Description
SOLD within a few weeks of being listed for $895 in 2024. The buyer also $320 on top of the $895 to freight the table from Adelaide to Newcastle.
Price is for the TABLE ONLY. The chairs have already sold.
LOCATION- being sold under consignment by a private seller in Gilles Plains, ADELAIDE. Delivery Australia-wide can be arranged for a reasonable additional price. It’d cost about $240 to get this table to Melbourne.
The chairs are NOT included in the price. Chairs are always priced SEPARATELY.
Provenance and Background Info
A QUALITY oval timber dining table by South Australian furniture maker Joe Rufenacht. (The chairs have already sold.) This suite is late-1970’s. Joe Rufenacht started in the mid-1970’s and by 1980 he’d pocketed more design awards than any other furniture maker in Australia. So why does everyone go gaga over Parker when furniture like this is better built and more highly regarded? Parker is everywhere- everyone knows it, everyone has seen it. Rufenacht’s designs are virtually impossible to find which means they slide under the radar somewhat but anyone with a honed eye knows what they’re seeing. His designs tick every box- a resounding tick for practicality, design, quality and investment-appeal. Rufenacht won the Australian design award back in 1978. Rufenacht told ABC in 2006 that it took him 40 different prototypes to get the dining chairs shown in these photos right- the table probably took almost as much because the timber-base is sinewy and slight but the top is heavy- the base needed careful consideration to support the weight of the top.
This table is as practical as it gets. The top is removable and the base can dismantle easily within minutes using an Allen key. The whole thing is easy to move and even easier to store.
Rufenacht furniture is an obvious furniture investment. The design of the chairs looks very similar to the coveted Norwegian Falcon chair. Falcon chairs in Australia have risen in value from about $1000 back in 2002 and are now getting more than $2000 EACH today- not a bad earner for something you get to sit in and enjoy in the meantime! Rufenacht’s furniture will also last while you get to use it. The quality of this dining table EXCEEDS any Parker dining table (easily). ALL of the most sought-after Parker dining tables are chipboard. THIS TABLE HAS NO CHIPBOARD IN IT AT ALL. The construction is as good as you’ll ever see in a table. Rufenacht was a stickler for QUALITY and refused to compromise on quality.
The value of this table is tied up in the base. The original oval smoked-glass top is also in excellent condition. You could get another top cut for it- if you’d prefer a stone or marble top this is easy to achieve. A different top could be custom made to suit the exact size and shape of the space it needs to go into.
After many modern pieces have ended up as landfill this 50-year-old table will be passed onto another owner and then an entirely new generation. It was said on the ABC in 2006 that Rufenacht’s furniture will be the antiques of tomorrow and I agree. JR furniture (Rufenacht’s company) closed its doors in 2006 unable to compete with cheap overseas imports any longer. The 30+ year history of this Australian business has etched a permanent place in Australian furniture production history and if his work is not already in Australian museums and galleries, it will be. There’s no better way to invest in your home and reduce landfill.
2404 , 2402 , 2008.4 Print Ad- approx 2001
