By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
BOLINAS, Calif., June 4 (AP) — Arthur Espenet Carpenter, a self-taught woodworker whose spare but sensual furniture received national acclaim and influenced generations of master craftsmen, died Thursday at his home here. He was 86.

The cause was a heart attack, said his son, Tripp.

“He didn’t like any of the furniture he had seen in his life, and he thought he could make something better and more beautiful,” Tripp Carpenter said of the designs his father started turning out after World War II.

Known professionally as Espenet, Mr. Carpenter produced pieces that are now in the collection of the Smithsonian Institution and were exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art and the Museum of Contemporary Crafts in New York.

Tripp Carpenter, who is also a furniture designer, said his father’s best-known piece was a “wishbone” chair. Although he never wanted to repeat himself as an artist, he made several hundred of the chairs to support himself and his family, the son said.

The chairs, when one can be found, sell for about $8,000 each, Tripp Carpenter said. Another of Mr. Carpenter’s well-known designs was a desk with scalloped seashell sides.

Born in New York City in 1920, Mr. Carpenter enlisted in the Navy after graduating from Dartmouth. After World War II, he promised himself he would spend the rest of his life doing something he enjoyed. Supporting himself on a $100 monthly G.I. Bill of Rights pension, he moved to San Francisco and turned out bowls while learning the woodworker’s craft.

Besides his son, Mr. Carpenter is survived by a daughter, Tori Carpenter of Oakland.