Scorched dining table presented in Christie’s Contemporary Living exhibition

The Sebastian Cox studio and workshop have created a dramatic scorched English ash dining table exclusively for Christie’s Contemporary Living: Art, Craft & Design exhibition, open to all from 1 – 4 April in South Kensington.

The Contemporary Living: Art, Craft & Design exhibition is one which will evolve and morph over the course of the four days under the curation of The New Craftsmen.

The scorched dining table will appear alongside work from a diverse group of contemporary artists, designers and craftspeople, including Pablo Bronstein, Huge McCloud, Dan Rees and Richard Aldrich.

The finished lines of the table are clean. It has a very simple and honest means of construction. All of the joinery is visible in the table top making it a very understandable and, we hope, beautiful piece.

At its very core, the table is dramatically charred. The centre of each leg is burned away and the centre of the table top is heavily textured and shaped by the extreme burning. Sebastian comments:

“I have always loved scorched wood; particularly the way it reveals a deeper texture in the grain of the wood by burning the spring and summer growth at different rates. Even a light flame reveals clearly defined annual rings. I wanted to create a one-off piece that really made the most of this delicate and yet barbaric process, rather than just using a ‘finish’ on the surface, but actually using burning to shape the very piece.”

This unique piece will go on sale in Christie’s First Open auction on 5 April. Visitors are invited to attend the Christie’s Late event dedicated to the Contemporary Living exhibition, in South Kensington on Tuesday 4th April, with free admission for the entire evening.

Please visit christies.com/lates for more information on the talks and activities planned as part of this celebration of art, craft and design.