Handlebar Table (1982) by Jasper Morrison

The Handlebar Table (1982) was a table with aluminium handlebars, chrome steel connectors, beechwood support and plate glass top.

Background

In January 1982, in his last year in Kingston, Jasper developed the Handlebar Table at home. It was a product requiring minimal machining or manual labour to produce,’ a solution to Kingston’s metalwork technician’s unhelpfulness. As part of his graduate exhibition at Kingston in June 1982, he showcased sketches and photographs. He showed it at the Co-existence store in London and sold it in a tenth edition in July. The Design Museum purchased one of the ten in 2012. 

First Designs

The Handlebar Table was one of his first designs, certainly the first ‘commercial’ project. He had read somewhere that Marcel Breuer had the idea of a chair in bent tubular steel, having seen some racing handlebars. In the spirit of the ready-made, it seemed appropriate to use the handlebars themselves.

Graduation Project

He showed the table for his graduation show at Kingston. He then made it an edition of ten for the exhibition at Co-existence. The components cost him £20 apiece, and he sold the tables for £100. He made them in college with the help of the technician with the wooden parts. The last one was not sold because there was a bad knot in the wood.

Jasper believed that the most critical and vital success of the design for its future development was the successful combination of the three materials – wood, aluminium and glass – in their natural states. He said that the “somewhat eccentric shape of the table itself was fitting to the mood of the time and my own frame of mind. A kind of poetic, anti-establishment, business-like attitude!”

Source

Jasper Morrison | Handlebar Table. https://jaspermorrison.com/projects/tables/handlebar-table

Additional Reading

Boyer, C. A., Morrison, J., & Zanco, F. (1999). Jasper Morrison. Dis voir. https://amzn.to/3I6M7KA

Morrison, J. (2010). A World Without Words. Prestel Pub. https://amzn.to/3xHy9dp

Morrison, J. (2015). A Book of Things. Lars Müller Publishers. https://amzn.to/3rzFKdd

Morrison, J. (2014). The Good Life: Perceptions of the Ordinary. Lars Müller Verlag. https://amzn.to/32KBzkg

Morrison, J., & Etnologia, M. N. d. (2017). The Hard Life. Lars Muller Publishers. https://amzn.to/31hyE1S

Neri, G. (2011). Jasper Morrison. 24 Ore Cultura. https://amzn.to/3rl5rOg