GUEST: In 1963, my family moved from the Bronx to an apartment in New York City, in Manhattan.
APPRAISER: Mm-hmm.
GUEST: And my parents, uh, worked with an interior designer in order to fix up the apartment. They, their, their tastes in furniture were a little bit different, so they figured having somebody to, to, uh, negotiate a little, would help.
APPRAISER: Mediate?
GUEST: And she specified this table, uh, from George Nakashima. It arrived in the house and we were all very excited. It was very beautiful, uh... The whole idea of the live edge was very different at that time. So we used this as a dining room table for, uh, 58 years.
APPRAISER: That's great.
GUEST: Yeah.
APPRAISER: Your table does have a couple classic Nakashima features. Free edges and butterflies add a lot of value to the, to a piece of Nakashima. Unlike lots of other furniture...
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: ...that, that we deal with on the ANTIQUES ROADSHOW...
GUEST: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: ...Nakashima had a really, I think, very common-sense approach to damage to his tables.
GUEST: Mm-hmm. Oh, okay.
APPRAISER: He referred to the, the wear and tear that furniture would, would, would receive in its day-to-day life as Kevin-izing. Mm-hmm, right. And Kevin was his son.
GUEST: Mm hmm.
APPRAISER: And, and he said over and over again in his writings that things that happened to the table became part of its history, part of its story, and I just love that. I re-- more than I can tell you, I love that.
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: Also, Nakashima's furniture is very easy to repair. That's the other thing.
GUEST: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: He used a really simple oil finish. So if you want to get it redone...
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: ...it will not hurt the value whatsoever.
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: Probably, in this case, would enhance the value.
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: Especially if you have it done at the Nakashima studio in New Hope.
GUEST: Oh, okay. Okay, yeah, we had asked about that, and they said it would be about $2,600 to...
APPRAISER: Yeah.
GUEST: It, it seemed a little expensive at the time, but may be worth it.
APPRAISER: That'd be totally up to you. I mean, and I agree, it, it probably is a tad more expensive. You could have other people in, maybe, the city do it. But I think if you keep the continuity of the Nakashima name on it...
GUEST: Yeah, mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: ...uh, someday, if you want to sell it or your children want to sell it, they'll thank you for it, I, I promise you.
GUEST: Mm-hmm, yeah.
APPRAISER: One thing I think that's really interesting is that you have the original paperwork.
GUEST: For the princely sum of $150.
APPRAISER: The collecting environment for Nakashima is worldwide.
GUEST: Wow, really?
APPRAISER: And it shows no sign of abating.
GUEST: That's lovely, that's lovely to hear.
APPRAISER: Yeah, and it surprises me. Usually, there's a lifespan to these things.
GUEST: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: But Nakashima has, uh, outlived the lifespan that I, that I thought possible.
GUEST: Mm-hmm, right. Well, and we've seen other furniture go up and then way down.
APPRAISER: Exactly, yeah.
GUEST: The last few years.
APPRAISER: Do you have any idea what you think this table might be worth?
GUEST: I... I do not, I, at one time in my life, I... I mean, I've, just hearing about other Nakashima tables, I, at one time in my life, I thought maybe the table's worth about $5,000, uh, but, uh, have not, you know, researched it or, or anything recently.
APPRAISER: Yeah. I would say in the condition that it's in today, it's probably worth, at auction, $8,000 to $12,000.
GUEST: Wow, that’s very...
APPRAISER: And I suspect that that's probably a conservative value.
GUEST: That's very nice to hear, very nice to hear. And it's, of course, it's the table that's so beautiful. We're, we're gonna keep it.
