Auction Observer 095: Making good, big furniture easier to buy

Plus: a great Sottsass, a surprising Sottsass, an USM I've never seen, an improvement over the Togo, collecting paper and SNAKE shirts (baby)

Hi all, back after a couple weeks away. Lots of auctions to cover, and they will be, but first, some notes:

Snake shirts: For Sale

I am back in America, I am selling and shipping T-shirts. The first is my Milan event shirt. It was at Bene Bene Bar last month and was a success. I am told the placards are still up on the wall, or were during Fashion Week. Shirts from that 10th anniversary event look like this:

And are on sale now. Buy one by clicking on the link or the photo.

Shirts from the 10th anniversary event in New York, which was in August, are almost sold out, yet still for sale. They look like this:

And can be bought by clicking on the link or photo above. Pics of the NYC event are here—an humbling and edifying evening, Milan too. 10 years—X anni… tche.

Actual Housekeeping:

• This newsletter led a Financial Times story last weekend about design Substacks. Snake, along with

  FOR SCALE
  ,
  Ground Condition
  and
  Schmatta
  (subscribe to them all) were highlighted as ways for readers to get down with/become knowledgeable about design—furniture, architecture, products—in the post-glossy magazine age. And with the ideas expressed by my colleagues. Relevant bits from the story here:
  samisreiss

  

  A post shared by @samisreiss

  Link to the story in full here.

• For new readers, some history and POV about Snake:L This newsletter began covering vintage clothing in 2014 (way back), then landed in GQ, and the archives were made into a book (you can buy that here). The furniture coverage centers around auctions now because to me it’s the most accessible way for people to actually buy furniture… but beyond that, for non-consumers, to actually understand furniture. The breadth and variety of auctions listed every week create a simple, plain way to hover over the endless edifying microgenres and movements in design. There so much out there to buy, sure, and it is not really expensive. But more than that there is more than that out there to read about and become interested in. You can’t replicate this sort of variety. Real letter is below. If you’re curious about how to bid on auctions and other ideas about design and furniture, check out the essay and guides section of this newsletter. Thanks for joining me here. Andiamo…

---

Obs 95

Ginori porcelain centerpiece bowl, Fl.: Ends Tues… Glasses, smalls, porcelain… kitchen stuff, good kitchen stuff, kitchen stuff is one of the roads through which the commercial future of design travels. In that reality consumers who rent their apartments and don’t have infinite disposable income—and who blanch at the logistics of moving a couch into their apartments—get good stuff into only parts of their homes. Maybe no good sofas or chairs, but good plates, good centerpiece bowls, good cutlery… maybe good lamps. It’s not the best future but is a realistic one, I think. It isn’t hard (for me) to win a couch on auction or on a website and get it into my apartment, but then I’ve done it a few times. It can be sticky if it’s a new venture.

This smalls reality is something I’ve written about before, and is an analogue to how the luxury market shook evolved in the 2000s… until, let’s say 2017 or ‘19, when vintage took over. Clothes from whatever store, designer shoes, designer handbags… it is easier. In design… there is less movement on couches than smalls—good ones, in the next graf, have been relisted a couple of times. I’m curious how we might evolve out of this reality. My friend

Sally

who does Super Saturday (excellent store; read her Q&A here) says the future of design is logistics. She is right. Maybe once white glove service becomes frictionless we will catch up our sofas to our mugs, lamps, cutlery, coffee pots…

I hope this happens; life is better when you believe in your couch and chair and not just your cutlery. This particular item the house says is from, latest, 1930s. Wild; maybe so. Ginori centerpieces run in the $500 lately, from that decade goes for less. I love Ginori; they are a quick and broad way to get introduced to porcelain and nice kitchenware… there is a lot and the company is so old. This one is exciting and works as a plain fruit bowl; it can be easily disrespected, though (put your keys in there). Auction has a lot of porcelain (this Minton is a fav), this polychrome vase, several Russian cigarette cases, fish flatware, spreaders… good stuff. $125

De Sede DS 84 loveseat, Ct.: Ends Tues… Again, why not buy this? Relisted… why? I surely have linked to this workmanlike, perfect sofa… it is better than a Togo because it is seen less often… sure, but it is also more anonymous, and nice and drab. Maybe as recently as August. What’s nice about this item—1970s, anonymous designer, runs $3,500/45 the past couple of years—is that the house has a couple of its cousins, similar De Sede seating options ending at the same time. There is this similar modular DS (500; no price history, $950 right now) and this set of… two suedey loveseats ($1,100; seats pass, chairs double that) in a lighter shade. I see the loveseats as the winner... kind of worn club chairs. But all do the job. Great house; nice to see this variety and ABC test the detail. More items from this auction below the jump. $600

Cassina Ariane 364 chairs, Fl.: Ends Tues… New to me, strange and minimal, nearly ugly chairs, siblings to Vignelli’s handkerchief—a set of four end Tuesday and are running $750, they are red—since both are pared down, wide… half sketched… almost missing another go-through on the page. Which is a very mature design decision. The Ariane was designed by Hannes Wettstein, sometime after 1994, before 2008… cannot find a real date; only sold once, a set of four for $250. Paying for editor here and not the designer, but Wettstein was good. Great auction as always… it gets very louche down in Florida. $100

Karim Rashid sketch for a chair, Quogue: Ends Tues… You hear it often that all collectors evolve into amassing paper… build up a record collection, end up hoarding fliers, clothing, you amass magazines, maybe… furniture turns into catalogs, sketches, art. The nice thing about “paper” is that it’s not just utilitarian… you are collecting the thing, a representation of what you like. It doesn’t do anything, you can’t sit on it or listen to it. And yet we spend... As for furniture sketches… there is something about a rough drawing that humanizes it all and makes it much simpler… the drawing gets closer to the idea the designer has—in the pre-CAD era—and the life of the piece… it is what makes it different. There are no adult details like angles and materials… or if they are they are just numbers. Rashid graduated from Carleton University (in Ottawa center of the universe), and is a fine modern designer, my favorite thing by him is this set of lamps he did in 2006… These chairs, each, sell for less than the paper… thus proving my theory… great auction, best of the bunch highlighted below. $140

Next: a dozen sofas, chairs, credenzas, lamps, LA and NY and Spain, nothing over $750 (except for one thing).