Gifted from the artist to a friend, Inverness, California
Private Collection, California
Sotheby's New York, November 16, 2007, lot 84

This expressive early stool by J.B. Blunk personifies the raw design approach of its master craftsman. Combining crisp lines and a superb wood selection, the piece is a prime example of Blunk’s bold use of the chainsaw as the primary carving tool. Age has enhanced the fissures and natural cracking of the wood, creating a dynamic and highly organic work. These beautiful signs of age complement the fascinating story of an object that could have easily been forgotten. The stool originally belonged to an equestrian and restaurant owner in the small town of Inverness, California, where Blunk had settled after the Korean war. The original owner’s restaurant was located just across the street from the general store where the Blunk family still gets their mail. He did many favors for the locals, including Blunk, who gifted the piece to him in return. For many years, the stool became a utilitarian tool to keep the horse barn door ajar while the owner tended to his horse, and in the process became an ecosystem in and of itself – it is said that the stool once had sprouted grass emerging from the top. The stool was later gifted to a private collector who was friendly with the local equestrian and properly cleaned and rehabilitated the piece, before it entered the Maharam Collection in 2007 through Sotheby’s. The present lot is not only inevitably linked to the artist’s life in Inverness, it also embodies J.B. Blunk’s early reverence for wood in its purest form.