George Nakashima made this free-edge arm walnut rocking chair for his niece, Alene. Obviously, it rocks. I wonder if you could rout out a little hole in the arm to hold the bottle...
KIDDING! KIDDING! I KID BECAUSE I LOVE.
Sollo Rago, of somewhere in New Jersey, is auctioning it off Oct. 27. They have a conservative estimate of $3-5,000 for it. It should show up on eBay's Live Auction section in time, but meanwhile, the pdf's for the giant sale are available for download.
Last December, a similar, but non-family Nakashima rocker sold for $8,100 at Wright20, which is a $6,750 bid +20% premium. The estimate was $5-7k. The picture there is much nicer.
Lot 6: George Nakashima Walnut Lounge Rocker, Sollo Rago Modern Auction - Saturday/Sunday, October 27/28, 2007 [ragoarts.com, image via the pdf catalogue]
Dec 2006 Design Series lot 352: George Nakashima, Rocker with Free-Edge Arm, c. 1961 sold for $8,100 [wright20.com]
Nice, but I want to know why someone in the family needs to sell some chairs???
By the way, I wouldn't bid on anything at a Rago auction sight unseen. Their descriptions and condition reports are a little shady IMO. The stuff is usually pretty beat in person. I wouldn't be surprised if that chair already had a hole drilled in it.
[good point, it could be the reason for the lower estimate, too. There's no dates on things, either, which is a bit sloppy/lazy. There are several pieces for sale that were gifts to Alene, tho. -ed.]
Maybe I spend too much time in medical offices, but I look at this and feel the urge to start rolling up my sleeve for the blood draw. This feeling is unpleasant.
I think the Hans Wegner rocker coming up at Doyle New York (lot 4254 Design sale) looks at the very least a lot more comfortable. The Nakashima looks like the bastard offspring of a rocking night between a dining room chair and a school desk.
[ouch, but a bit too true. Though I find other Nakashima chairs to be plenty comfy, I've never sat in one with a baby. There's something great and a little sad about browsing through Doyle. -ed.]
The wife just chastised me for knocking Nakashima. While I stand by my assessment, I will note that Doyle has a couple of his stools and a low table. And, for the formula-using family, they offer a beautiful Industrial Bottle Rack from France (lot 4146), which should help dry a month's worth of sterilized baby bottles.