than appealing: pay attention to the uneven armrest surface and the shape of the legs.
• The forger tried to make an effort by using quality tropical woods, but this dining room model never existed during Don S. Shoemaker production days.

• Always remember: if a furniture piece is produced in rosewood, granadilla or cocobolo, make yourself a favor: do not think it is attributable to Don S. Shoemaker only for this reason!!!

Copyright © 2010 Karin Goyer. All rights Reserved

@donshoemaker.com