Live Auction Talk: George Nakashima turned wood into art

Trees have souls. That’s what woodworker George Nakashima believed. Every piece of wood he chose for building a piece of furniture he chose on purpose—no accidents.

“Each tree, every part of each tree, has only one perfect use. How to acquire logs and what to do with them calls for creative skill. There is need always to select and to search, even to look underground where the most fantastic grains can often be found,” he said.

As a hands-on man Nakashima didn’t trust mass-produced furniture. He said it took away from the craftsmanship.

“Trees have a yearning to live again, perhaps to provide the beauty, strength and utility to serve man, even to become an object of great artistic worth,” he said

He loved wood. He got wood on some primal level the rest of us sometimes miss. Wood for Nakashima was perfect in and of itself—so there isn’t much added to his furniture. No bells and whistles. No frills and decoration. Burls, knots and figured grain were embellishments for him.

And it isn’t that Nakashima didn’t use machines in building furniture. He did. The machine was his principal tool. But like Frank Lloyd Wright he used machines combined with handwork.

Nakashima was born in Spokane, Wash., in 1905. He was the son of a newspaper reporter of samurai lineage. He graduated from the M.I.T. with a master's in architecture in 1930 and worked as a mural painter and architectural designer in New York.

After the attack on Pearl Harbor during World War II he was sent to an American internment camp, Camp Minidoka in Hunt, Idaho. There Nakashima mastered traditional Japanese hand tools and joinery techniques under the guidance of Gentaro Hikogawa.

After the war Nakashima designed and built his workshop and house in New Hope, Pa., which is still making furniture by his same techniques under daughter Mira’s watchful eye.

Nakashima’s signature pieces are large-scale tables with smooth surfaces, unfinished natural edges and butterfly joints. His style is a blend of Japanese, American and International Modern.

One of his dreams was to provide "Altars of Peace" for each of the seven continents on earth. The first “Peace Altar” was built from an amazing pair of matched black walnut wood slabs. The altar was consecrated and installed at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City in 1986.

The second altar was built to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the United Nations in 1995. The altar was made from the same huge black walnut tree as the first altar and was blessed at the same church. It served as a powerful presence at the Hague Appeal for Peace in May of 1999. Today the altar resides in the Russian Academy of Art in Moscow.

“What he did embodied a message to all modern societies that we must constantly remember the eternal in all that we do,” said daughter Mira. A theme in Nakashima’s work was bridging separate worlds. He brought nature to industry.

On Feb. 25-26, David Rago offered a selection of Nakashima’s furniture in his 20th/21st Century Design Auction in Lambertville, N.J. Here are some current values.

Eight grass-seat chairs, cherry, woven seat cord, $12,500.

Two-door walnut cabinet, pandanus cloth, signed, 32 inches by 72 inches, 1965, $15,000.

Conoid bench, walnut, hickory, unsigned, 28 1/2 inches by 86 inches, $36,250.

Minguren II dining table, English oak burl, American white oak, 1989-1991, 30 inches by 68 inches, $52,500.

Coffee table with pyramid base, claro walnut burl, black walnut, copy of original drawings and invoice, only three tables made from this piece of burled walnut, 1989; 16 inches by 48 inches, $87,500.

Rosemary McKittrick is a storyteller. She has provided information on thousands of antiques and collectibles since her LiveAuctionTalk column started 20 years ago. She received her training in the trenches, as a professional appraiser. Visit her website at www.LiveAuctionTalk.com

Live Auction Talk: It must be magic

During Harry Houdini’s final American tour in 1925 and 1926 he used his Flight of Time alarm clock trick to mesmerize audiences. The magician would cause six to eight alarm clocks to invisibly fly from his hands to the ends of chains dangling from a board across the stage. When the clocks mysteriously reappeared, their bells rang loudly.

Then there was the flowering rosebush. Not just any rosebush. This green plant sits on the magician’s table waiting for the performer’s command. Once the magician waves his hand over the plant the bush slowly begins to sprout and grow real red roses. The trick ends and the flowers are distributed to delighted audience members.

Have you seen the sensational talking skull? This mechanically operated papier-mâché skull clicks its jaws once for yes and twice for no—answering questions from the audience and magician.

People collect vintage magic tricks, magic illusions, books on magic and Harry Houdini memorabilia because it’s fun and interesting. Prior to the 1970s mostly magicians collected magicana. That’s changed. Nowadays it could be almost anyone from the novice magician to the kid next door.

Some of the most popular items date back to the late19th and early 20th century. Houdini is at the top of the list. He was a great self-promoter and even small items like his photos command attention. Other famous vaudeville magicians such as Thurston, Carter, Blackstone and Raymond are also desirable.

Anything once owned by these magicians is said to possess psychic residues of the magician.

Houdini was especially interested in the afterlife. He told close friends before his death that he would make every effort to contact them after he passed away. He died on Oct. 31, 1926. Every Halloween since then mediums and magicians gather and attempt to contact him.

And then there’s Carter the Great. He started his career as a journalist and lawyer in America. He developed a passion for magic and became a famous stage magician, illusionist and escapologist. Carter also realized there was too much competition in America so he went to Europe where he became famous. One of his best tricks was sawing a woman in half. He even had nurses in attendance for dramatic flavor. Other Carter tricks included making a live elephant disappear and cheating the gallows.

Nowadays, some of the most popular magic items are posters. These colorful lithographs show magicians performing death-defying tricks. They also let audiences know what they can expect to see on stage. Advance men traveled to cities and towns distributing these posters several days before a performance. Never meant to survive long, these colorful beauties are considered works of art today.

Other interesting items are magic tricks. These extremely well-made tricks from the turn-of-the-century still show up for sale in auctions around the country.

On Oct. 29, Potter & Potter Auctions in Chicago featured its Salon De Magie sale. In the sale were selections from Ken Klosterman’s legendary collection.

Here are some current values:

Scrapbook of magician Carter the Great, South America 1917-1918, includes playbills, programs, broadsides, handbills and news clippings, $300.

Houdini photograph, sepia-tone bust portrait, smiling Houdini in coat, vest and tie, inscribed and signed, New York, 1919, 8 inches by10 inches, $1,560.

Talking Skull, mechanical papier-mâché skull, Abbott’s Magic Novelty Co., Colon, Mich., circa 1949, $1,800.

Flight of Time alarm clock, faux spring-loaded alarm clock, New York, R.S. Schlosser, circa 1924, 3 7/8 inches diameter, $1,920.

Flowering rosebush, faux plant with hammered metal copper leaves, grows real roses resembling time-lapse photography, New Haven, Petrie & Lewis, circa 1945, $3,600.

Rosemary McKittrick is a storyteller. She has provided information on thousands of antiques and collectibles since her LiveAuctionTalk column started 20 years ago. She received her training in the trenches, as a professional appraiser. Visit her website at www.LiveAuctionTalk.com

Live Auction Talk: Lincoln photographs

Abraham Lincoln regularly sat for photos in the late-1850s. Photography was the new popular art form and he was open to it. Noting his disheveled hair, sunken cheeks, and deeply lined face, people used the word “melancholy” to describe Lincoln’s down-in-the-dumps demeanor in photos.

They said what looked like a sad, faraway gaze in Lincoln’s eyes in the beginning ultimately turned into a morbid preoccupation that lasted for hours. Because early photographs required a long exposure time subjects had to hold still for several minutes. It wasn’t uncommon for faces in these photos to appear fixed and stern. But with Lincoln’s photos there seemed to be more going on with the man.

“The pictures we see of him only half represent him,” said Orlando B. Ficklin, a lawyer and U.S. representative from Illinois who knew Lincoln well. Being with Lincoln as he told stories, Ficklin described a man who fell back into misery when they ended. He said the two different states of the man were dramatic.

Photographer Mathew Brady captured Lincoln with his camera only hours before the presidential hopeful delivered his address at Cooper Union in Manhattan on Feb. 27, 1860. The photo and subsequent speech did a lot to establish Lincoln in the public’s eyes as a stately political contender. Lincoln spoke and looked the part of a dignified candidate. In some of his photos there was even a hint of a smile.

“No man ever before made such an impression on his first appeal to a New York audience,” reported The New York Times. He was able to “elucidate and convince … to delight and electrify,” they said. Lincoln returned to Illinois tired but convinced he could get the presidential nomination.

On Jan. 8, 1864 Mathew Brady once again captured a confident and assured Abraham Lincoln on film. Mass-produced cartes de visite photos helped Lincoln become a familiar personal presence throughout the Union.

Understanding the importance of photographs, Lincoln sat dozens of times for photographers. His photos showcase his arrival in Washington as the new president in February 1861 and extend all the way to the month before his assassination.

He was touching people visually and with his brilliant use of words.

The president wasn’t vain but he also wasn’t willing to ignore popular demand for an available likeness of himself. For people who would never see him personally, it was perfect.

By February 1865, Alexander Gardner’s photograph of Lincoln clearly reveals the accumulated strain on the president’s face. Viewing his likeness Lincoln had this to say:

“The Lord prefers common-looking people. That is the reason he makes so many of them.”

People who dealt with Lincoln said his confidence as a politician didn’t show up as arrogance. There was no vanity or misplaced dignity about the man. He is described as being sincere and straightforward.

On Nov. 17, PBA Galleries, San Francisco, featured photographs and an illustrated book about Lincoln in its Rare Books and Manuscripts sale. Here are two current values:

Reminiscences of Abraham Lincoln by Distinguished Men of His Time by Allen Thorndike Rice, first edition, clipped signature with extra illustrations with insertion of over 40 portraits and other engravings, includes two Confederate currency notes, plus a letter from engraver John Sartain, 1909, $1,320.

The Photographs of Abraham Lincoln; Frederick Hill; prints made from original negatives, 100 mounted photographic portraits, three of Lincoln at Gettysburg, four of Lincoln’s wife and sons, 24 mounted photos of contemporary politicians, military officers, etc., and a larger photo of Lincoln’s interment, number 26 of 100 copies, signed by the author, New York, 1911, $7,800.

Rosemary McKittrick is a storyteller. She has provided information on thousands of antiques and collectibles since her LiveAuctionTalk column started 20 years ago. She received her training in the trenches, as a professional appraiser. Visit her website at www.LiveAuctionTalk.com.

Live Auction Talk: Civil War photography

The Civil War was the first widely photographed war. Tens of thousands of photographs of Northern and Southern soldiers, battlefields and weaponry were taken. Shutter speed was too slow to capture action with the big, cumbersome wet-plate cameras. But images captured on photographic cards called carte-de-visites gave Americans a bird’s-eye view of what was happening.

Mathew Brady’s photography gallery on Broadway in New York City advertised an exhibition titled “The Dead of Antietam.” Two of his photographers, Alexander Gardner and James Gibson, arrived in Maryland two days after the battle. Their photos were the first to show dead bodies. Some of the bodies were on the battlefield. Others were lined up and ready for burial in shallow graves.

“Mr. Brady has done something to bring home to us the terrible reality and earnestness of war. If he has not brought bodies and laid them in our door-yards and along streets, he has done something very like it,” said a reporter for The New York Times.

The glory surrounding war seemed to dissolve with these photos.

Staring people in the face was the reality and devastation of war. Enterprising photographers sometimes did more than simply document the war. Bodies were sometimes dragged and staged to create the ultimate dramatic impact.

“[My work] is designed to speak for itself, as mementos of the fearful struggle through which the country has just passed, it is confidently hoped that it will possess an enduring interest,” said Gardner.

Two photographers like Gardner and Gibson would typically arrive at a location. One photographer would mix chemicals and pour them onto a clean glass plate. After the chemicals evaporated, the glass plate would be sensitized and immersed, in darkness, in a bath solution. Then it was placed in a holder. Next the plate was inserted into the camera, which had been put in position and focused by the other photographer.

Exposing the plate and developing the photograph had to be done within minutes. After the picture was taken, the exposed plate was rushed to the darkroom wagon for developing. Each glass plate had to be treated carefully after development. It was a difficult task on the battlefield.

Photographers followed the armies everywhere, not only so the soldiers could send portraits home to their families but also to document as much of the war as possible. People wanted to see what their husbands, sons and relatives were seeing.

Brady refused to give Gardener public credit for his work even though Gardner’s photos are some of the best known of the war. Gardner’s two-volume collection of 100 original prints called Photographic Sketch Book of the Civil War was published in 1866.

Brady petitioned Congress to buy his photographs of the war. Gardner in turn submitted a rival petition claiming, he not Brady, came up with the idea of recording a photographic history of the war. In reality Brady was almost blind. He took few photos himself and relied on his assistants to do most of the work.

Congress ultimately purchased both collections.

On Oct. 30, Skinner Auctioneers in Boston, Mass., featured a selection of Civil War photos in its Photography Collection of Rod MacKenzie sale.

Here are some current values based on that sale.

Ambrotype of a Union military officer, forage insignia on his hat, original pressed-paper/leather frame; sixth-plate, $444.

Tintype portrait, Union soldier; accompanied by a photo of the same, inscribed, framed in a union case, quarter-plate, $563.

Seated young military officer, hand-tinted cheeks, union case, inscribed, quarter-plate, $1,067.

Seated Union officer, original pressed-paper/leather case; sixth-plate, $1,067.

Seated Union officer, in dress uniform, molded rosewood veneer frame, half-plate, $2,133.

Rosemary McKittrick is a storyteller. She has provided information on thousands of antiques and collectibles since her LiveAuctionTalk column started 20 years ago. She received her training in the trenches, as a professional appraiser. Visit her website at www.LiveAuctionTalk.com .