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| Antiques & Collectibles |
Out of the Woods
Catherine Bindman
05/03/2004
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Dealers say two key categories of Nakashima’s
work are the best investments: the large free-form dining tables incorporating
rare boards and certain pieces from his more modernist lines, in particular the
Conoid range of chairs, benches and tables that he began producing out of his
workshop—Conoid Studio—in New Hope, Pa., in 1959. Aibel emphasizes the
importance of the rarity of the type of wood used. For a while American black
walnut, being most widely available, was Nakashima’s staple for all kinds of
furniture pieces, the more exotic boards that came his way would always be saved
for a table. “The woods he used less often are of course more desirable—English
oak burl, East Indian laurel, Brazilian rosewood. They make incredible pieces.”
Aibel also says that the Conoid bench is very popular and a good buy as are all
the Conoid chairs and the Conoid dining table.
Voss says that “there is a
progression of wildness in Nakashima’s work. It starts out very conservative and
rectilinear and becomes nuttier from the late 1960s—he starts using wild,
abstract pieces of wood. In the market, these things are much more collectible
than the conservative stuff. What you are looking for in a table is an artistic
tension between a conservative base and a crazy top.”
Voss also points to
the importance of documentation. All the index cards relating to commissions
survive in the Nakashima archives, as do, in some cases, the pencil drawings the
designer made of each piece. “If you have a copy of the card, and even better,
one of the pencil drawings, it really enhances the value,” he says. Further,
Nakashima did not begin signing and dating his work until the late 1970s, and
the pieces he signed are probably more valuable and better from an investment
point of view.
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