Cross Cut

The burl slab coffee table lit as a studio still life, three-quarter view

Rendering, three-quarter view

Two-Tier Live-Edge Burl Coffee Table on Root Base

A monumental two-tier coffee table cut from burl stock, the lower slab left in its natural outline with its live edge running from a smooth lobed contour on one side into dense burl cluster on the other. Open voids and checks are retained rather than filled. A second slab sits above and to the left, cantilevering outward and tapering to a point, with a sculpted root fin rising between the two levels. Both tiers are carried on a root mass cut flat only where it meets the floor.

The figure is dense eye and cluster burl running edge to edge, amber through russet, with darker heartwood pooling toward the perimeter. The surface carries a heavy poured gloss that stands proud of the wood and collects in the fissures.

Dimensions on request

Condition report and further images on request.

Price on request

Record

Form: Coffee table, slab top on root base
Species: Burl, consistent with redwood root
Maker: Unidentified
Date: Undetermined
Finish: Poured high-gloss
Provenance: Private collection, acquired 2026
Images: Two renderings, two photographs

Notes

Attribution. The table has not been authenticated, but a George Nakashima attribution cannot yet be excluded. Its monumental burl slab, preserved natural outline, open fissures and expressive root figure have credible parallels in Nakashima’s Arlyn and special-order burl tables. The absence of butterfly keys is not dispositive because Nakashima used them selectively where structural stabilization was required. The poured gloss is inconsistent with a documented original Nakashima surface, but it may represent later refinishing. The organic support does not correspond to a standard Conoid base, making Conoid the wrong comparison; its construction must instead be evaluated against Arlyn and one-off studio work. Authentication depends on examining the underside, joinery, tool marks, inscriptions and provenance.

Species. The figure and the scale of the root mass are consistent with redwood root burl. Species has not been laboratory confirmed.

Images. The first two images are studio renderings prepared from photographs of the piece. The tier structure, silhouette and proportions follow the original; surface detail is indicative rather than exact. The remaining two are unretouched photographs of the table as received.

Context

The Arlyn line. George Nakashima Woodworkers still lists the Arlyn coffee table as a Redwood Root Burl top with a Walnut base, about 60 inches long, 30 deep and 16 high. The studio notes that heavily burled stock must be sawn in thicker dimensions, and that each table is individually proportioned to support those wild shapes.

Butterfly keys. The 1979 Arlyn sold at Rago in January 2025 is catalogued with a single butterfly; the Minguren sold at Wright in 2016 carries four, set into the underside. The studio used keys where a check needed stabilising, in numbers the slab called for, which is why their presence or absence is not on its own an indicator.

Bases. The studio describes the Arlyn base as walnut and stark in its simplicity. The support under this table is a root mass, a different construction, and one that belongs to the studio’s one-off and special-order work rather than to the catalogue models.

Proportion. The Arlyn tables that have come to auction stand 15 to 18 inches high and run 56 to 91 inches long. The catalogue model is listed at 60 by 30 by 16. This table sits in the same register: long, low and wider than it is deep.

The wider field. Live-edge redwood burl slabs on root bases were also made in volume in California through the 1960s and 1970s, and most trade unsigned in the low thousands. The table below excludes them. It holds only monumental slab tables with published auction results, so the range reads against work of comparable scale and ambition.

George Nakashima Woodworkers, Arlyn coffee table: https://nakashimawoodworkers.com/furniture/arlyn/ Rago, Modern Design, 16 January 2025, lot 104: https://www.ragoarts.com/auctions/2025/01/modern-design/104 Rago, Modern Design, 20 January 2023, lot 501: https://www.ragoarts.com/auctions/2023/01/modern-design/501 LAMA, Design, 21 November 2024, lot 116: https://www.lamodern.com/auctions/2024/11/design/116 Sotheby’s, Important Design, 10 December 2020: https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auction/2020/important-design-6/arlyn-coffee-table Wright, Design Masterworks, 17 November 2016, lot 11: https://www.wright20.com/auctions/2016/11/design-masterworks/11 Phillips, Design Evening, 12 December 2017, lot 231: https://www.phillips.com/detail/george-nakashima/NY050317/231 Wright, Design, 26 October 2023, lot 229: https://www.wright20.com/auctions/2023/10/design/229 Wright, Converso Modern, 12 September 2019, lot 106: https://www.wright20.com/auctions/2019/09/converso-modern-celebrating-25-years/106

Comparables

Piece	Date	H × W × D, in	Estimate	Result	Sale
Redwood root burl, Nakashima studio
George Nakashima, Important and Rare Minguren coffee table, solid redwood slab, four walnut butterflies to the underside	—	15¼ × 61¼ × 53	$150,000–200,000	$161,000	Wright, 17 Nov 2016
George Nakashima, Arlyn coffee table, redwood root burl, black walnut, two East Indian rosewood butterflies	1978	15⅞ × 65 × 35⅞	$60,000–80,000	$131,250	Phillips, 12 Dec 2017
George Nakashima, Important Arlyn coffee table, redwood root burl and American black walnut	1978	16 × 56 × 38¼	$60,000–80,000	$100,800	Rago, 20 Jan 2023
George Nakashima, Exceptional Arlyn coffee table, redwood root burl, one butterfly	1979	16 × 69 × 35	$25,000–50,000	$82,550	Rago, 16 Jan 2025
Mira Nakashima, Exceptional Minguren I coffee table, single-slab burl top, two claro walnut butterflies	—	16 × 60½ × 37	$15,000–20,000	$28,380	LAMA, 21 Nov 2024
Mira Nakashima, Arlyn coffee table, redwood root burl, signed and dated	2009	18⅛ × 91 × 43¼	$10,000–15,000	Withheld	Sotheby’s, 10 Dec 2020
Other burl, Nakashima studio
George Nakashima, Rare and Important Minguren I coffee table, American black walnut root burl and rosewood	1978	15 × 38 × 29	$30,000–50,000	$60,480	Wright, 26 Oct 2023
Monumental burl, outside the studio
Rufus Blunk, Monumental coffee table, burled redwood	2009	17½ × 89 × 60	$10,000–15,000	$12,500	Wright, 12 Sep 2019

Figures are prices as reported, not hammer. Sotheby’s does not publish the result on the 2009 Mira Nakashima Arlyn, so that row carries the estimate only. Lot pages are linked in the final column.