Bernhard Rohne Mastercraft Mid Century Modern Ash Burl Buffets Credenza Cabinets

Description

Pair of mid century modern buffets / credenzas / sideboards / servers / nightstands by Bernhard Rohne for Mastercraft Furniture Company. Made from ash burl featuring modular form with paneled sides, folding doors, dovetailed drawers and silverware compartment. Each of the 2 cabinet rests on a plinth base with square tapered legs leading to capped feet. circa 1970s

Mastercraft was founded in Grand Rapids, Michigan in 1946 by brothers Charles and William Doezema-who came from a family of cabinet makers. The Doezema brothers went overseas during World War II and returned to the US planning to make furniture with an urban cosmopolitan style. Mastercraft specialized in chairs and case pieces with traditional forms and modernized veneers and finishes. In 1974 Mastercraft was acquired by Baker Furniture and Vancouver based artist Bernhard Rohne designed large case pieces. The bold and artful statement of Mastercraft furniture tables chairs and cases are popular with collector’s today.

Bernhard Rohne
GERMAN, CANADIAN, B. 1944
Widely acclaimed for the range of case pieces he designed for Michigan manufacturer Mastercraft during the 1970s, metal artist and furniture designer Bernhard Rohne has been creating distinctive acid-etched brutalist furnishings, home accessories, sculptures and other works for decades. The German-born Vancouver-based designer’s cabinets, coffee tables, credenzas and more are statement pieces in any interior and can introduce contrast and vigor into living rooms and dining rooms.

Born in Peine, Rohne attended the WKS Hanover art school. It was in his material science class that Rohne immersed a small painted copper plate into a container of acid. After some time, he couldn’t detect whether or not any kind of chemical reaction had taken place, so he left the plate in the acid and went to lunch.

When Rohne returned, yellow clouds had filled the room and the school had to be evacuated. However, when he was able to retrieve the copper plate, Rohne saw that there had indeed been a reaction between the metal and the chemical. The incident, while most definitely dangerous, sparked his interest and set him on a path of material exploration and design that collectors and art enthusiasts continue to celebrate to this day.

Rohne moved to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada in 1967. During the 1970s, Grand Rapids-based furniture manufacturer Mastercraft — known to collectors of mid-century modern and Hollywood Regency design — partnered with Rohne and produced a large group of case pieces featuring applied brass plaques and panels, acid-etched with forms and patterns that are marked by the influence of Abstract Expressionism and Geometric Abstraction.

For his best known pieces, Rohne worked with brass, aluminum, copper and zinc metal sheets, which he oxidized and etched in order to create fascinating surface panels for his walnut console cabinets and sideboards that, with their patinated bronze and black lacquer doors, are sculptural attention-grabbing works in today’s interiors.

Rohne’s work, like many pieces of brutalist furniture and sculptures designed by him or like-minded metalworker Paul Evans, remains popular with interior designers and can lend unique, eccentric, human notes to an art and design collection in any home.

Condition

Fair condition, wear and distressing commensurate with age and use, finish loss, edge wear, patina / rust to hardware.

Dimensions

33" x 20" x 32"