Late Nite Snake Auction Observer 070: The only bad Sottsass; rainbow van der Rohe; a crazy 1940s bed, the best sofa of 2022, thoughts on luxury

Plus: cheap stools, Knoll. Eames screens, lifting advice

Happy late January everyone—thin week of auctions, as houses line up bigger things for February; all of the best stuff this week seems to be overseas. Still, lots of very good stuff and a few supreme deals. I’d say this is a 7/10 auction week…. on the block before Sunday: a few cheap/restrained/ideal sofas, a French credenza that bends styles, a good Sottsass piece and one I don’t like but which many others do, lots of Knoll, Lenor Larsen that’s out of character and a meditation on screens, luxury and style-swapping. But first:

Housekeeping:

• I’m back in New York this week if anyone wants to work out/train/make $/and so on.

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Auctions Observed:

Eames screen, Thurs, NC: I write about every six months about how good, and unique… and how much of a failure this Eames screen is. It’s such a revolutionary piece… few items like this really, by anybody, any style of design, any anything. And while I’m sure there are some apocryphal screens, unknown online, and held to the chest of like, advanced designers and people working in that field, as far as public works there’s not much. Why aren’t there more of these? I mean—there are plenty of Eames screens; even now, xx have sold on LA in the past 12 months (averaging xx price), and many are available at retail. It might be a structural/homebuying thing: less people living in lofts, more people living in smaller spaces. You really need a Sunset Boulevard (1950) situation at home to justify one of these on a practical level… reminds me of the old "loft discussed at loft party" headline from The Onion. More than that… it really is the one piece of mid-modern furniture that is deeply practical, and which is really all form. I bet there just aren’t (better) Italian and French versions because their apartments there are smaller. Which also explains why the other screens like it—coromandel, mostly—are so fancy. Sami Reiss & Partner Limited Powder-Coated Screen when? House has a nice Soft Pad, this great Gaskins table and decent chairs, a Baughman couch for a steal, paintings, patio furniture, recliners, audio. $275

Porcelain tea set, Fl, ends Wed.: Thin auction week, frankly; very thin, so thin that we have to include tea sets (actually was a heavy tea set presence in the 1.9 era newsletter, during the pandemic, when I intel’d estate sales for six months)… not that I think this is an item of lesser quality. This said, there certainly are a lot of good items on the block (in QH, auction above esp.), and so for the purposes of this newsletter I’d like to ask readers’ opinion and ask whether folks prefer re-discussions, or short lists of items on auction currently which I’ve written about before. I don’t like repeating myself, but this is also a service. What do you think?

Herend is Hungarian***, these are porcelain, and in the pattern they made for Queen Victoria when she bought a tea set from them in 1851… I’m not sure what is driving me to regal tea sets; I’ve been drinking lots of Earl Grey in LA this month since watching the Homeland: Iraq Year Zero documentary (crushing; best non-Wiseman doc since 1990 prob), but that’s best sipped out of foggy, third-world Olf Fashioned cups, or those made by Duralex... It may be that a tea set’s … severe purpose and distinctive maximalism create something very pleasing and pacifying. It only does one thing… and it’s gilded beyond purpose. I don’t get into discussions of luxury and trends in this newsletter but it sure is a true sign of LUXURY when you have a special tea set that someone spent decades, years slaving over. On a dialectical level, to have people over at your house for tea you need:

• friends

• space

• money

• time

For many that is going away. I think anyone with a brain telegraphs all this naturally and so tea sets such as this become royal and illicit and so on when you see them. (Also same ruffles and angles as the Venturi/Brown Chippendale chair. But I may be overextending my own personal subjective experience to others. I’ve done that before. But I have faith everyone understands. Actually, I know everyone does. This set runs xx; seller has them, several cheap B&B Italia sofas (and settees; both plain white leather), a knockoff Paulin chair, glassware, a Samurai sword (that is foggy), this Rosen desk (great) and decent, rare office chairs. $225

Ten BRNO chairs, vdR, Fl., Wed.: Rare color on these; very rare… this chair (1930; MR50) by Mies van der Rohe (mentioned in like 7 newsletters in a row honestly) and Lily Reich (made lots of Mies’ best stuff with him; ignored by many) is minimal and harsh and has been discussed at length… but it’s the color that’s the play here, which makes these very different. Says I at least. Something about the primary shades here gives off a tacky 1980s office idea… like the Toronto hidden camera footage documentary Dead Ringers (1988)… or a cursed garage/doctor’s. The nice thing about this set of chairs is… pivotal, tweaked and canonical items like these that… are everpresent… are, in a real home, just as good as something