Weekend Snake Auction Observer 080: Is outdoor furniture really different than indoors furniture? And the simplicity of vases
Plus:
The weather is finally nice in New York, I took the early part of the week off, for Passover, when I was in Ottawa I went to the best gym I have ever been to that is not in California… I thought gyms were mostly unpleasant because, in New York, where I go, they have bad design and music… but the one there played TikTok music (whatever is in the background of reels and what’s on the radio in some Ubers)… and it did not affect the energy in the least… I don’t like working out indoors as much as outdoors, but that’s not as freely available… it was revelatory. More tangentially, there is, by the hand of God, a grip of good auctions ending this weekend, without so much of an overarching theme between them, just a variety of quality items for the whole hut (chair, lamp, bench, lots of chairs) across different styles (modern, MCM, Italian, pre-deco)… though not many chesterfields sofas. But first:
Housekeeping:
New York Art Book Fair this weekend: my publishers, Shining Life, are on the fourth floor, booth H60, next to Pigeon Pat. The new Demystification Zine is out as well. I’ll be around later on Friday, and will have some hats. I haven’t decided on my outfit yet, though; I’ll send out another newsletter when I triangulate my jeans.
Brandon Mahler, friend of the newsletter, on Throwing Fits, also friends of the newsletter. Nice education about jeans, folding, AF shirts, the whole megillah.
Check out these incredible photographs Julian Master took of Bijan, Kevin and Frank for the newest issue of Hypebeast (Ye cover). The print issue is in stores now; the link to the interview I did with the three of them should be out soon:
Auctions Observed:
Walter Lamb for Brown Jordan bench, Pitt.: Ends Sat…. This by Walter Lamb is new to me; that suite of furniture is a collection for Brown Jordan, which makes mostly outdoors stuff, a bit upscale. Lamb began designing in I believe the 1940s… his original collection for BJ is something like the furniture they have in the background of The Graduate (1967). The furniture is outdoors, I suppose, by dint of something technical or other—let’s say a coating on the bench for the rain, something like that… I do think that the distinction between outdoors and indoors furniture is a technical one and not an aesthetic one… and so doesn’t need to be respected or hewed to by consumers. (I’m not sure consumers do, to be sure: there’s the Ny Chair, for example, which is really a patio piece, but works great indoors, and has… it’s sort of eclipsed its outdoor designation.) I like making these theories and pointing this stuff out about furniture not because I think I’m especially clever, but because they’re examples in service of the real truth about design, which is… there are not really any rules, there is nothing anyone has to do to correctly lay out their hut, there are no must-do’s here… back to this piece specifically: there is, actually, an outdoors aesthetic, very broadly and vaguely… these are all pieces whose materials are a little tougher than what’s needed for indoors… as a result lots get their dick cut off design wise, but the ones that aren’t all the way functional, and which look like something, speak to that construction… specifically the outdoors stuff by Richard Schultz that flirts with stark… and, of course, the Bertoia outdoor chair, which has its own Baltic thing going on… This one runs about $2,000 (only a pair of them has sold)… ideal. $450
Antique Chinese squareback chair, Pitt.: Really a revelatory chair; haven’t seen one of these before… or, indeed, anything Chinese and antique, besides vases, to my great discredit. It’s worth a study and praise and a deeper understanding… it is very beautiful. From my limited vantage here, what jumps out are the right angles… very direct and strong and immediate, more so than most chairs, most anything… and, indeed, so much from that era. It does the same for time (destroys it) as the best Thonet work. House has a couple more of these with slightly varying designs, along with other items mentioned below, and this very fine teakettle that they’re calling a coffee pot. With the regular caveat that anything on an auction site is as legit as it is… maybe this chair is indeed Chinese antique, maybe it is not and was made in Allegheny County… but the Occam’s Razor here is to be optimistic here, because of construction (old, fine) and price, at only $300
Below the jump: Vases, more chairs (high back, deco, Italian, avant), the best cutlery I have ever seen, a p. elegant fake Boby (with nice patina), Nakashima (for cheap), and much more, contextualized and in Quick Hits…
Kosta Boda Caramba vase, Pitt.: Not a bad one, this thing has the half-off Picasso face aesthetic that he put on his vases when he (his descendents?) needed quick cash… they’ve got smoked-out eyes. It’s a pretty ideal piece, very plainly beautiful, very much a piece of adornment… ideal and refreshing. Pretty carinate in shape… I think vases are a great shortcut to decoration: it can be intimidating to level up furniture-wise, because there is so much out there… there are different schools, eras, aesthetics, price points… but vases, until Sottsass (or Deco) are all pretty much the same shape, and very traditional. Getting a nice vase does two things at once. Runs $2-400. $80
Vignelli handkerchief chairs for Knoll, set of eight, NJ: These chairs are one of the more immediately available pieces by Vignelli, they came out in 1983 for Knoll; he designed them with his wife, Lella, and were featured in a litany of colors… rare to see them in purple (rare to see anything in purple, frankly; shout out Jon), and close to N.Y. and at quite fair price. Part of a series of designs made in the 1980s by Knoll that feature a little bit… more Gehry-like shapes, fewer lines, more swooning. One might say Philippe Starck built his whole career off making stuff like this chair. Runs about $200-400 each, fairly strong auction as well that’s worth scrolling through. $150
Rennie Mackintosh hill chair for Cassina, Oh.: Quite similar to the Davis Allen Exeter chairs for Knoll, which I mentioned very briefly about a few weeks ago in Quick Hits… this one shines as a 1980s piece of backwards-looking Cassina… a sort of antipode to the auction above. So much stuff Cassina made then wasn’t afraid of dipping a century back, or to the 1930s. Very mature… and dope from a huge manufacturer. I find this sort of regal furniture is a counterpoint to the more tertiary-color items in the 1980s that, of course, Cassina was close to, too. Both are very much Dead Ringers.
One of the more loved pieces of furniture frok this side of the newsletter. $325
Quick Hits (including some completed sales):
Componibili, original, white, NJ, $100 ended Friday AM for $175… (prices are down; used to run $2-300… these are OG with the correct bottoms)
Pesce New York sunset sofa, £2,400, London ending right now (one of the sickest pieces of seating ever made; everyone is auctioning off Pesce right now, there is so much out there, a bit sad to see this gold rush)
Knoll-style craft oak/chrome dining table, Md, $300 ends Friday evening… (rare oak/chrome combo, designed for an office but to me meant to disrupt a kitchen)
Schultz for Knoll petal table, Pittsburgh, $1,000 ends Saturday… (quite elegant, a bit out of style, but exact)
George Barnhart studio craft chair, Pitt., 125 ends Sat… (like Wendell Castle, but not difficult… I love regal and gilded furniture, it is so rare to see newer items that are not pinched or sarcastic) pictured
Tadao Arimoto two-tone wood chair, Pitt., $900 (almost epochal, this is a great piece)
F Knoll for Knoll Associates black credenza, Pitt, $800 (her best work as I’ve said before)
Three not exactly Breuer for Knoll Lacio nesting tables, Pitt, $175 (chance for a deal; old, well-made, worth it)
Nakashima for Knoll maple chair, early, no markings Pitt., $550 (almost without artistic idiosyncrasy whatsoever)
Alvin Rober Taboret (fake Boby) cart, NJ, $100 (honestly? Not bad.)
Frattini style chrome marble table, chairs, NJ, $150 (super odd, possible mega deal; a complete constructed and connected set; if this was in a store or coffee shop people would get excited about it)
“Tamigi” cutlery set by Gae Aulenti for Bacci Italia, £2,400, Essex ends next week (unreal; the baddest broad to ever live does it again. Prob best anything this issue… learn something new every day)
Thanks for reading. Rest in peace Bob Cole—rest in peace Edward “Sutton” Pomponio. The two most beautiful voices of their generations are now lost. They will never be forgotten.
Snake