On 17 May 2007 20:08:32 -0700, "
wrote:
I want to buy a dresser and have found one I like. This one
http://www.roomandboard.com/rnb/prod...=377444&cat=38
but I don't know anything about construction and wood quality. So I'm
worried I might be paying 1500 for something that is IKEA quality.
What questions do I ask to determine if it's "worth it" for the price?
Q = D + C + M.
Roughly translated this means that Quality equals Design plus
Craftsmanship plus Materials.
In a previous age we lived close enough to the makers to be able to
judge the elements of the equation for ourselves.
We have become less competent through disassociation and the
dismemberment of the organic units of a working society.
We have become consumers, rather than participants in a working
society that is based on an interchange of the goods among various
makers.
The result is that we do not know **** from shinola.
If you happen to be a "knowledge worker" who produces code for a
living, you may be about as incompetent to judge the merits of a piece
of furniture as the furniture maker is to judge the merits of your
code.
How then do we make our selections, from either perspective?
We need an honest broker.
That is why god created Ebay.
(just kidding)
You will need to educate yourself, as you have attempted to do by
asking your question - but you must go to a further level of effort
and visit those repositories of Q=D+C+M, which may be, in your case,
the higher end furniture houses. In another case, it may be a museum.
Furniture is tactile, perspectival, visual, olfactory, auditory,
fiduciary, historical, cultural, emotional, psychological,
sociological, and on the level that you aspire to it is not a
commodity. It must be experienced in the flesh.
Pinch the flesh. Ask the questions of the joinery. View the visible
and try to intuit what is not.
Will your great-great grandchildren love it? Will they ever get the
chance to decide?
Regards,
Tom Watson
tjwatson1ATcomcastDOTnet (real email)
http://home.comcast.net/~tjwatson1/