Absolutely gorgeous. Love anything metal, especially combined. Kinda industrial chic. YUM.

~Jeana

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the effect on the drawers' surface is gold leaf over an orange/red ground.
The kind of piece that's all too tempting to say "well I could do that"-- so why didn't you?
Casey

I had never seen the inside of one of these cabinets until I saw that picture. The contrast between the heavy steel doors and the inner drawers is what struck me.

I've not seen a Paul Evans Studio piece in person so I don't know what kind of rusticity and "weight" they have in real life.

Not my favorite style....just based on the picture alone (without being able to touch or feel the weight of the piece) it looks kind of like that "tramp art" style to me

It affects me as "tribal".

~Jeana

I don't see anything compelling and beautiful about them -- ugly , yes. Just my opinion.

The outside doors are works of art. They give me shivers a little. But then again I like midcentury expressionistic pottery and Setziol wood work.

I agree w/Casey, though, on the insides: don't think those glides are either fabulous or crazy enough to be worth such a prominent place. The gold leaf and inside pulls? Very nice. But the glides? meh...

Sort of "tribal craftsman discovers metal".........interesting but ugly, and not terribly useful so it doesn't even have any redeeming utility.

Major LUST! I think it could be great in an entry way to hold some of the inevitable flotsam that makes it's way into the home. Maybe one of those whole tree root bowls on top to throw your keys into, add a rough concrete bench next to it and a polished stainless jailhouse mirror above it and you've got a great place to store your shoes after you take them off or check your lipstick before you run out the door. (For those on the one side of the eternal shoe debate.)

It reads "ugly" to me.

i could definitely find a place for that cabinet!

don't love the gold leaf and don't love the glides, but at least you'll know that your drawers will dependably pull out and push in!!

They are almost always sideboards for a dining room.

Some are meant to be hung on the wall or have a large cantilever. I would imagine they are very heavy so the wall would have to be strong.

He was a sculptor, first, not a furniture maker so the insides are not as crafted, I guess.

He is considered a genius of the New Hope / Bucks County school along with Nakashima and Esherick.

Would this style not make THE COOLEST refrigerator door panels ever?

Pal, a minor correction: Nakashima did indeed live in Bucks County. But Esherick did not. He lived in Paoli, PA, one of the Main Line towns and in Chester County.

If you are interested in seeing an Evans piece in person, one possibility is to attend a Rago auction or auction preview. Depending on the auction, you may have the chance to see several Evans pieces. I have to say: I do not care for them in the least.

After you've been to Rago's, you can make a short side trip to the Nakashima studio. You can do your own tour on a Saturday, book a guided tour, and/or go there for various events. I just visited the web site, and there's an upcoming concert of early music. I think I'll attend!

Another place to see Nakashima furniture is at the Michener Museum's Nakashima Reading Room.

There are antique shops in the area that occasionally carry Evans and Nakashima.

Evans's studio was in New Hope. I must have passed by it many, many times.

I have thought about the Nakashima tour. I have seen the Reading Room at the Michener in (Doylestown?) I never remember about Esherick living in Paoli, and I work there one day a week. I think his sister was Chestnut Hill and her house has been for sale (is Kahn's Esherick House in CH his sister's?) I thought, though, that they were kind of considered the "school of" though...

I would actually really like to commission Mira to make a table or have a George Nakashima table, but I can't really justify my spending that much -- so I tend to follow pieces made by students and workers from his studio to see if there is something a really like. I would rather have a really good "____" than a less than stellar Nakashima (if that exists, I dunno).

The Houzz piece on a Clinton Hill house built in 1887 has a gorgeous set of brutalist panels made into doors for a media console--thought of this thread, but in truth I love pretty much the whole house.

Here is a link that might be useful: [fourth pic down--wonder how much they went for on ebay...[(https://www.houzz.com/magazine/houzz-tour-a-brooklyn-landmark-returns-to-glory-stsetivw-vs~577454?utm_campaign=updates&utm_medium=email&utm_content=gallery0&w=177464)

Ah...those panels are from Paul Evans for Directional, which means that he designed the original but they were manufactured, much like Nakashima designed furniture for Knoll and Origins a different points.

The pieces still go for a lot of money but not like "Studio". They look really good in the picture you linked; I wonder if they were salvaged from a damaged piece.

What I don't like about this line for Directional is multi-parted I guess.

These panels were often part of seating pieces, which I don't think Paul Evans did well: Not. too. pretty.

To me they look like case pieces scooped out with upholstery inside, and the fabric is almost always crushed velvet or something odd.

The panels are something like autobody filler smeared around and covered with paint and bronze powder. They look...I dunno...dirty especially juxtaposed with upholstery.

Finally it kinda has a 70s porn quality--when the porn industry moved from NYC and northern Jersey because reinterpretation of laws equated being paid to be in porn to being paid as a prostitute; to California where it is considered "acting." It looks like those ranch houses full of shag carpet out in the Valley where they shot porn.

(Not that I am overly conversant with 70s porn--I was in grade school--but I did find a large box of old VCR tapes and magazines by the dumpster here in the city and of course I had to check out some of the tapes. Shreeeeiiiiik. Not. Something. I. Will. Dig. Out. Of. Trash. Again.

Anyway, I think a sofa like this was under a couple people in the movie, so I kinda don't like it.)

The panels are fine disembodied though.

Speaking of Nakashima, anyone like Jeffrey Greene?

Seriously. He's Nakashima school. Bought a piece from his studio along the canal in New Hope back in 1976.
Original. Unique. He makes similar now but not like this. It's handcarved and he worked on it so long, maybe his FIRST peg chair, that it got too small for a DR. So he stuck it in the corner and I bought it.

Ended up going for a totally different look (Victorian!) and I've been carting this chair around for 30 years!!!

Can't find anyone who wants it.

Is it worthless???

Here is a link that might be useful: jeffrey greene current studio

1st dibs has a set of four Jeffrey Greene chairs circa 1970 listed for $9500.

Here is a link that might be useful: Jeffrey Greene

That red velvet sofa with the Paul Evans panels looks like a steelworker and a bordello owner swapped services.

In a steel-grey suede that could be fabulous, in the right setting.

I have seen them redone in current houses, looking better, (like you suggest) particularly because they are a stand-alone piece in this style-- but the original upholstery was always something like this, it seems. I have seen pink tufted, too:(

Oh well, my Milo Baughman chairs were originally covered in orange half-inch long furry stuff, and I didn't buy them together so it must have been a standard offering.

"I would actually really like to commission Mira to make a table or have a George Nakashima table, but I can't really justify my spending that much -- so I tend to follow pieces made by students and workers from his studio to see if there is something a really like. I would rather have a really good "____" than a less than stellar Nakashima (if that exists, I dunno)."

My issue with Mira's pieces is that they look so much like her father's. I'm sure they are beautifully made, and they certainly are beautiful to look at. The problem is that I don't see any originality -- taking the George Nakashima look and moving somewhere else with it.

The dining room chair I sat on during childhood meals was by George, as was the table. You would have a heart attack if you knew how little those chairs cost at the time. Then there were the Mira chairs, which were set up around the table used for bridge, bought for about $35 each.

We were in New Hope and Lambertville today, and I saw some Nakashima-looking coffee tables in one of the antique stores. I didn't look closely at construction or price, or at whether there was a name attached to them, but they certainly had a student of Nakashima/school of Nakashima look.

I've seen $60,000 tables at auction with the original receipts for $600. That's a pretty good investment. :)

"Speaking of Nakashima, anyone like Jeffrey Greene?
Seriously. He's Nakashima school. Bought a piece from his studio along the canal in New Hope back in 1976.
Original. Unique. He makes similar now but not like this. It's handcarved and he worked on it so long, maybe his FIRST peg chair, that it got too small for a DR. So he stuck it in the corner and I bought it.

Ended up going for a totally different look (Victorian!) and I've been carting this chair around for 30 years!!!

Can't find anyone who wants it.

Is it worthless???"

I can't imagine that it's worthless. Au contraire in fact.

I recall seeing his furniture around; in fact, he may have had a store in Lambertville, or maybe I'm thinking of somebody else. But I know I've seen it fairly often. I never reacted particularly positively to it, but that's because I thought it looked like Nakashima knock offs. Shows how little I knew (or rather, how little I know). I hadn't realized his studio is so close to me. I wonder whether it ever has open days.

Maybe they appeal to such a small set of buyers it's harder to sell this kind of style?

I thought the little chair might be worth something too, but put it on EBay once, no bidders. Stuck it on CL about 6 times for successively lower amounts, no interest. I suppose I could just keep listing it continuously until that one right person sees it.

More people on GW seem to appreciate modern than people I know IRL. Oh well!

Pal, did you buy that cabinet? It would look good in the right setting.

No, this cabinet is WAY out of my budget. Someone must buy them at these prices because they are regularly listed at $25,000 up at auction and up to over $100,000 at retail.

My next house is brutalist/modernist so it would be perfect, but I will have to content myself with looking at pictures of them.

As for the Jeffrey Greene chair, I don't know where you live, but you could probably take it to an auction house like Rago or a similar MCM-American A&C closer to you and try to sell it to a targeted audience.

thanks Pal!

I've contacted Rago.

Hopefully they will take it.

:)

IMO a work of real art.

I like it. Very cool, but I'm into "texture".

However, they'd have to knock a couple of zeros off the pricetag for me

Pal,

I owe you one. Rago is "excited" to include my chair in their January sale!!! Yippee!

*turning cartwheels*

I love it!
It immediatley brought two images to my mind.

One is the "Sculpture House" in Aurora, IL. This place always held a wierd fascination for me - I used to drive by it and slowly circle around the block it was on. Every place you looked had a sculpture of some sort. Kind of like the cabinet. Hmmm, maybe Paul Evans lived there?!

Mix up the Sculpture House with the Blair Witch Project symbol...

The auction was today. A sofa made of nickels went for $99,000 (est. $45-65K). A Nakashima Conoid bench went for $34,720 (est.$15K-20K)

The cabinet went for $22,320, slightly under estimate: