Hedgerow Theatre to Auction Wharton Esherick Furniture
Hedgerow Theatre Producing Artistic Director Jared Reed stands on the Wharton Esherick spiral staircase in the upper lobby. It is one of several Esherick pieces to be auctioned March 31 at Freeman’s. Photo: Leslie Krowchenko
Nearly 100 years ago, Wharton Esherick bartered furniture he designed and built as payment for his daughters’ acting lessons at Hedgerow Theatre in Rose Valley.
The pieces have increased in value.
Hedgerow has decided to sell Esherick’s three tables, eight hammer-handle chairs, and spiral staircase, using the proceeds to create an endowment and support building improvements. The items will be auctioned March 31 at Freeman’s in Philadelphia, with the most valuable table expected to sell for six figures.
“We have been a working theater for 97 years, and the pieces do not help us serve that mission,” said producing artistic director Jared Reed. “We feel we have become furniture collectors, and we are not equipped to do that well.”
Esherick was a sculptor who worked primarily in wood. His early pieces were inspired by the Arts and Crafts movement, subsequently evolving into the free forms for which he is best known. He created furniture that passed as sculpture and sculpture that functioned as furniture. Bridging the gap between art and craft, Esherick was recognized by his peers as the “dean of American craftsmen.” His work is represented nationally in the permanent collections of more than 20 major museums and galleries, including the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C.
The entire Esherick family became involved with Hedgerow. He, his wife, Letty, and their three children acted in plays. He designed sets, costumes, and lighting, and carved woodblocks to print promotional posters. Some of the latter are on display in the theater’s lobby.
The furniture is well known to the Hedgerow audience. The Thunder Table, named for the 1929 production of “Thunder on the Left,” in which the artist’s children appeared, has been a fixture of the green room for years. The chairs, now stored in the office, once lined the walls of the same room, and the staircase is a familiar sight in the upper lobby. The second table was used by the actors-in-residence living at Hedgerow House, while the third was originally the Esherick family kitchen table.
With the items moved to the auction house, Reed envisions uses for the space they once occupied. “We could hold youth programs here, something we couldn’t do when there was a table in the middle of the room.”
The pieces are tied to Rose Valley and its history, however. Seeing them scattered is concerning to the board of the Rose Valley Museum. Its collection is housed at Thunderbird Lodge, where displays include furniture stamped with the Rose Valley seal, borough founder Will Price’s portrait and hammer, a woodshop block plane, and books printed by the Rose Valley Press.
“Wharton Esherick is the linchpin between the Arts and Crafts movement of the 1920s and the studio-furniture movement of the 1950s,” said museum curator Ryan Berley. “There is a gap in our collection for arguably one of Rose Valley’s most important craftsmen, and acquiring the pieces would be an opportunity to help the museum and the theater.”
A similar gap exists, however, between the museum’s finances and Hedgerow’s desire to maximize its return. The possibility of a bidding war among Esherick aficionados would benefit the theater and help support future painting, heating and cooling, parking, and parking lot lighting projects.
“I absolutely understand the museum’s desire for the furniture, but we want to realize as much as possible from it,” said Reed. “In a world where arts organizations are often struggling, we would like the proceeds to help keep us alive for another 100 years.”
The museum board is considering several options. Members spoke at the January Rose Valley borough council meeting, suggesting the possibility of the borough acquiring certain pieces, which could then be displayed on loan until museum funds became available to purchase them.
A town hall meeting has also been scheduled for February 10 to make the community aware of the furniture’s significance and discuss crowdsourcing and other funding options. The meeting is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. in the Old Mill.
“We fully understand the theater’s quandary, but we have a shared passion,” said museum board vice president Sue Keilbaugh. “Borough residents support both Hedgerow and the museum, and we hope we can preserve some of the items.”
