Hello. Snake, est. 2014, covers vintage and design. FREE NEWSLETTER TODAY:
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And now, furniture and clothes.
Camo ERDL
Seeing everyone wear ERDL camo lately in the zone. People with kids, working people, skinny neck people, coremen. Everyone in New York wearing camo. It’s nice to see. Feels like a rejoinder to the swath, trend, uptick of obscure camo hunting out—think Americana Pipedream style, profiled by the Times a couple years ago—which is helpful and clear-headed. While the rare stuff looks great and is cloying in photos and is occasionally very pleasant/a trip to see—need US Marines experimental/failed urban camo or I’ll die— the very regular, completely available American ERDL (stands for U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Laboratory) camo, four color, regular leaf, is great. Ideal, even. The ultimate “general release” piece of clothing. Up there with Levi’s 501s or Wayne Gretzky’s Jofa helmet. Complicated camo, I don’t know. It’s very labor intensive.
Look at the different swaths of all ERDL camo collected in my eBay storefront below, check it out, the URL/@ is SNAKE.
As is evidenced in the store:
And through personal experience, pairs are different. I’ve been buying up a ton the past couple years, older ERDL camo—Vietnam-era colors bleed into another a bit more—and more recent ones, with my sweet spot in the 1980s: they’re rip-stop, a lighter cotton, and break better. Still, among these, few are out of the ordinary or difficult or rare or wild… it’s manacled, a bit. Just normal, loud clothes, but not that loud, at normal rates.
It might though be the fit. For all the pants-hunting out there you can’t beat a correctly-sized pair of ERDLs. You just can’t. And the fit is canon really. . Standard US ERDLs come in diff sizes—XS, S, M, L, XL, XXL, short, reg, long, X-long—with 4” increments throughout. You can usually fit into a few different sizes, length and width, giving them an almost tailoring-level of specificity. I heard this explained quicky by the man KS on a podcast. A pair of army pants in your size fits “correct,” a pair smaller than this fits tight, a bigger pair fits baggy. That’s it. That’s how you tell if pants are baggy or not. It’s narratively satisfying, it’s correct. I don’t like to get too into the psychology of dressing (I think you just need to be as muscular as possible) but this is a nice opt-out. How does one distinguish themselves in standard issue? Probably some internal je ne sais quoi. And since everyone rocks ERDL, and always has, and does so everywhere, it’s a poorly kept secret. It’s just on the streets slightly more these days.
Collected a number of my favs in my eBay storefront for people looking. The URL is: https://www.ebay.com/inf/snake/collections/95984156680
Obs 144: Bertoia did WHAT?
Used to be a decade ago you had the Nelson bench and everything else, with everything else not really sketched out in detail. It was the default bench. The reliance on that thing was characteristic of our very narrow, at the time, popular design discussion: we’d talk about mid-century modern furniture, maybe something Danish, maybe the Memphis drinking bird. The most alluded-to (and the most seen) tokens were the pieces whose stories could be explained in a couple sentences or which had seen before. Masterful pieces, definitely, just not a lot of them.
History is more complicated; the Nelson bench was not alone, nor was the market even back then bereft of option. Maybe it was the first? George (Jorge) Nelson designed the bench in 1947 with ruts/slits so guests would keep moving… and a lot of that design came afterwards. But it’s less about the form than the look. If you looked you’d find many. I’m partial to Milo Baughman’s chrome bench, which came later, but one I’m growing to love and which feels as superior to me is Harry Bertoia’s metal and slat bench, from 1952. It’s longer, a bit taller and has the wiry legs, the metal on an angle he’s known for. It’s a LOUDER piece than the Nelson, but it’s also invisible. Prices are steady on these, always in the $400 to $1,400 range. It’s a great item. You see it less than Bertoia’s outdoor furniture—and it’s more satisfying, though we do have a couple chairs below in the newsletter that are colored well and so are worth choosing. The same decisions—space, small frame, almost nothing there—are here with both. Also have to mention Bertoia’s ambient records very briefly. Many record collectors today don’t know he did furniture and many furniture heads don’t know he made music. We definitely know way more about tasteful things now compared to then but it’s still not all the way democratized.
Gonna make the whole newsletter free today. 100 curated links to sofas, chairs, lamps, jewelry, lighting, side tables, kitchen items. All of which are worth buying or knowing about. No affiliate links.
What specifically? A strong LA-based auction with a number of archival pieces (from the ‘50s, all the way through the ‘90s), the best W***ll C*stle collection I’ve ever seen, a Florida auction that has a number of strong investment-grade chairs and desks—and a typically strong offering from Public House that has a few dozen very democratic and advanced design options and of which I highlight my favorites.
NO affiliate links beyond here—just good stuff I own, have bought, believe in or think is strong enough stylistically to recommend without reservation. A paid subscription accesses it all—and allows this newsletter to continue.
Best from the auction above:
Pierre Chapo s34 oak chair, rarely on auction in America for normal people.
This quiet and strong Widdicomb bench, built a bit like a surfboard
Strong Euro auction, and an obscure Magistretti?
Another masterpiece of an auction out of (checks map) Torino, in particular Incanto house, which has a Magistretti sofa/settee I’ve not seen and whose particulars date it to 1968. Called the 928; no other info on it. It’s one of his better pieces—if only because it’s new to me—though there’s a non-zero chance it’s just by some other Italian guy. Or some other European: It honestly looks super close to a Matti Halme or a De Sede. What can you do. Digging around I found this Babalao sofa he did in like the 60s. Wow. Like his Sinbad (Sindbad) but wilder. Tremendous. Also on the block:
This Introini chair with the horse-stance legs that I’ve always liked; has a Verner Panton quality to it.
These Bellini sofas, which are more twisted than any of his other sofas. Completely rectilinear.
A perfect, puffy, minimal Dominioni sofa—and another set of curvier if as minimal chairs from a different house in Genoa.
Common Westport W, vol. 392910
Another very strong and very accessible auction from Westport, the house in Connecticut. Just about every week there’s something normal there to buy. Note this set of Piretti Plia for Castelli folders/stackers (stacking chairs) in strong condition—nice clarity to the plastic here, good shape throughout, one with some stress—$50. Probably go for a couple hundred, maybe a bit more. Saw the van near my apartment last week. The secret is growing. Also on the block:
These two Curtis Jere brass pedestals—truly like 4’ high gaudy gold ashtrays—and this set of Shelby Williams aluminum arm chairs (very 1961 office; something Jack Lemmon would sit and complain on).
This narrow teak bookshelf may be the prize of the auction—it has all the benefits of a good Danish piece. Simple, perfect wood, no lines… calming. They’re also selling some leg press machines but I’ll spare you guys. Overall a thin auction; only a half dozen buy orders here.
Battle of the high back chairs
The high back chair is the best piece of furniture, there is the Rennie Mackintosh, re-released by Cassina in the 80s, and from there a spate of re-interest in that shape. It’s why you see many like… mid-80sish-colored office chairs and early 90s stuff around. That muted tonality and the colors (sand, grey, etc) are incongruent with the design but that’s just how things were headed. I’ll say that I think the best item (aside from the stackers) from the Westport auction is this pair of muted, CK style high backs (inset) that fulfill this requirement: a sort of out-of-the-ordinary imposing and light set of odd office chairs. Where the accountant sits. There’s a big Bonhams auction below that I’m getting to and from them there’s this set of Thevenin high back chairs. Those look a century old but they’re actually kind of from the 1970s. All that wrought iron.
I love Wendell Castle man
I write about Castle regularly since he occupies a unique place in design: he has the playfulness of a Euro/Italo designer but the grand ambition of a no-nonsense American guy after bucks. And yet the Rochester-based designer’s items never really hit market like that. At best one sees on auction a Molar chair and maybe the mirror with the melted wood kind of look around it. Maybe a couple more. This set of pieces from Cottone house (in Western NY) has a cavalcade of hits—like eight items. Which is a cornucopia.
Among them: the Environment above—a sort of active coffee table that represents the best of his high-level Alice in Wonderland/late-career work. There’s the Clover table, which is pure Castle plastic, and which one rarely/never sees, which is a shame. It’s as palatable and immediate as his Molar and Castle chair. Nothing like it. The house has a matching Molar settee that syncs up to the table (same color) and a Castle chair and Clover table together, as a set. Couple other freakier pieces too, and a number of truly tremendous midcentury pieces, incl.:
This Stokke coffee table by Quistgaard…. which appears to have rocker legs? But no. Just like, candlepin legs. Never seen either before. He’s best known for his work with Dansk; check out his chess sets.
These Pollock for Knoll loungers—more like Safari chairs. They answer the question of… whether there’s a genius mid-century Safari chair. It didn’t end in the ‘30s.
Otherwise lots of silver, clocks, etc. Among the curious are this Rio Grande blanket (black and white; immediate, unbelievable), this Puebla bowl (you have to look at it to understand), this Anasazi closed bowl (Olla) that is… insane. Polychromatic.
Perriand in your face
More and more Perriand hitting the blocks more and more often: great for people who like the good shit. Of the couple dozen auctions ending over the next few days, the best and most fascinating auction are these 12 Perriand enamel sconces… jet black, simple, minimal, strong. Scroll through the rest to see what you like. Those sconces are coming out of Bonham’s, in L.A., and end Thursday. They also have this Perriand/Corbu wardrobe which is the prize of this newsletter—the rarest, biggest and hardest-ass piece of furniture on the block. Never sold stateside. It’s commanding, 5’ tall, with a set of bright primary-color drawers inside. There’s a similar drawer strategy in Loewy’s DF-2000; he almost definitely took it from them.
Need this architecturally significant desk that belonged to Stacy Peralta or I’ll die
This Rudolph Schindler desk doesn’t have a leg touching the ground on one sie. It’s either to be attached to the wall or was an issue in the digitization of the photo—there’s just one pic of the desk here. What’s fascinating about the piece is it comes from the Bertha Skolnik house in LA, a magnificent Los Feliz house, and one of the architect’s last commissions. What’s more even fascinating to me is in the auction body it says the house was owned by Stacy Peralta. Of Powell Peralta? Wild. He had the redesign architect, David Serrurier (who did many mid-mod restorations) move the desk to the guest bedroom on a the remodel in 1986. The house is here. Man, another insane data point about Peralta. Wonder which architect designed George Powell’s house.
Dope Euro auction
Lots and lots to like in this infinitely deep Euro auction. To me the prize is this Italian table, as in just an Italian table. The auction notes it as Manufattura Italiano. It’s a no-name extendable sort of dining table with Corbu-ish legs. It looks like the Laccio but taller. And the legs point in, like your hands should on an explosive push-up. 1970s Italy, in which 40-year old designs, originally proferred for minimalism and restraint, get replayed in a maximalist context… the best.
Very accessible lighting options
Some newsletter favorites on the block at good deals this week: This Gismondi Sintesi sconce in Van Nuys is $380, which is a fair price when taken in consideration of previous sales, and this Sonneman desk lamp—not sure the name, but it’s his best design, with a curved plastic base like Colombo’s Oluce—is selling in St. Louis for just $50. I picked one up on Offer Up in 2020 a couple weeks before the pandemic for like a song.
Public Sale hits
Public Sale in Hudson N.Y., friend of the newsletter, has a number of very strong pieces this week in their “Methods of Modern” auction. The best, to me, are these three Magistretti Selene chairs (hard backed, and in colorful plastic, including their best green) for just $50. They also have this tall Kartell shelf by Anna Castelli, she of the Componibili, for $100, and this fascinating/gaudy outdoors Cassina coffee table that is news to me. They did outdoor stuff? As well as some classic, no-risk pieces, like this pair of Saarinen exec chairs for nothing. All of that ends Saturday.
Quick Hits
All furniture, no English
Extra tall (grotesque) Bellini 410 cab barstools, LA, $1,200, Thurs.
Knoll MR armchairs with the fat leather tubes, $1,000, Fl., Sat.
Crazy-ass Bertoia chairs (yellow and orange), Chicago, Sat., $150
The most batshit Roche Bobois piece I’ve even seen, $200, LA, Sunday
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Snake
I interviewed Stacy Peralta back in the day when Dogtown & Z Boys first came out....he was truly incredible, and I had like 8 mini discs of our recorded conversation....mini discs!! I'm going deep on the Public Sale auction....the future version of me definitely won those green chairs
Many of the Quick Hits misdirecting (to here: https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/227129508_vincenzo-maiolino-for-roche-bobois-ovni-cocktail-table-los-angeles-ca)