Harry Dreesen, sideboard, circa 1933

Harry Dreesen, sideboard, circa 1933
Ash-veneered wood, ash, reverse-painted glass.
37 3/4 x 75 1/4 x 24 in. (96 x 191 x 61 cm)
Designer's label applied to inside of proper left cabinet door. Two drawers, the upper with three compartments, above a cabinet door opening to a compartment with a tray drawer, flanked by cabinet doors, each opening to a half-shelf. With two functioning period keys.

Literature: Jean van de Voort, ‘Interieurkunst en Harry Dreesen,' Kunst, Maandblad voor oude en jonge beeldende, bouw en sierkunsten, no. 4, April 1933, pp. 95-110, fig. 10

Martin Henri Hubert Pierre (Harry) Dreesen (1884-1948) was a Dutch interior architect and furniture designer. Dreesen’s early work displays the sculpted details and influence of German Expressionism associated with the Amsterdam School, a Dutch Design movement that encompassed architecture, interiors and graphic design. This sideboard reflects the shift towards functionalist and minimal forms of the 1930s, though it retains the solid presence for which Amsterdam School furniture is known. Where its predecessors may have presented a carved relief decoration, an unusually figured veneer was employed here, to striking two-dimensional effect. An example of the model was published in the Dutch design journal Kunst in April 1933, and is also recorded in the designer’s archives.