OG Painted Schindler Table

a triangular base table with an offset circular top is made of douglas fir plywood, but is also 90 years old, and the white paint all over it looks like it. a glass top prevents easy access to the storage area inside. being sold by la modern in 2025, originally from rudolph schindler's walker house in silver lake.
Rudolph Schindler table, 1935-36, douglas fir and paint, 18 in diameter, selling 17 July at LA Modern

I think my respect for a piece of painted Schindler furniture is pretty well-documented at this point, but let’s be clear: this beat-to-hell 90-year-old plywood side table with flaking white paint that’s probably got enough lead in it to flip an entire congressional district Republican must be preserved at all costs.

Fortunately, the estimate of that cost does not seem high.

The table is from the Walker House (1935-56), which was the subject of an intense LA real estate fairy tale its ecstatic buyer wrote for Apartamento in 2017. But stripping the old paint off the built-ins, it seems like they prioritized their little kids’ neurological development over historic preservation, which, honestly, understandable, but which might imperil the return of this asymmetrical table to its home.

a triangular box table with its circular lid open and hinges visible along one side, all painted long ago in white that's scuffed, chipping, and leaching while the 90-yr old plywood underneath starts to splinter too. this image is from 2014, when bonhams sold this original rudolph schindler table for $6000.
Rudolph Schindler table for the Walker House, sold at Bonham’s in 2014

Oh, but look how it opens up! The table was the roughest of six lots of furniture the original owners’ heirs sold off in 2014, plus the archive, with not an identical finish among them. What if the paint’s from like the 70s?

17 July 2025, Lot 150: Rudolph Schindler Walker House Table, est. $2-3,000 [lamodern]