Value through Experience

The Tanazaki reading reminds us that design is not about appearances, but experiences.  For example, using lacquerware gives users a sense of antiquity, mystery and value.  It's something you should use in specific conditions, such as candlelight, to get the full experience.  The lacquerware itself is made with great care in order to achieve the blackest quality so you can appreciate each mysterious layer of the soup.  Losing sight heightens the smell, taste and textures you experience when consuming the soup.    

Hildebrand is saying that the value in a product comes with how it is made, not really the product itself.  Therefore, even if both machines and human hands can produce similar items, the products resulting from the human hands are of more value, because it's about the experience.  Someone put in their precious time and hard work in order to make that product.

Handmade Persian rug

Basically, both of these articles are about quality, valuable products.  These items get their value from experience.  With hand-made items, it is about the experiences of the person who made the product.  With the lacquerware, it is the experiences the person has when they use it, but also about the person who made the lacquerware.  

Sources:

Tanizaki, Jun’ichirō (1977). In praise of  shadows. (T.J. Harper and E.G. Seidensticker, trans.) Sedgwich, ME:
     Leete’s Island Books, Inc. (original work published in 1933).
Frank, Isabelle (editor) (2000). The theory of decorative art: An anthology of European and American writings 
     1750 – 1940. New York: Yale University Press.