Snake Auction Observer 022
Afghan war rugs, lots of Persians, Knoll, Saporiti, Sonneman, plus my recent writing
Snake Auction Observer: good furniture, undervalued, or eternal, all selected off LiveAuctioneers.com, with an emphasis this week on rugs and auctions near and around NYC.
Housekeeping:
A few stories from me I’ve published in the past month or so that have not been collected here.
I wrote about Paulin Paulin Paulin, the newish family firm that unearths Pierre Paulin’s most outré/radical furniture designs, for GQ’s September 2022 issue. The Frank Ocean sofa and so on. The story in the link above, you just have to scroll down. The Mitterand chair blew me away—everything from that era is special. There are also a lot of great Paulin industrial design items (this iron) that I couldn’t fit into the piece for narrative reasons.
I interviewed Dr. Marion Nestle, the founding dean of NYU’s food studies program, also for GQ. We talked about health policy, interpreting nutritional studies, and her memoir, Slow Cooked, for GQ. She knows her shit, her book is an education; really, they all are. if you are interested in what you put into your in any capacity, I think you should read Nestle’s work. Start with my interview, it’s pretty good.
I profiled Terry Allen for Creem Magazine’s inaugural print issue, it’s in the issue, but the full piece isn’t online, you have to subscribe. I’m proud of it, it’s my first profile story and I think it came out well. If you’re an assigning editor and wish to read it, message me.
I did some virtual shopping for the Wall St. Journal (my first piece there, exciting), in which I applied the Snake design decision-making rigor to the consumer goods sector. Which red light therapy and coffee machines, and synthesizers are for you? Read to find out.
I interviewed Bergen & Doyun, who do Lilypad Magazine, about their process and their magazine for the good people at SSENSE. The new Lilypad issue came out this week, and is all over New York, except not at Iconic Magazines on Mulberry, from which Jay snagged the last issue after getting dinner. They gave him a free issue of Grailed Magazine for his trouble.
I wrote a story about watching a prolific Seattle-based black metal band’s informal Brooklyn residency for my friend Layla’s fanzine
Les 150 Passions Meurtrières122 Hours of Fear. The piece is not online, but there should be a PDF in a while. I’ll drop it in here. 122HOF has a healthy and thorough cast of contributors, all writing about their love, involvement, experiences with live music, mostly underground. One of the contributors was in The Monorchid.There is also my book, which is available for sale through Shining Life Press.
Auctions:
Matteo Gras chairs, pair, Europe, IHS: Another auction with incomplete information that allows for a deal here, also a new piece of furniture to me. Matteo Grassi, not Gras, is the manufacturer (old Italian firm), designer I’m pretty sure is Tito Agnoli, the Italian giant (P3 chair, 711 sofa), model is the Korium… the auction house (in Berlin) has some decent stuff (fake Kartell/Colombo table on casters, some good Knoll, decent yellow cabinet), but I’d say this is the best item… I believe this one is from the 70s, it’s super rich and pulled back, a perfect example of an otherwise modern/simple late ‘60s piece of furniture done in louder ‘70s material. These have an adjacent aesthetic to the Massoni Poltrona chairs from last week that I loved and which went for $4,400. Most Koriums I’ve found don’t sell for much—$500 or so—but most are overseas. So too this pair, but at €100, with in-house shipping (DM them, prob ~500ish for the pair) it could be a deal.
Afghan war rug, Maryland: I figured I wrote about Afghan war rugs in the first iteration of the newsletter, but I can’t find it searching the collected letters in my book (on sale now) and so it’s likely they were just linked somewhere...
In any event, this war rug’s the immediate standout from a Maryland auction full of good Persians (scroll below for my favorites). Some info on war rugs: they’re new, produced from the ‘80s on, created as professional class souvenirs, i.e., stuff NGO people, government people, journalists who began showing up in Afghanistan when things got hairy took home. There’s some debate now as to whether the rugs will still be produced now that the US has left. (They haven’t stopped.) A confusing vintage item in the sense that war rugs become more sophisticated as time goes on, and get better. Early ones are primitive (which is great), later ones have more vibrant designs, colors… these things get updated more often than Jordans. This one’s really good, and in the sweet spot, a little early—a Kalashnikov drawing, the year 1988—and sort of simple lines, but still lots of details. You used to be able to buy war rugs for $100 easy; a few years ago, people caught on and their prices went up. Still, someone on eBay always has one—usually legit. Counterintuitively, prices dropped like crazy the past two years on LA. Rugs which commanded $700 five years ago mostly pass or run $100 lately. Because this one is only going for $100 right now, I’m confident awarding it the inaugural Steve Coll Honorary Lock of the Administration.
Persian/adjacent rugs, same house: I know less about rugs than furniture—not many people can reliably be trusted on this topic, frankly—but there are a few basic shopping rules that have helped me and will help anyone. For Persians (a massive category that really can’t be broken down top-down like this) look for a couple things. One is uneven looming on the underside, which means the rug’s probably not machined. And then look for bright actual real people colors, or, if it’s super worn, faded normal colors, i.e., not the rough fake robot colors from a machine. Machined rugs are often dull even when they’re new. Handmade rugs still have vitality when they’ve been worn through. It’s really something that you figure out by feel. So it’s tricky with auctions. I can’t be confident here whether there are deals, steals, or otherwise, but the likely handmade rugs I’ve picked out here seem to all have intrinsic worth that sidesteps their collectability/value. A few that jump out:
4.5x7’ Bijar, $300
Kazak runner ~4x11’, $100 | bigger Caucasian runner (😏) $600
Mashad, Persia, huge $400
Uzbek textile (modern), 4x7’ (the best of the bunch IMO) $150
Hamadan rug 4x7’ $300 (beautiful, pictured)
Caveat emptor… good luck.
Zanotta tulip table, Bellport NY: There’s no information anywhere out there about Zanotta making a tulip table, and there are no markings on this thing, either, so take the auction descriptor with a grain of salt. But this one’s in Bellport, so not far from the city, and only $50, and in good shape, and therefore worth a flyer.
Kazuhide Takahama Knoll chairs, NYNY: Another Snake Auction Observer, another relatively unheralded genius Japanese furniture designer who hit his peak during the Cold War. Takahama has a bunch of hits: the Kumo Tavolo lamp which is Sottsass-y, the Kazuki chair, the Kaidan cabinet (really, really good), a Cassina folding table). But these Suzanne chairs might be the one? They’re not far off from his Marcel chairs, only their ass part is curved, which is better. Very French, very simple, very commanding. Info says they’re from 1965, very in line with what Demisch Danant has going on. Actual beautiful investment piece, and local. $1,100
Sonneman Cathedral lamp, NYNY: Wild to see a Sonneman lamp that isn’t completely direct or simple or brutal. The Cathedral is still in production, but the new ones look way too bourgeois and fine because they’re brass. Vintage is the only path here. Buy a Sonneman lamp now for no money, even if you’re not in love with it. Then when you get your dream lamp, get that. $175
Saporiti chrome table, NYNY: Has to be a newer piece, what with the angle and materials (chrome and burlwood); super powerful. The bottom might even be better than the top! They should make the whole Saporiti table out of the black box. About 3’ in diameter and a foot high, so not quite a dining table, but too good to pass up. $100
Quick hits:
Saarinen Knoll green marble Tulip table, $700 NYC
Bernhardt sectional, massive, $450 NYC
Memphis Maria Sanchez ashtray ('85) $150 NYC
Thanks for reading.
Snake
Other work: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-JLRt0Ec6gZBm50hATYCYmLctnF9GhVijoEbam50JSw/edit?overridemobile=true
How to bid: Sign up for Liveauctioneers with a credit card ahead of the auction, register for that auction on the item page — button/prompt’s on every auction pg — pre-bid. Registrations take a day or so.
Bidding is live in a pop-up window, most prices jump during auctions. Both app and website have good UX. Sometimes items go for a lot, sometimes they don’t. Sometimes lots of watchers means something; sometimes not. Not much different from eBay. Because of buyers’ premiums (~25%), and freight, expect to pay over these prices. When you win you have ~a week to get the item. Houses may recommend third party shippers; some ship themselves. If so, In-House Shipping is noted on the page. Picking it up yourself is cheapest.
As with anything, insane steals are rare, nice deals are occasional, and fair prices are frequent. Respond if more questions.