Hurricanes, Squires, poetry and pears

Inspirational furniture that tells a story...

The oak for this table comes from a tree planted by Lippold Friedemann von Bredow, Erbherr auf Haage und Retzow, Havelland in 1855. It was uprooted on 30th March 2015 during Hurricane Niklas. The fallen tree was cut into timber and seasoned for four years at a local sawmill. Workbench were asked to design and fabricate a bespoke table for the London Office of an Investment Management Company. We transported the boards from Germany to our UK workshop, cutting to useable sizes and working out how best to join the boards whilst setting out the text for engraving a poem into the surface.

Herr Von Ribbeck im Havelland is a beloved German literary ballad written by Theodor Fontane in 1889. It tells the story of the generous and gentle Squire von Ribbeck who would gift pears to passing children from his pear trees. He knows his son and heir to be a scrooge who will stop this benevolence so he asks that when he dies he is to be buried with a pear. He does this in the knowledge that the pear tree which grows from his grave will continue to provide free pears to the children as they pass.