Observer 130: The next thing needs to be available retail

Whatever viral sofa that's next needs to have multiples on auction and be available new

Shebat Shalom, all furniture, all smalls, all design right now, let’s get into it.

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Retail corner—CHESS

Something’s been happening; I’ve been buying items off eBay from other countries and NOT getting hit with tariffs—wild. On another note, weather’s colder and so I’ve been staying in and GAMING—i.e. chess while I listen to powerlifting podcasts. The latest episode for my OTHER newsletter (about dark nutrition and dark health) is here:

Snake Super Health Podcast EPISODE 2: Lead in the protein powders (special emergency episode)

And I also launched a news index:

OPEN SECRETS 001: A NEW NEWS INDEX FOR HEALTH SICKOS (AND OBSERVERS)

Back to chess. There are an infinite number of boards and designs but the ones I keep coming back to are by Michael Graves—the post-modern architect… it’s like watching a leopard jog. They’re effortless but shocking.

I think pomo furniture is a big ask— a 1300s style sofa or a desk by Graves is too advanced a first step—but it’s correct with smalls… and even better, I think, with a chess set. It’s out half the time, and tucked away half the time. You get exposed slowly. By the time you master the Sicilian defense you’ll be able to understand the desk above or the hotels he designed for Disney. The models are often akin to the pic above, a few different options below:

• Travel chess set on Etsy; The Iz (from The Maxx)-shaped pawns (please concentrate on the pawns)

  • Similar, with even odder-shaped pieces

• Standalone set in showroom condition; leave this one out on the table (pictured)

• True travel set (cozy)

• A full set, new in box (box is blue)

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Obs 130

This travertine dining table by Mateo Grassi ($500) is a bit in line with the Graves work above—simple and hulking, a bit nasty… an advanced statement for a room. (At first blush it’s plain, but it isn’t—the insane Roman column legs… and glass—too much.)

It’s also impossible to find a dining table (under 7’) that has a point of view. What’s out there otherwise? This bananas adjustable one in mahogany that’s a bit dull and this Tobia Scarpa table in smoked glass and identical dimensions to the Grassi that ends in a couple weeks. The Grassi’s a little nastier. Advanced consumers may dig the Grassi Metron “desk”—a dining room table with gaudier legs and a cognac leather top. (It pairs well with this even gaudier Agnoli office chair.)

Auction ends Tuesday in Indiana, and is full of lower-tier mid-modern items (Dunbar, Heywood Wakefield, Drexel, Pace, Kent Coffey) which offer serious value if that aesthetic is yours, and among them, as always, a handful of mistaken listings and hidden under the radar gems too good to be true. All that’s below the jump.

Big font—what can be found below are as follows: 100 curated pieces of design, comprising items across all spectra of home goods and smalls and this week someephemera/fashion, specifically: sofas, chairs, lamps, credenzas, storage, full sets, collectibles, and jewelry that is all worth buying or knowing about for stylistic or canon reasons, the best desk of the 1930s (actually), with eras beginning in 1200? 1875? and running through about 1998.

What’s exactly on the block this week? The Italian sofa that’s available in both vintage and retail and which will probably be the next viral sofa; a Deco desk that is more or less a sculpture; a number of anonymous no-designer 1970s sofas, and a set of second-tier Italian plastic chairs that gallerists and artists lust after; a burl take on the Componibili (necessary for our age); a number of powerful glass works (vases, conference tables, kitchen tables, chairs), Sottsass’ best table, the centuries-old inspiration for Robert Venturi’s Chippendale chair, a futuristic collapsible bookshelf from Italy as well as a container’s worth of deals, investment pieces and mistake auctions (mislistings; auctioneer error), rare no-bid items, one-in-a-thousand odd design lots and the like.

Also, one last thing: there is NOT ONE affiliate link below this line—just curated and selected good stuff I own/bought/believe in/think is strong enough to have recommended with no reservation for your home. If you’re an auction veteran, you know the value and breadth of design you can get here. If you’re new, get ready to be shocked. A paid subscription accesses these picks—and allows this newsletter to continue. Join hundreds of satisfied subscribers who’ve kitted out their places with Snake.