Observer 112: The return of the pill lamp to the marketplace

Obs 112 an observation of furniture in the context of Ferrari's offseason

Welcome back to Snake, lots of auctions this week, premium vibes, all ending end of week too… let’s get to it.

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Last week’s values:

$750. Usually

Murano floor lamp/sculpture for Thiery Mugler $650, Toio floor lamp (Castiglioni) $850, Venturi Chippendale chair $750, Breuer Cesca chairs 2 for $175, De Sede daybed $1,300.

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OBS 112

The Pilola “pill lamp” by Casati and Ponzio (ends Thursday AM): is one of the best pieces of design of the past 60 years… this one’s from ‘68 and has to be the best piece of campy design from the Italian modern era… it’s not an arresting lamp in person, but it’s very immediate. There are five (the house doesn’t have the blue one) and they are sort of the Italian answer to Warhol’s brillo box, and, Cooper Hewitt says, Oldenburg’s Floor sculptures. Probably true, because of either the literality here, or the camp factor. Or maybe because people in America love taking pills, these lamps get remembered… as far as reality goes, they rarely sell or go on auction—on LA they sold for as much as like $8,000 in 2016 (the before times, truly)… none have auctioned domestically since… 2015. And there are none at the moment on 1stDibs. (That site though does have other pieces from Casati and Ponzio, notably their Grifoncino chairs and Pelota lamp, the latter of which is under $1,000 and ships from the States.) Watch this go for a ton of money. These lamps are part of a very rich auction (full info below the jump) and so will probably fetch double the current price, min. $1,000. Or they might not go for any money at all.

Below the jump—

an Ettore Sottsass tea set,

Vico plates,

several Finnish dining solutions (like 10 Saarinen pieces, much variety),

some era-specific 60s and 70s furniture with no designer,

and a stateside auction with music video-level furniture that ships things themselves and so is therefore dirt cheap