What Is Quality Worth? Here On Kodogu Boxes

[mareo1912]

Dear fellow members,

 

as some of you might know I made Tosogu boxes in the past, as well as big cases to host multiple Boxes.

Recently I stumpled over a thread and thought that it might be time to make a new one. A Case of excellent quality, beating most (beside high quality makie piece) you can find on ebay and yahoo easily in quality, functionality and aestethics. And while I'm making the plans right now I also started calculating costs for the material and made some thoughts on the bigger cases themselves.

It will be a lot of work, but I hope it to be a good decoration for my home over many decades.

 

For me the big cases fulfill two tasks: 1st:   They protect the Kodogu inside them

                                                            2nd:  They bring the connection between furnishing/design and our hobby,     

                                                                      giving it one way of fitting neatly into a rooms interior.

                                                            3rd:  They give a good transport opportunity

 

So in my opinion the cases can play a big role, especially in homes that are normally spartanic or with pretty modern interior, were a plain, modern box would fit in. We give the small boxes a lot of attention, they come in different qualities, sometimes with high quality silk covers, calligraphy, etc. and are an accessoire to match the quality of the Piece laying inside. But I have rarely seen examples of good bigger boxes, why is that, is it the wish not to seperate a good piece and it's box?

 

Beside rare sidesteps I try to follow the collection praxis to aim for high quality, low count and exactly what I want to have, even if this means waiting/saving/not getting it for a long time. I think when coming to pieces related to Kodogu and Nihonto, but being "only accessoires", a lot of collectors go the cheap way, it is only a piece to fulfill it's purpose.

 

 

An example, you own several Akasaka Tsuba, also high quality shodai/nidai pieces as well as multible fine Higo pieces, I think such a collection deserves some highest quality case in which it can exist as a whole, rounded up collection. How do you think about this, does a high quality case add class to a collection and furnishment as well as it graces the pieces treasured inside it?

 

Maybe thinking to much over a pile of wood plates haha    

 

[b.hennick]

Are you talking about something like this?

[Pete Klein]

 

[b.hennick]

Sorry Pete: I had two images that were the same. I deleted one and both disappeared. We now have both back.

[Geraint]

Dear Marco.

 

One of the abiding themes of NMB is people learning to recognise and understand quality.  How many times have enthusiastic beginners posted a sword or some kodogu which they are thrilled about but those of us who have been studying for a bit longer recognise as low quality and hardly worth owning?  We want them to develop what we call a "good eye", the ability to really see.  Exactly the same thing applies to cabinet making, which is what you are considering.  A lot of people can make good functional furniture in wood, some have the ability to do things that are sublime.  There is something more than technical mastery at work, something to do with design and a lot to do with a desire to make something that communicates significance.  The easiest way to see this is to Google Krenov display pieces.  Krenov was the most influential cabinetmaker of the second half of the 20th century and is much copied but you will see some truly great work.  There are many others but for a lot of people it is just furniture, they don't see what it really is.  I suppose that is a bit like fine wine, for some of us it would be worth the money for the pleasure of tasting it, for some a cheap bottle of plonk will do.

 

Of course work of this quality is not easy to find, it certainly isn't cheap and for most people they have a hard time spending that sort of money when it could be buying other kodogu.  Would it enhance the display of your favourite pieces?  Well if you appreciate the quality of the work then yes it certainly would and the object itself would be a source of great pleasure.  On the other hand you might derive real satisfaction from making something yourself, admitting that it isn't great art but none the less it gives you pleasure.  OK, ramble over.  If you do decide to do either I am sure we would all like to see the result.

 

All the best.

[TETSUGENDO]

Respectfully, Krenov is not even a blip on the radar as far as 20th furniture design is concerned. He is a good craftsman but his designs are derivative of a score of vastly greater talents, his real gift was indefatigable self promotion.  His "style" consists of a blend of the designs of Greene and Greene, strained through a filter of Émile-Jacques Ruhlmann, Süe et Mare, and Pierre Chareau presented in a bottle of scandinavian origin.

 

Cheers,

    -S-

[Geraint]

Design debate!  Design debate!   

 

I cited Krenov because illustrations of his furniture and designs inspired by him are plentiful on the internet and also because he has quite a thing for furniture for displaying items.  I did say that there were many others; in the UK John Makepeace and Alan Peters spring to mind. That Krenov is guilty of self promotion cannot be of itself a bad thing, designer makers need to make a living and sell their work, self promotion is an integral part of that process.  The most famous example would be Thomas Chippendale whose "Gentleman and Cabinetmaker's Director", 1754, made him not only a prosperous business man for a time but also a household word for a style of 18th century design.  The ubiquity of Krenov's influence, particularly in America, suggest that any future history of design will have to take some account of him.  Whether his influence will be seen as positive or not remains to be seen.

 

To accuse him of being derivative is little more than to accuse him of being a designer.  It is the business of design history to trace the derivation and influences displayed in a body of work and one can easily accomplish that for any designer.  Greene and Greene, (American architects) are regarded as the arch exponents of American Arts and Crafts, a movement that grew out of Arts and Crafts philosophy and design in the UK.  Ruhlman is the classic Art Deco designer but the roots of his work can be traced to the Vienna Secession and the Werkstatte.   As the designers you suggest are all at work in the early to mid 20th Century it is almost impossible for someone working in the second half to resist their influence.  One might react against it but that would still be an expression of influence.  And of course all these people were designers, not makers.  Nothing inherently wrong about that but I did say that Krenov's influence was as a cabinetmaker. (Generally speaking design history finds it problematic to deal with individual makers as opposed to designers.)

 

A parallel might be Edward Barnsley, fundamentally a furniture maker though also influential through his involvement with education and through his workshop which trained a string of apprentices not least Alan Peters.  In the history of design he serves almost as a footnote but in the history of cabinetmaking he is a giant.  

 

All of which has little bearing on my reply to Marco but it's fun to debate!

 

All the best.

[TETSUGENDO]

Sorry, no design debate-

 

I don't debate in service of the absurd, there are too many worthier pursuits.  An avalanche of words, serving self, will not bury truth nor disguise falsehood.  So much for "abiding themes", the quest for verity in service of Art, and the development of a "good eye".  I am comfortable standing by my initial post.  

 

"Vincit Omnia Veritas",

                 -S-