Bradley House Dining Table
66" diameter x 30" high
Quarter sawn white oak
Designed by George Grant Elmslie
Building this reproduction was a delight and a tremendous challenge. The original table was built for the Harold and Josephine Bradley house in Madison, Wisconsin. The house was designed by Louis Sullivan. It was built in 1909. George Grant Elmslie was Sullivan's head designer. Elmslie designed the furniture and other decorative art objects for the house. A few years later Elmslie would design two more houses for the Bradley's. One in Shorewood Hills, Wisconsin, and a summer home in Woods Hole, Massachusetts.
I knew Charles Bradley and his wife Nina very well and had perhaps 50 meals at the original table. Charlie's mother had taken the original dining table with her when the family moved to the Shorewood Hills house. I asked if I could copy the table and was given permission. It pushed all my skills. The top is veneered with 32 wedges, the pedestal has some wonderful piercings and the apron has 16 tiny and intricate medallions that needed to be carved. Here are the results.