Well apparently I'm not the only one who looked at the George Nakashima Minguren table and thought "I could make that"! Don't chastise me Pal lol.

I think it was more along the lines of less buyers at the auction interested in Minguren tables than there were Minguren tables. If the weather hadn't been threatening, the results may have been different. (That said the Minguren tables with holes in the top are not my favorite Nakashima)

This one sold for $18,750 yesterday

And this one sold for $53,125 yesterday

Can a real estate boom be too far behind?

There is a boom at the low end in Phoenix, and in other markets where dedicated REO to rental funds have swept in. Unfortunately those programs target lower end properties. Still looking challenging for a lot of move up submarkets.

Still love that chair with the curved wooden back.

Pal do you think there is much non-US bidding ... ie buying our stuff cheap in their local currency.

have seen knock off of that curved back chair and while I understand all the reasons not to buy things that are thefts of intellectual property I don't have the cash to go with an original
but until you sit in it, you can't tell if any chair is worth the money...

I think these represent slightly depressed prices for the Nakashima and the Esherick. I can't tell about the Evans piece because this is not studio, it is from Directional.
His studio stuff always has a solid showing (and the pieces elicit almost universal disdain when I post them in here.)

The postmodernist stuff is Up in price and interest partly I think, because Bob Venturi just retired and the firm has been reorganized, (he is 87) and Michael Graves is 78. I think people are expecting their designs produced in only small amounts to increase in value.

I would imagine a certain amount of the highest priced stuff is going to foreign markets. There is always active phone and internet bidding or bidding by represesentative, for the pieces that achieve high prices--even at the auctions I go to or place online bids in.

pal, were you at any of the auctions this weekend? I was at yesterday's, but not for the whole thing. I was interested in an Oscar Bach console table that I'd seen at the preview. However, the opening bid was higher than I'd pay for something when others the house didn't care for it that much. I was also interested in some of the glass, particularly some of the Murano, like the Martens vase, but, when those came up at auction, I was out & about in town, going for a walk, also getting French chocolates and looking for some extra batteries - two things you need for a storm. ;) Also, the glass I liked was out of my price range, sometimes by quite a lot, so it didn't matter whether I was there or not.

BTW now that the auction is over, I'll say that that second Nakashima Minguen table is one I knew very, very well, and for many years. mtnrdredux, you may be correct: the winning bidder was from abroad. Who knows, though, whether the key factor was exchange rate difference (which is there but isn't huge and has been steady for some time) or a growing interest there in Nakashima furniture - or, possibly, a combination of those two factors?

The dealer bought other pieces of Nakashima, too. I know this because I happened to be sitting in the back of the room, behind the dealer. pal, were you in the room? I looked for you! Not that I know what you look like, of course.

I also had a clear view of the chair you said went for $32,000. I lack the discernment and knowledge of people who value it - it looks like office furniture to me, rather than something I'd know how to incorporate into my house, assuming I'd want it anyway. I'll probably see it in a future issue of Elle Decor or Architectural Digest, which shows how little I know.

"Can a real estate boom be too far behind?"

Yes. A real estate boom can be far behind. New housing is beginning to pick up, but there's a huge glut in existing housing stock, and the people buying some of the auction pieces have no plans to move into a middle-income housing development any time soon. I'm willing to be corrected, but I think the auction results reflect how well some demographics have done in the stock market. There's no reason to expect that to affect existing housing supply now.

No, I was not at the Auction. The only Rago Auctions I can consider bidding in are the Discovery Auctions where pieces that don't have high values are placed. I got my pair of Womb chairs at the last Discovery auction. At $1000 a pop, I imagine most people don't think they are a bargain, but a new pair in a fabric I would be likely to redo them in would be about $8000, so I am coming in ahead of the game even so.

The only good pieces I have I bought low and early and was lucky.

There are people that collect early production or prototypes and condition is not as much of a factor for these pieces, because I don't think they are pieces that they use. I imagine they have a collection space similar to how people keep their vintage cars, and they have their early, valuable, but disintegrating modernist pieces. I don't think the person who bought this is interested in redoing it, because then it would not be an early original.

Lynxe,

What I think they have in common is that the Fed has driven down yields so far that investors are looking for anything to invest in. Yields on everything have dropped like a stone.

That is why billions have been raised by hedge funds to buy foreclosed homes or distressed properties for conversion to rental, and prices in the bottom quartile of PHX housing are up 20% plus, and there is only 22 days supply! That should trickle up one quartile, maybe two. Won't help everywhere but helps psychology.

I think some people,even if they don't expressly consider art a good investment, figure, why not .... yields stink everywhere else and the equity markets are overbid too.

Possibly, mtn, possibly. (What DO I call you anyway? is "mtn" OK? I'm always proofing "mtnrdredux" before posting, and I've usually left out a letter!) But don't you think there's a difference between a rental and a piece of furniture, even one considered an art investment? The rental throws off income; the art is probably highly illiquid. Add in the fact that auctions also make money both from buyers (premiums) and from sellers (commissions), and the actual return if reselling the art is smaller than what one might initially expect.

Still, you are right: it's not easy finding good investments these days, or so it seems.

Wind is picking up quickly here. We will probably lose power before the day is out!

"No, I was not at the Auction. The only Rago Auctions I can consider bidding in are the Discovery Auctions where pieces that don't have high values are placed."

Same here. Particularly because, in our experience, Rago's posted estimates at the regular auctions are on the low side - usually, and at least for things we have followed. The opening bid alone on that console I liked was higher than I'd have paid. (BTW, it's not like I'd ever heard of Oscar Bach before, so I don't want anyone taking me for some kind of expert! I happened to see the piece last week and thought it was quite beautiful.)

We have bid at Rago's (not Discovery) a few times and usually have quickly reached our limit, with the bidding still fast and furious. There was one lot consisting of two pieces of Bianconi glass at a recent auction that I REALLY wanted. Unfortunately, at least one person with deep pockets wanted it more than I did. Relatively speaking, I didn't even have pockets at all. ;)

The people that I know that buy art and antiques or vintage furniture don't buy as investments, they buy to collect. It's a different mindset from the investor, but there is still a concern about value, because they may want to acquire now, because they see prices only going up, and they may not be able to afford it later.

Because isn't this only an investment that pays off if you Sell it?

I have mentioned this story several times in different contexts but I know a elderly man who lives in a small, ordinary house and he has an exceptional small collection of Impressionist, post-Impressionist, and Modernist paintings all bought by his parents directly from the Artist or their representative when new.

He is (or was) actually rather impoverished until he was able to sell some of the smaller pieces that could be authenticated.

However he has one work which could potentially net close to 8 figures at auction IF the piece can be authenticated and a number of experts say it's real and a number are skeptical because it has never been seen before. This part has been done through photographs and documents, but to be sure, the piece would need to be transported to Christie's or Sotheby's, and authenticated.

He can't afford to insure the piece for transport which would apparently cost over $100,000, or afford the authentication process, which no one has offered to do on spec. I think this is why he is selling off the other pieces. So it sits hidden in his house.

Or he could be making it all up, I've never seen it and wouldn't know if it was real if I did.

Yes, I surely don't think between illiquidity, transaction costs, carrying costs, etc, that it is a "good investment". But when your money is earning nothing, anyway ....

"Yes, I surely don't think [...], that it is a "good investment"."

One of the pieces auctioned yesterday was a Nakashima desk. I wasn't there when it came up, and I don't know what it sold for. But what struck me was that, years ago, I dearly wanted to buy a Nakashima desk I saw at the Nakashima studio. I might even still have been in high school or maybe was only a college freshman. I think the price was about $2,500, and it may as well have been $25,000 as far as I was concerned. I don't recall its details, and I don't know how it would have fared versus the auctioned one - but what struck me was, had I been thinking in terms of an investment rather than that I just loved that desk, I would have done much better in the stock market. Or bond market come to think of it. So pal is also correct: people probably buy to collect.

Nakashima became an accidental investment for many buyers. A dining table sold for about $70,000, and the original owners had the receipt for $700 from the late 60s or early 70s.

"Nakashima became an accidental investment for many buyers. A dining table sold for about $70,000, and the original owners had the receipt for $700 from the late 60s or early 70s."

Yup. How about chairs for $35 each?

Which table, pal? Like I said, I didn't stay, nor go home in time to monitor the auction in real time.

This was several years ago and may have been at Freeman's but I just remember the receipt.