One Moment in Time with President Carter

 It is not often in life that you get a chance to meet a President.   I consider my life changed by standing in front of Jimmy Carter and having a conversation.  A sincerely human and humble conversation.

He was a great man and the world is a better place as a result of his lifelong commitment to peace and helping his fellow humans.

I need to go back in time to explain how this happened.  My good friend, Del and I shared season tickets for many years at the Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego to support the Padres.  We always sat in the press level, since our seats were next to the owner's box and we were separated from the owners and their guests by only a piece of glass.  In addition, the rest of the fans in the Press Box were serious fans and we were able to watch the game without too much noise and distracting behavior.

The only way to get to our seats was to take the elevator behind home plate, and it serviced only that level in the stadium, reserved for the guests and owners and those who had press level seats.

Del and I got to the game early, as was our custom, and we were standing in front of the elevator door waiting for it to arrive.

Suddenly we were pushed back by several Secret Service men and Jimmy and Roslyn Carter arrived.  They were surrounded by imposing men in dark glasses and I was only a few feet from the President.

Without any hesitation, and without any concern for what might happen, I stepped forward between the two men and held out my hand, saying "It is so good to meet you, Mr. President, welcome to San Diego."  I guess I expected that I would be detained or stopped, but that didn't happen.  Instead, Mr. Carter grabbed my open hand with both of his hands and looked me in the eyes and started talking.  He held on for several minutes, while we waited for the elevator, and we had a fairly long conversation about woodworking and how much I admired his efforts to make the world a better place.

To my surprise, the Secret Service did not stop us, and when the elevator finally arrived, they ushered him inside, preventing anyone  from following.

When I turned to look at my friend, Del, I could see the amazement in his face.  "I can't believe you did that!" he said.  I replied, "Carpe diem.  When you see an opportunity like that, it is important to take the initiative."

During the game, we spent most of our time watching the President and First Lady mingle with those fortunate enough to sit in the owner's box.  The Security men were standing outside the door, so he was free to engage with everyone on a personal level.  Unlike other famous people we had seen in that box over the years, he did not leave early.  In fact he stayed for the entire 9 innings and was the last person to leave, shaking every hand as they left before him.  What a genuine and gracious and humble man.

His wife was just as involved and I still remember her smile.  She was a beautiful woman, and it was obvious that they were deeply in love.  A fortunate couple and a long and fulfilling life for both.

Rest in Piece, Jimmy.  

The History of the Treasure Box Series

Patrice Lejeune and W. Patrick Edwards show off their creations, the "Treasure Box" series, 2008-2024. 

 When the economic crash of 2008 happened, all our business plans for making expensive marquetry furniture changed. We needed to revise our approach to creating new and exiciting objects in order to follow the money which was still available in a dramatically changed market. Previously we had had little difficulty in selling objects that involved roughly 800 man hours of skilled labor and a fair amount of expensive materials for six figures to wealthy clients. After all, we were known for producing high style marquetry covered spec pieces and our clients were happy to support us. 

 That dynamic changed in 2008. I decided to take a new approach to production, using a special method of creating marquetry surfaces that I had studied at ecole Boulle, in Paris. That method, called "piece by piece," allowed the worker to create multiple identical marquetry surfaces in one process, cutting the elements of the design separtely from the background. It required a very high degree of precision and my partner, Patrice Lejeune, was more than able to do that perfectly. 

 Therefore, instead of spending so much time creating one object, we could spend the same amount of time creating multiple identical objects, which allowed the price for each to be much more affordable. We decided to make four at a time, since a small limited edition run was attractive to us as well as the client.

 I searched the internet and found a late 17th century marquetry box which sold at Christies in Monaco for 18,000 euros.  It looked like the perfect object for our new production series, which we called "Treasure Box I."

Here is the photo of the top of the antique box:

Here is the interior:

We used only the methods and materials which would have been available during the last decades of the 17th century.  We created four identical boxes in the first series, and were able to sell all of them before the construction was completed.  Three sold for $15,000 each and one had a different customized interior which sold for $20,000.

Here is the result of our efforts: Treasure Box I

Here is the top image:

Here is the standard interior with a secret compartment:

The interior is veneered in olive wood with kingwood and boxwood accents.  The exterior is Gabon ebony with various exotic and rare tropical hardwood sawn veneers, purchased in Paris.

The instant success of our first Treasure Box series encouraged us to look for another example, and we found this antique box on the internet:

Here is a photo of the interior:  (we like marquetry birds)

In our production we used bleached bone instead of ivory and were able to actually color some of the bone green for the leaves.  Here is our version: Treasure Box II

This is a photo of the top of the box.  The detail is amazing, considering every element was cut separately from the ebony background.  Some of the elements are less than 1mm in size.

For the interior, we essentially copied the original, but we added a secret tray with gilt leather surface which pops out automatically when the owner pushes on the wood interior in a special spot.  The interior has tulip wood framed with ebony on a bloodwood ground.

Once again we were fortunate to be able to sell all four of this "Treasure Box II" series before the project was completed.  This gave us a lot of encouragement to continue this effort, even though it had taken us nearly 6 years so far.  These latest boxes had sold for $25,000 each and we were pleased with the results.

When we decided to create Treasure Box III we aimed for the moon. Patrice and I had spent a lot of time at the Getty museum in Los Angeles and were fascinated with the late 17th century marquetry Coffer on display.  It was essentially an empty oak box with amazing marquetry surfaces on the exterior.  However, its size was too large for a practical use and we took our inspiration from this design and reduced the size overall to 1/3 scale.

Here is the original Coffer courtesy Getty Museum:

We contacted a good ebeniste friend in Paris, also a graduate of ecole Boulle, and hired him to find a stock of old growth French white oak, and rough out all the components for the case.  This allowed us to focus our efforts on designing and creating the marquetry surfaces, as well as the custom hardware we wanted for the complex interior elements.  We were not just making an empty box.  We wanted several secret compartments, silk writing surfaces, and mirrors to make it decorative as well as practical.

This is the photo of the top of our box:

This is a photo of the side of our box:

As we were in the middle of production of four of these boxes, we were approached by the wife of one of our best clients.  She asked if we could complete a box in 3 months so she could give it as a surprise birthday gift for her husband's 50th birthday.  That order changed our plans completely, as all our efforts went into completing one of these on a deadline and the other three were put on the side of the shop.

We were successful in delivering our first "Treasure Box III" on time and the client was very pleased.  However, as he sat looking at it, he had an idea and turned to us.  "Can you make a stand for it?"  Patrice and I looked at each other and knew what we had to do.  We had to make a series of four stands to compliment our boxes, each in the Louis XIV style.

This is the stand:

Instead of using Gabon ebony for the "fond" or background, we decided to use a rare wood, popular during the 17th century and not commonly known in English work.  This wood is ferreol (Swartzia Caesalpiniaceae).  It is found in the Amazon forests of Brazil and Guyana. It is a dark chocolate brown, very dense and has the hardness of brass.  It is so dense that it sinks in water and is known by natives in South America as "ironwood".  I was fortunate to have purchased several flitches of this wood in Paris during the 1990's and wanted to use it for only the best pieces.

This is the result: Treasure Box III on stand

Since the original production run was disrupted, and the subsequent efforts to make matching tables further delayed our process, the creation of four "Treasure Box III" series took nearly 7 years to complete.

During that time we were able to sell three of the Treasure Boxes for $35,000 each and one of the tables for $15,000.  We still have two nearly finished tables, which haven't sold and one complete box and table which remains available for $50,000.  This is the last of its kind, as we probably will not continue spending time and energy on this series.  We are very proud of our efforts and need a break.

In particular, we want to sincerely thank our patrons who purchased our work.  They make this possible.

You can see all the boxes on our YouTube channel "3815 Utah"