BOOK RELEASE INFO (Fri. March 3 in NYC) AND Snake Auction Observer 030
SHEER DRIFT BOOK RELEASE IN NYC; Eames, Piretti, Offredi, Boby, ABO Randers
Loyal subscribers:
Join me for the release of my book SHEER DRIFT: The Snake America Newsletters (1-100) on Friday March 3 from 6 to 8 PM at Printed Matter St. Marks in Manhattan. Here is the flyer:
And the events page: https://www.printedmatter.org/programs/events/1565
I’ll be reading some from the book, and will curate a selection of vintage items mentioned/reported on in my letters. There will also be (new) merch available, as well as copies of the book, and the entire Shining Life collection. Share widely, and thank you.
Snake Auction Observer: good furniture, undervalued, or eternal, all selected off LiveAuctioneers.com, with an emphasis this week on lighting, Italian design and replacement-level furniture. Immediate auctions at the top, but first, secondary housekeeping:
I wrote and reported a long story about post-vegan trad food and how those prescriptions have been disseminated through social media. Read the story here in GQ. The food is millenia old; the modern formulation of this diet was put down in a book written 80+ years ago…. I went vegan when I was very young, in 1997, when veggie burgers were yellow green and orange and refrigerated almond and soy milk was not yet sold in stores… things have since changed… groceries are a minefield… the path into light is illegal raw dairy consumption...
Auctions:
Eames Miller chair, NJ, calculated shipping: Highlighting this auction first (ends Thursday, couple days after the one below) since it includes calculated shipping, a new LiveAuctioneers feature they were telling me about the other day. Effectively a couple auctions a week (for now, more later) on LA conveniently calculate the shipping automatically. A couple this week have this feature; this one’s got the better stuff: LV suitcases (the good kind), rugs, Juhl-y furniture. This pick… what else can be said about this chair that hasn’t been said before? It’s not in showroom shape, but was produced between ‘56 and ‘64 (tag dating), which means the guts/frame are strong. There is about $80K in materials and craftmanship and markup in this thing by 2023 standards. Needs a re-upholster; these never auction below $3500, retail’s well over that. At $2,500, with an upholster that would cost… let’s say half the auction price.
Piretti 106 dining chairs, NYC: The market for replacement-level vintage chairs is not an exciting one, jut a necessary one. I’d define replacement level as a chair good enough to make a person take a moment to think and reflect, gee whiz, nice chair, but no reaction more than that. No one’s going to win an award for having a house with some slightly above replacement level chairs. But they’re necessary.
Mid-value above replacement level chairs are important, though. They’re not dream chairs; they’re not two or three deviations better than the chair set you have now. They’re just better. They’re very good. They’re not as good as the best photos of chairs we all see every day. But they’re very good compared to the chairs most of us (not me) have in our house.
The cost of avoiding a mid-VORP chair is high. If you have lousy chairs at home and keep holding off upgrading for the dream piece that only exists in a photo somewhere or which are “too expensive,” and don’t buy slightly better-than-you-have chairs when you see them… you seal yourself into two fates. One is a home that doesn’t strive to be better than it is (which is a death sentence). Another is a showroom apartment (which is wack). You have to take small steps to improve. Again, the message in this newsletter is clear: there is a wild, giant glut of very good, really good looking, quite affordable, or respectably priced (or even expensive) furniture out there. Some of the pieces on auction are wildly discussed and are everywhere and are kind of over; some are unheralded. It is all out there, though, every day, available to buy. There is so, so much good shit out there. You can outfit your place in any exciting way you want with just a bit of elbow grease. Which is wild—we live in a cultural news environment where people love to complain about how lame everything is and how things are played out and discovered and how there are no more deals and how everything is over. People love saying that. People love to complain. But it’s pretty evident that people who say that are telling on themselves. Nothing is over, and it’s still a smash-and-grab free-for-all party for good stuff everywhere all the time. There is more than ever. If you don’t see anything or can’t find it, and, like, have the free time to, then you’re not looking. There is an endless well of good shit out there, and even more shit that is just pretty good. One thing I see is decision paralysis, where lots of people let the perfect be the enemy of the good. But you’re allowed to improve over time. Buy a get-me-over set of chairs, or something that is just, in a vaccuum, better than what you have. Doesn’t have to be the best couch in the world. It just has to be better than the Crate and Barrel fate you’re resigned to if you don’t make any decision. Once you cut the cord and make the first step then you will slowly see that life is a cornucopia of good stuff. The world becomes less grey and self-predicting and rules go out the window. Baby steps. No one starts off with three plates on the bar. Get the Pirettis now, and down the line, I don’t know, get some Venturis. It’s only furniture. Who gives a shit? Anyways, Piretti is mostly known for the Plia chairs; the chairs in question here sell for like $350 each on 1stD; on auction they hover around the same price; this lot keeps getting re-sold. Sold for $1600 for four; which is what they always go for.
Jack Lenor Larsen Pearsall wave lounge chair, NYC: Insane chair, rare item in the JLL festschrift, mainly because of its shape. His works mostly show up on grandma couches. Also the pattern—softer than his usual. Larsen was an… upholsterer? His patterns outfitted sofas from the ‘60s and around then. Pearsall was good with walnut furniture. This wave lounge runs anywhere between 600 and 3 large, with the JLL near the higher end. House (Bidhaus) selling grandma gold-plated fake furniture, rugs (decent), C-tier burl, rattan... $550
Italian barrel-back chairs (five), CT: Springer-style chairs by no real designer coming out of Ct., sold by a house that’s a favorite of this newsletter and which this week has good Knoll marble-top dressers, a great Albert Hansen wall storage system, a teak piano (need), Danish lighting. These hidden leg chairs have, to me, a Robert Palmer/Wall Street (first movie) vibe going on. Not into it except for kitchens. Not much price history. At $275; don’t go higher.
Cassina massive ebonized coffee table, NJ: 6.5’ long, shaped like a skateboard edifice. Very plain. Hard to fault generic Cassina stuff from this era; they made so much. Something simple and automatic about their pieces from that time. Auction appears to be from the estate of Vladimir Kagan (damn)—though pickings are slim. These run ~$4-500 on auction. This one is flea-market cheap at $60
Offredi for Saporiti coffee table, CT: Offredi designed the Wave sofa and many others; much of his work was for Saporiti. This table, the Paracarro, is up there. Really good marble base that looks sliced it out from the Barbican building. A similar table is being auctioned next week by another house. Brutalist furniture… what’s not to love? I like Tom Wolfe’s furniture book and agree with him about the Barcelona chair—I don’t like it. But he’s wrong about this. Ugly direct furniture explains a lot. Pieces such as this one are as visceral (to me anyways) as any piece of good Greek, Roman sculpture. More importantly they become more beautiful over time—that is a sign, if not of love, then of growth. Empathy, maybe. Something. These things are so evident that they’re not worth explaining, and yet…. these Saporiti tables sell for anywhere between $700 and a few large, and come in round or square. Go for more if they’re old. Snake’s Lock of the Week; $50
Colombo Boby trolley, CT: Will this sell for under $200? Probably not since the past seven domestic ones on LiveAuctioneers sold for $260, $300, $275, $300, $550, $275, $550 respectively. (None in weird colors; $260 most recent; the white ones were the ones that went for the most.) They run $595 new now—no signature, app colors—and few old ones are being sold currently by IG sellers. (They tend to either sell them right away or price them so high to be mostly for display.) I do don’t think people should pay more than $175 for a Boby—life’s challenging with real rules. Even after fees this one’s priced fair for something very public and perfect. $130
Frandsen for ABO Randers set of magnetic lights, CT: New to me, designed by Benny Frandsen for ABO Randers… it may be the prototypical anonymous Danish 1970s lamp… Those lamps themselves (round, colorful, not too colorful) are good examples of Danish design from that era: less fussy and more fun than the teak furniture they pumped out around the same time, more held back than Italian. Lots of ABO Randers on Etsy; Frandsen keeps his ball lamps in production, many new ones with the neutered Phoebe Philo colorway. House is the same one selling most of the above Ct. auctions, plus these Brazilian-looking Swedish chairs I didn’t single out up top. Not much auction history. $50
Quick hits:
Two Thonet bentwood chairs, $150 NJ (good house)
Man, woman bookends, $200 NYC in-house shipping (man has bowl cut)
Berber rug (woven by chicks) $130, NYC (very good)
Kaj Franck pendant lamp (with froggy designs), $80, CT (weird)
Schulz ottoman, Chicago $100 (would be sick if it was a table)
Thanks for reading. See above.
Snake