10 Hits (affordable jawns) from Hell (1stDibs)

As well as Auction Observer 104

Shebaat Salaam the weather in New York is finally clearing up, Gowanus is getting a new natural wine bar and NFL football continues to be an unwatchable product — lots of auctions and items this week, let’s get right into it.

What if every actual unmediated deep thought I had in this newsletter I wrote in small font so I could get away with it but also so it wouldn’t interfere with my business prerogatives? I would rather wash any American senator’s feet than watch an NFL football game. A new natural wine bar, Liar Liar, opens today in Gowanus, they have Vichy Catalan water, Coke in cans and a plethora of the good orange stuff. The weather is so nice today in Carroll Gardens I saw my next door neighbor walking his dog. If you bought the new classic color Air Max TNs let me know—they are going unremarked upon, undiscussed and uncollected.

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LAST WEEK’S AUCTION RESULTS

Here are the deals paying subscribers received last week, links are to the actual items:

Sem de L'Anverre Zanotta vase $100, Bitossi Netter jar $100, Östen Kristiansson glass ‘70s table lamp $125, Stalhåne Designhuset vases, bowl for $50 (all-in, deranged), Fleishman chair (pictured) $150, Kinetics Paperclip stools, $190, Poul PH5 pendant $275 (a surprise even for me), extendo Danish rosewood dining table $800 (arbitrage), Relling Siesta loungers $850, Danish red enamel pendant $275 (Bruce Willis bought this), Jelinek pine bookshelf $325 (straight up genius furniture), Sonneman lamp at $140, Sottsass earrings $110,, Hydman Kosta Boda cat face vase $175, Florence Knoll deadstock armless sofa $700, Tiktok Heller magazine holders $250

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First Dibs mosh pit

Not everyone wants to buy on auction—which is fine, that leaves better and more fluid auction results for the result of us—and so I am offering up my design curatorial services by combing RETAIL items on platforms like Dibs, Chairish, etc. Today I’ll be skimming 1stDibs, the luxe interiors marketplace… and picking out a dozen or so normally priced items that consumers can use. People think it’s expensive and complain about the prices on there—but those are the same people who think everything is expensive and complain about everything. As usual, if you actually roll up your sleeves you’ll see reality breaks and there are deals, investments, outliers and so on—on this platform and others. Towards a broader and freer definition of design… towards making decisions…

• Glostrup (attrib) teak dining table, ‘60s, $595, NYC—the best things Danish people produce is overhead lighting and close second to that are teak tambour credenzas (smooth, rich, modern, new wood), with this table right in the wheelhouse of those things but also shockingly dirt cheap for a diner. In New York so you can ship through 1D or get a guy with a van of Craigslist if you’re feeling active

• Secessionist pedestal bowl, $975, free shipping—something about the turn towards gilded and ostentatious design pleases me, this fits right in there, it looks like a big scepter (it’s like a fountain/stand—put your keys on it) and has a periwinkle yellow shade to it that one never sees, plus flowers and so on. I see/envision Pesce having had one of these in his house. Free shipping code is FREESHIP prob good for the whole site

• Aalto E65 chair, flat ship, $741—in Italy but when you buy furniture in Europe it’s better because better designers are from Italy (it’s reality) and the machinist who built this thing out probably had capers with his lunch. We rarely hear about the E65… it’s mildly got the same base as the classic stool, but taller, and the back of it seems… like an afterhood (think US vintage)… and yet not cobbled together, but universal, minimal. Love this design, great investment.

• Walnut sculptural jewelbox, $250, flat ship—effectively built out like either a Terrazza sofa or maybe something by Wendell Castle, that’s what it reminds me of, anyways—put your jewels in there, I could use a jewel box myself, as it stands now all my Daesh Toyota watches are sitting on a pilfered hotel tray next to my gym watch, jar of lava, Coca Cola ring, airtag, photo of the Rebbe and so on. Nice gift!

• Kartell gray and yellow trash can, $475, Fr.—this is one of the design pieces that got me hooked when I started collecting and buying a decade and change ago; it’s also one of the items I show to individuals who wonder/ask why… how design works, to what extent things in the world out there that we buy with money can look purposeful. Without putting too fine a thread on it—though I’d love to—the execution of thought and idea here in this garbage is a success of the highest order and a simple, brilliant Italian thing, something that at its best offers a hint of life actually being paradise (it is), at worst shows that if life is hard at least you can feel good forever when you take out the garbage.

• 70s Aluminum table lamp by VEB, $339, decent shipping—a very sleek, minimal but adorned lamp that appears to be in showroom or brand new condition. VEB Narva is a German brand, they make perfect luxe design items, they just don’t happen to have coffee table books written about them. Lock of the Week.

• Pietro Arosio vase for Parravicni Ceramiche, $160, decent shipping—my galaxy brain and reality-based “take” is that obsessive design shopping is for advanced roll-the-dice individuals but that ceramics and glassware and accessories are for EVERYONE who has an aesthetic sensibility—this is that, yet another hidden in plain sight maker creating something elevating, simple, plain, LOUD, great. What is there to say except the human mind probably can’t comprehend the richness of the design market, what exists outside what little we know. I mean I barely can. So much…

Small font… I now see people doing landmine work at the gym… but they are doing rows and are using the cable machine. It’s 2025 and no one is doing anything explosive. This is the real epidemic

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Obs 104

Pitting 1stDibs against LA is like making the mall fight Powell’s Books, but then again sometimes one has to buy a planner or calendar or—bible. On the block—rich week, a half dozen seating options under $200, a better selection of archival early ‘60s furniture than I’ve seen on sale since Oct., a handful of wild cards and new, never written about design instances. LA bid instrux here, auctions below: