Ontwerpen voor een tafel 1874 - 1945

Carel Adolph Lion Cachet made this table design with pen and brush in the absence of a specific date. What strikes me about this drawing is the tension between utility and adornment. You’ve got the functional table, and then this sort of ghostly echo of a more ornate version, complete with scrolled carvings. It’s like seeing two possibilities at once. The stark black ink against the raw paper has a real directness, and the lines feel both precise and tentative, as if the artist is working through the design in real time. I find myself drawn to that heavy black tabletop - it's so solid and unwavering. It makes me wonder how that solidity would translate into the actual object. I bet it would be heavy. This reminds me a little of those early Frank Lloyd Wright furniture designs, where functionality and ornamentation are constantly negotiating with each other. It’s a reminder that art is always in conversation, that every piece builds on what came before. I love the openness of this drawing. It isn’t a definitive statement, but rather a proposition, an invitation to imagine what could be.