This unique bench by George Nakashima, was made in 1985 by special commission.

Recent exhibitions and other events have only served to reinforce “Nakashimania” in the media world and beyond: They include the publication in 2003 of Mira Nakashima-Yarnall’s book Nature, Form, and Spirit: The Life and Legacy of George Nakashima (Harry N. Abrams); Robert Aibel’s fifth exhibition on the subject, A Celebration of the Nakashima Legacy at the Moderne Gallery (it closed on May 18); and George Nakashima Woodworker: A Retrospective at the Mingei International Museum at Balboa Park in San Diego (through May 30).

The Conoid dining chair, 1978, is made of butternut, a very rare wood for Nakashima.

Arboreal Aesthetic
It is not hard to understand how Nakashima’s woodsy, spiritual philosophy, his idea that his furniture might give “second life to a tree,” as expounded upon in his book The Soul of a Tree (1981), might resonate among members of a bark-embracing, yoga-obsessed culture badly in need of spiritual solace. As Tom Voss describes it (Voss and his wife Kay Douglas, both Manhattan-based magazine designers, have been seriously collecting Nakashima furniture for the past decade), “For us it is about the spirit of the tree itself. Bringing the outside in with this furniture reveals something to you about the special nature of wood. You do not get these qualities with veneers. It especially happens when you have a roomful of it.”

But Nakashima made equally significant incursions into the more mundane and generally mechanized realms of modernism; he successfully synthesized the two in such furniture pieces as the Conoid bench and dining tables, which fused apparently free-form slabs of wood with carefully carved supports and struts in a refined modernist idiom.

In addition to creating designs for such furniture companies as H.G. Knoll in New York (between 1943 and 1954) and for Widdicomb-Mueller of Grand Rapids, Mich., (1958 to the early 1960s), his major works included interiors for Columbia University, Mount Holyoke College and International Paper. His most important single commission, however, was for Governor Nelson Rockefeller. In 1973 and 1974, Nakashima produced more than 200 pieces for Rockefeller’s home in Tarrytown, N.Y. The furniture was intended to complement the Asian sensibility of the house, designed by a Japanese architect friend of Nakashima’s.

This 1989 sliding door cabinet, with rosewood butterflies and grilled pandanus cloth sliding doors, was one of Nakashima’s last pieces; he died the following year.

Late in his life, the designer established the Nakashima Foundation for Peace, creating a series of peace altars, with one intended for each continent of the world: The first donated peace altar was dedicated in 1986 at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York; another was installed in Auroville, India, in 1996; and a third in the Russian Academy of Arts in Moscow in 2001.

A significant factor in Nakashima’s recent popularity is, of course, marketing savvy; auction house specialists clearly have much to gain from promoting an American master whom for a long time was seen as more of a craftsman than a modernist designer and only recently began commanding very high market prices. His pieces are considered one-of-a-kind in the sense that each was individually made and each is a little bit different—although he produced many series of pieces that employed a modernist design aesthetic, which were all but standardized and were made using mechanical processes to one degree or another.

Certainly it seems that the new fascination with Nakashima’s work can be partly related to the early ’90s escalation of interest in both mid-century modernism and in the American studio and craft movements.

“We had been collecting mid-century modern furniture, as we have a house from this period outside the city,” says Voss. “We were collecting Eames, Nelson, McCobb. The house is in Bucks County right near Nakashima’s studio. One day I woke up and decided we should be buying it, too. The best mid-century modern designs seem to float above the floor—unlike the arts and crafts pieces which are more grounded. Nakashima’s stuff is like this.” And, as Aibel’s other clients have demonstrated, it can be appreciated in the context of an even wider range of aesthetic tastes—Asian design, Zen interiors, American folk art and country furniture, 20th-century design in general. It works on many different levels.

Satisfying Synthesis
In market terms, next to established European modernists and their American counterparts, Nakashima’s unique furniture pieces begin to look like bargains. In 1994, for example, the classic Nakashima armchair sold at auction for $275 while a group of four equally classic Charles Eames DCW side chairs went for $575 each. As Aibel is quick to point out, “In the early 1990s, when the interest in mid-century design was beginning to escalate, they were selling an Eames chair for far more than a Nakashima, but the Eames was mass-produced. I thought, ‘People have to catch on to this.’”

The robust practicality of Nakashima furniture also gives it an everyday appeal. Nakashima himself stated in a letter in 1944 that his aim was to create pieces that represented a “synthesis between the sound tradition of east Asian workmanship and modern American life.” Nakashima’s cabinets, tables and chairs are not only beautiful and sometimes dramatic objects that can serve as showpieces in large rooms, they also are well suited to modern lifestyles in which children are not generally relegated to separate wings. “George made pieces to be used,” says Aibel.

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.

VALUE JUDGEMENT Furniture by master designer and craftsman George Nakashima has increased in value by a factor of four in the past five years. •  The escalation of interest in both mid-century modernism and in the American studio and craft movements in the early 1990s has spurred interest in Nakashima’s designs. •  The uniqueness and robust practicality of nakashima’s furniture adds to its appeal. •  Nakashima’s large free-form dining tables, incorporating rare woods, and certain pieces from his more modernist lines, in particular the Conoid range of chairs, benches, and tables, are the best investments.

A modest free-form dining table of about 6 or 7 feet in the standard walnut will run about $15,000 to $20,000, with a slightly larger one of 8 or 9 feet, also in walnut, going for about $35,000, according to Wright. A dining table made with more exotic woods can be had for $40,000 to $50,000, with an exceptional and large piece going up much higher. “We have a 10-foot English oak burl single-board table on a Conoid base made of East Indian laurel with all the bells and whistles, and that is in the $150,000 range” says Aibel. This table sold for $1,300 when it was first produced in 1968, but less grand examples might have been bought then for a few hundred dollars. Meanwhile, a Conoid bench can range in price from $12,000 to $40,000, depending on a number of variables including provenance and rarity of woods; these sold for around $350 when they first appeared in 1961.

Yes, Nakashima furniture is probably a good investment at the moment. But as Wright points out: “First and foremost, the work is exceptional. There is something that makes it feel very “right-now”—the handcraft element, a back-to-basics feel that fits very well into today’s world. People are ready for a softer side of modernism—it can fit into the starkest interiors, but it has a natural beauty and warmth. And given that this is still a young field of collecting I think there is a very good chance of appreciation. You could still buy some of Nakashima’s best work now, and that probably won’t be possible in 20 years.”  

Robert Aibel and Mira Nakashima-Yarnall will present a lecture entitled “George Nakashima: The Aesthetics of Design” on June 3 at SOFA NYC 2004 (Tiffany room, 7th Regiment Armory).
It will be followed by a book-signing by Nakashima-Yarnall. Wright, a Chicago auction house, will hold a modernist sale with Nakashima pieces on June 6.