Pre-Sunset Snake Auction Observer 075: On boring art gallery chairs; a deep Christie's auction, Italy, bar stools

Componibili near NYC for dirt cheap, a Bellini competitor, the best couch I've seen since Presidents' Day

Snake Auction Observer… the clocks have sprung forward and it’s lighter out late in New York; auctions abound as well, including a canonical one that’s an actual auction, from Christie’s, as well as the usual spate of undervalued and variegated furniture that clot America’s population centers. I’ve been finding in the listings I comb through every morning for this newsletter a lot of quieter items, very nice and subtle ones, which will affect the character of the next few weeks of auctions in a nice way, I think.

Today on the block:

• Lots of Italian storage, in good colors and priced correctly

• A few sofas under the Snake Line ($2,000 for a sofa with a point of view is the Snake Line)

• Sculpture prototype by this guy who was homies with Barnett Newman

• A discussion regarding the ennui of over-similar art chairs

• Barstools—several. Nothing harder to find?

• Will they ever sell Vimto in Carroll Gardens?

• No Housekeeping but cautious optimism after Oliver Bearman’s fine debut for Ferrari. The question is this: Will they keep it together?

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Auctions Observed

Christie’s Modern Auction, NYC (register ASAP), Tues.: Lots of these items from this Christie’s Auction are up on LiveAuc; but I’m not platform-religious, I just write about L.A. because that’s where the best and most varied auctions land. It’s faster to look at what’s available from Christie’s on their site, honestly because the thumbnail pages offer more detail… no price mentions below since… well, it’s Christie’s. If you want to save money, shell out for Snake USA. That said, there deals, as there are everywhere—I should probably stop writing about the word deal because it is not novel there are deals…, but the value in this type of auction is… what’s listed, the work behind it, provenance, the photography, and so on. Consider this auction more of a chance to either find an investment or get some reps. Below are some highlights:

• FLW Tirranna chairs—from about 1955 or so, New Canaan Ct. house that just sold (the El n’ Gee was in New London), these are similar to my favorite item from last week’s newsletter (a Knoll Exeter chair); spindles are beautiful. One of the more minimal items by the master. Similar to the ski lodge shit from Perriand (though not the chairs) in many ways.

• Pierre Charleau tables (pictured)—it’s popping and advanced to move on from wood into other materials, like, I don’t know, wool or plastic. And not lately, either; it’s just one way design has evolved over the past century or two. I am all for it: variety is good and I don’t want to sit on a wood sofa. But wood is, frankly, the king of all materials. When it’s made right, at a high lux level like this thing, it becomes evident that… the most regal and beautiful material there is is also you understand why people pay out the nose for this stuff… it’s also eternal and will last 5,000 years. Or, it was until a couple of decades ago—check out this Tweet:

  

  Brutal. Buy old; I like that this wood doctor guy’s name is Forrester.

• French sideboard, no name—this thing’s great. And is probably the most affordable item on auction. Though one should not conflate the starting price with the end price. I love how burl’d out it is…. always nice to see something without a designer to shake us out of this name-based M.O.I….

• Michel Boyer andirons—from 1970 or so… one of my favorite things about design is that if you look long and hard enough (or maybe just widely enough) you find that just about any single item, any item of single use, has been made well and different and with a point of view by someone… likely decades ago. Like these for firewood, by Boyer, who’s a demigod. It’s a positive way to approach the world, and it’s also humbling and puts much of our creative endeavors in context.

• Cantilevered Aalto armchair—straight up beautiful, one of his best items, if not his best.

• No-name mid-century mirror with wood edges—imagine the Ultrafragola but muted or quiet—a description that doesn’t make sense but exists in the real world and is… not bad.

• Plus a Shiro Kuramata chair, Pesce Broadway chairs, Forrest Myers 125MPH chairs (pretty good), and way too much Platner

Agnoli for Grassi Sistina chairs, Pa, ends Wed.: Sistina chairs, by Tito Agnoli (Koriums; so much amazing work in Rattan) sort of like the Bellini leather 412 or the 413, any Cab or Scarpa Monks; nice leather simple chairs that work either for an office or degustation and which are fairly minimal from across the room but which are characteristic up close. Sistinas (one of my least fav. tunes on How the Gods Kill) never list on LA honestly; they are a quite rare chair, much downstream from the Cab. Really this is a genre of chair that the Bellini dominates. This chair, or not exactly this chair, was the subject of a breakdown about a trend here by gallerists in Miami (where Cynic is from) in Friend of Snake David’s recent For Scale newsletter:

GALLERISTS CAN'T PICK FURNITURE*

about gallery chairs and gallerists not having any imagination regarding furniture. There is a point here, well-stated. These things get boring as sin if they’re all that one sees. For all the breadth of design on display through auctions and in the real world, these are mostly archival and older models and vintage; actually buying items today for enterprise—for galleries, waiting rooms, some homes—in high volume requires meetingwhat’s out there expeditiously. You can’t spend months figuring out what’s the best chair to get for Detwiler & Partner’s booth in Miami; you need it this week. Probably why so many of these chairs in Basel are boring or a disgrace. The more charitable reading is these chairs are just so everywhere in Europe and have been for a long time and are basically blue jeans over there; art is a pretty European business. But the point’s true. They gotta switch up the chairs. If you’re a gallerist who’s read this far and you want to do that message me. I have ideas.

Ferrieri Componibili set, Va., ends Tues.: Good auction full of items very related to this one; the highlight here is this old school Padres color-blocked Componibili (with the correct undercarriage—free reminder that a different color at the bottom means it’s a retro) at a healthy and fair price. House also has the Anna Castelli Ferrieri domes I wrote about the other week, a lot (official wording) of mushroom lamps…. Componibilis have been running about $2-300 lately; $120

Many more (24) listings after the jump, including barstools, sculpture, another lot (official wording) of chairs, a few lamps by the best-ever designer to die on his birthday, some avant stools and the a minimal sofa from a brand that just never comes to market and which is minimal and perfect (and is being sold by one of the most dependable houses out there):