Paul Kafka Marble Coffee Table

• Paul Kafka (1907 - 72) -

  Paul Kafka Exclusive Furniture Pty Ltd. of Sydney. Paul Kafka was one of the most significant furniture makers working in Sydney in the immediate post war period. Born in Vienna, Kafka worked in his father's furniture factory later studying furniture design at the Academy of Arts in Vienna. This training and early practice in Vienna in the 1920s and 30s is reflected in references to the Art Deco style which continued to inform his work during the 1950s
  
  

• Blackwood - One of the best known and most widely used Australian timbers, blackwood (acacia melanoxylon), is a member of the Acacia (wattle) family and grows in eastern Australia from about Adelaide in South Australia, as far north as Cairns in Queensland.
  
  The largest, straightest and tallest trees come from the wet forest and swamps of north-west Tasmania where it is grown commercially.
  
  Blackwood timber colours range across a wide spectrum, from a very pale honey colour through to a dark chocolate with streaks of red tinge.
  
  The hardwood timber has been commonly used in the production of furniture, flooring, and musical instruments in Australia from the late 19th century. However, the straight grain timber is not the most prized or valuable, that honour falls to blackwood with a wavy, fiddleback pattern, which is used both in the solid and as a veneer. Fiddleback was only used on the finest examples of furniture.

This item has been included into following indexes:

• Kafka, Paul (Australia) - mid-century furniture designers and makers (Australia) 13
• tables, purpose or type - coffee, post 1950 906