Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Wanna Play Jax? Jack Wants Ta Play! It's Almost Time For The Nightmare Before Christmas Party Again! Status: A Mighty Fine Pair.

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Things are coming together for our annual Nightmare party. I found the decorations out in the Garage last night. The tree will go up soon and Jack and Sally are showing up in more pictures lately. Yup, it's almost time.

But this posting is not about the pending Nightmare Before Christmas party. It's actually

about a decorative item that I picked up at the Kenrick antique mall this last weekend. A

decorative item that I had no idea was so controversial. It's a real "Who Dunnit" of attributions.

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This "Jack" is missing it's other. These are commonly bought and sold in pairs and are

suggested for use as bookends a lot of times. By themselves, they might be used as a

doorstop, paperweight or maybe just an irreverent decorative item. Many many sellers

list these as being connected to George Nelson. From the hour or so of research I did

on line, I've found that there is little evidence of this.

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Then there is another camp of people who will attribute the design to Bill Curry. This seems to

stem from a table made by Design Line
but again, other than people just "saying" that their

piece is by Bill Curry / Design Line, there doesn't seem to be any Proof.

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I don't really care one way or the other. If people want to call it a George Nelson or a Bill Curry

and get $125 or so for a pair on eBay...more power to them. Without any kind of proof, who

can argue with them or the people who buy the Jax? Me? I paid $16 for it. The dealer wanted

$20...they were in their booth either rearranging items or adding stuff, not sure, so I asked if

they'd take $15...they respectfully declined stating that it was so hard to let it go even at $20...I

told them I understood (& I really DO!) and made my way around the corner to shoot pics

of that Heywood Wakefield desk. Then the dealer came around the corner and told me that the

entire booth was 20% off making the asking $16 and would I buy it for that? Of course I would!

Who quibbles over a dollar? I didn't know anything about the Jax at the time but immediately

started doing my due diligence. George Nelson! Well, maybe...maybe not. No one seems to

know.

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See...Irreverent!

1 comment:

  1. Love the jax/Jack....we have the Nightmare Before Christmas jenga set. The box is shaped like a coffin; what fun!

    C Helmers

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