2008-10-01 20:49:48 - Rosemary McKittrick focuses on the bits and pieces of history sold on the auction block.

Santa Fe, Oct. 1, 2008 -- In the 1984 woodworker George Nakashima undertook the largest project of his life. He built a shrine called the Altar for Peace. It was a place where people from all over the world could meditate, pray or simply sit quietly.

Completed in 1986, the project was christened on New Year's Eve in the Cathedral Church

of Saint John the Divine in New York City.

Nakashima's 45 year career had come full circle with this project. In building the altar he followed the same steps of selecting and cutting the timber and the same artistic vision he used from the very first project he undertook in his career.

'The working of wood has brought me into another world,' Nakashima said. 'It reveals a kinship with nature and a search for its deepest relationship with man.'

Nakashima is best known for his large-scale tables made of huge wood slabs with smooth tops but unfinished natural edges, made of multiple slabs connected with butterfly joints.

These natural edges are highly prized by Nakashima collectors.

On June 28, Skinner Auctioneers in Boston, Mass., featured a selection of Nakashima furniture in its 20th century Furniture & Decorative Arts auction.

A coffee table; predominately free edged; English walnut; 61 ½ inches long; 1970-71; sold for $14,220.

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