How Much Are Sam Maloof Pieces?

[David Perata]

I'm curious as to how much Sam's pieces were.

[Mike Henderson]

I remember that his cradle was about $40-45K. The chairs were going up in price each year. I think they were about $25K.

This is my memory from a visit to Sam's place about a year or two ago.

Short story: Sam hired a business manager, Roz. At the time, Sam was about 87. Roz saw that Sam had a backlog of about three years for rockers and decided it was dumb to have a three year backlog for an 87 year old, so each year she raised the price - her goal was to have a one year backlog. But no matter how high she raised the price, the backlog remained three years. Roz told us this story.

Sam told us that the employees would inherit the business. But without his signature, the furniture will have a lot less value.

Mike

[Lee DeRaud]

I remember that his cradle was about $40-45K. The chairs were going up in price each year. I think they were about $25K.

That was for new pieces. I've heard of specific pieces being auctioned up in the $200K range.

Sam told us that the employees would inherit the business. But without his signature, the furniture will have a lot less value.

As I understand the deal from when they moved his house and shop to its current location, the state of California actually owns the property. The three apprentices can run the shop for as long as they want to. Whether they can make a living at it is anybody's guess. OTOH, they have no overhead and a lifetime supply of material (see below).

His widow can live in the house (the new one, not the one the shop is in) until she dies. Eventually everything reverts to the state...no clue what they would actually do with it beyond maintaining it as a historical site. With the condition California's finances are in, all bets are off.

The thing that always boggled my mind about the whole set-up was the 'barn' full of 500K board feet of wood. At the rate they were using it, it would have lasted 100 years or so, even if they made the shipping crates from claro walnut. And people were giving him more wood all the time.

[Mike Gager]

so what exactly made his work worth so much money?

[Mike Henderson]

so what exactly made his work worth so much money?

Sam was seen as an artist, rather than a craftsman. Just as people pay large amounts of money for a painting (many, many times the value of the materials in the painting) they paid a lot of money for Sam's work. But the value depended upon the work having Sam's signature on it. Now that he's gone, the exact same piece of furniture (made by the same people who worked with Sam on the earlier pieces) will bring a LOT less money.

Mike

[jim carter]

his rocking chairs were going for 40 grand before he passed away and there was a 6 year waiting list.

[Mike Gager]

so much for a bad economy eh?

[J C Fox]

Now that he's gone, the exact same piece of furniture (made by the same people who worked with Sam on the earlier pieces) will bring a LOT less money.

Perhaps so, but I'll bet pieces currently in work that will be completed by "the boys" bring the agree upon order price. If they fill the orders currently in the backlog and continue making new pieces from Sam's patterns, I'll bet they bring prices at least double what the same pieces made by an unknown woodworker would bring.
I remember a comment he made in one of the video interviews, maybe one that was posted on The Woodworking Channel. He mentioned that there was some demand for the miniature (1/5 scale?) rockers, that he didn't want to spend time on anymore. One of the workers asked if he could make them to sell. He found out later they were selling for multiple thousands of dollars.

[David Keller NC]

"so much for a bad economy eh?"

The folks that bought Sam's work aren't affected all that much by the economy. There are many thousands of multi, multi-millionaires in the US, and they're not too concerned about spending $50k on what is viewed as art.

Besides, - once a particular artist dies or is too frail to continue work, and assuming that their work was "recognized" by the art-collecting community, the price of the existing pieces goes up astronomically.

While the reason is sound economics (the supply is now fixed, while the demand keeps going up as new people come into the collector's market), it's very unfortunate for artists. Most live on very little and scrape to get by, only to make their family and friends to whom they've given pieces potentially wealthy.

[Joe Jensen]

I was there for a one day class 2 years ago. At that time they had 10 years of backlog. The Rocker was $50K in walnut, and as much as double if in an exotic. About 200-240 hours of labor in a rocker. The older pieces are highly collectable. He showed us a dining table with 8 chairs that was there for refurbishing. It sold at Christy's Auction house for $485K. I think they were charging $50K to resand and refinish

Sam didn't work the business side, his wife did. He was told a story about a customer that wanted a double rocker in an exotic. He wife came out to the shop to ask abour the exotic. Sam told her it was harder to work. She came out later to tell him the customer decided on the exotic. Sam asked how much extra she charged him and she said Double. I think he said it was $125K.

During the day I got a sense that Sam didn't really grasp the money side. He seemed to work every day more out of a sense that if he didn't he wouldn't have any money.

His business has at their estimate $3M of amazing slabs of wood. Nearly every one better than anything I've ever seen. One section of a barn was an exotic (forgot the name) that was really fantastic. they said they bought that inventory like 20 years ago for $15 a foot. They said it's not very hard to find and goes for nearly $100 a foot. They must have had a thousand board feet of that alone. They appretices said they had 20-30 years worth of inventory.

[Don Bullock]

Priceless!

[David Perata]

Okay, roll back the clock to about 1950? when he began woodworking. He wasn't getting that kind of dough for a rocking chair. I have to believe that the key to his success was part design sense and definately marketing. He had to market himself as an artist to the right clientele who could afford his stuff.

Now, he didn't just start out saying he wanted $25K for a chair. His signature wasn't worth anything then. The thing is, he had to convince people who had money that his signature WAS worth that kind of money.

How does one go about doing that?

I'm certain he was a fine artisan, but he had to hype his name to command those prices. That's what PR is all about. And he had to have the nerve (to put it more politely) to say that he was worth that kind of money.

Isn't there anybody on this forum with the same kind of talent as Sam? Has anybody tried to market their furniture as artistic pieces at high prices?

[David DeCristoforo]

"I'm certain he was a fine artisan, but he had to hype his name to command those prices"

Well I am glad you are certain of Sam's artistry. But his "history" is common knowledge and it is well known that he never "hyped" himself. He was as self-effacing as a man could be. The prices for his work kept going up because his work was spectacular and people were willing to pay a premium to own it. I for one was thrilled that he was able to command the prices he did and even though it took him most of his life to achieve that level of success, he never "sold out" or compromised in any way. He remained true to himself and that's the best thing a man can do.

[Roger Barga]

I completely agree. The market was chasing Sam's work, not the other way around.

roger

[Joe Jensen]

"I'm certain he was a fine artisan, but he had to hype his name to command those prices"

Well I am glad you are certain of Sam's artistry. But his "history" is common knowledge and it is well known that he never "hyped" himself. He was as self-effacing as a man could be. The prices for his work kept going up because his work was spectacular and people were willing to pay a premium to own it. I for one was thrilled that he was able to command the prices he did and even though it took him most of his life to achieve that level of success, he never "sold out" or compromised in any way. He remained true to himself and that's the best thing a man can do.

Sam was one of the most humble yet successful people I've ever met.

When Sam got out of the Navy after the war, he and his wife had no money for furniture. He decided to build his own with lumber from old pallets and some simple tools he borrowed from his father in law. He did the work in his front yard. Someone from the LA Times walked by and apparently Sam's designs were revolutionary. That Sunday he was featured in the cover of the Living section of the paper. That led to some commissions. He labored for many years, according to Sam, many times they had to eat at his wife's parents because they had no money for food.