Highboy c. 1936

Kurt Melzer made this watercolour and graphite drawing of a Highboy, and it's all about precision and planning. You can almost smell the wood shavings. What strikes me is the way he balances the technical with the decorative. Look at the floral carvings on some of the drawer fronts – they are not just pretty, they show an understanding of pattern, echoing the structure of the piece itself. It's all there in thin layers, like a carefully considered blueprint, but one that feels very human. The whole thing becomes more about design, and that tension between function and beauty is compelling. It reminds me of some of the Bauhaus guys, who were also thinking about bringing art and industry together. But unlike those guys, Melzer has this lovely looseness, he seems at one with the material. This piece shows us that even the most functional designs can be poetic. And that, my friends, is the beauty of art; always a conversation between form and feeling, intention and accident.