Snake Auction Observer: good furniture, undervalued, or eternal, all selected off LiveAuctioneers.com. This week—Italian design, a medical side table, Colombo smoke glasses. Immediate auctions at the top, and quick hits at the bottom, but first:
Housekeeping:
Went to Gaetano Pesce’s studio and wrote about him and his work for GQ’s Global Creativity issue, out on newsstands now—Yohji Yamamoto is on the cover. GP’s studio is in the Brooklyn Navy Yard and is massive. It is… unlike anywhere I’ve been before. Masterworks everywhere, all touchable, takeout containers on $20,000 tables. Here’s the link to the piece…
Short story about phone cameras, (based on their cameras) and cameras for the Wall St. Journal. One of my better lede sentences…
Ferrari has to get it together.
Auctions:
Rudolph Schindler cantilevered end table, Van Nuys: Stark and arresting Rudolph Schindler piece commissioned by a doctor; Schindler wrote fan letters to Frank Lloyd Wright, designed buildings in LA and furniture not far off from the above. House also selling a high back chair, a desk, an armchair. Auction is worth looking over in full, many hits—Venturi Queen Anne, several Chandigarh pieces, incl. a desk I’ve never seen, a gold foot by Carl Aubock, a prototype Marc LePage lamp. This end table is from 1945 and is blunt. The chair from the collection I like most looks even more modern, like a Ro/Lu, or even older, like a Rietveld. These haven’t sold before… something about the light wood makes it a little ugly, but after a while it stops looking that way. $5,000
Frattini folding screen, Van Nuys: Thatched rubber and rosewood folding screen that Gianfranco Frattini (Italy) produced for Amadeo Cassina, who, if you Google, is revealed to be a water polo player (like me). But it’s the company. Strange item; doesn’t fit in close with Frattini’s other work, which is smoother—stackable end tables, written about in many newsletters, the Sesann sofa. With the dark wood and rubber, though, it’s not too far off from this dark coffee table. Still, almost mid-modern. Old style—most Italian work isn’t old style. Same one sold for $1,600 from Wright, and another passed. Is it worth it? Might be; not many folding screen options out there—Eames, coromandel, that’s it. $1,000
Ponti for Fontana Arte table, Van Nuys: Perfect plain and industrious (not industrial) and a little tacky-rich glass table with prominent metal rods by Gio Ponti (Domus, Pirelli tower) for Fontana Arte. FA has a long and expansive history that is hard to get to the bottom of; Ponti is an elder statesman. Many repro model similar tables; the world is laden down with boring minimal glass desks. It may be my own bias regarding Ponti—proximity? confirmation? shock and awe?—in that I think this table’s a cut better than the others that look like it. It’s tall, and not as wide as most glass desks, which are so long. Also, the glass legs, which are more rare. That’s a furniture thing, to me: if a piece strikes you the very first second you look at it, then you like it, and should buy it. You can read up and research and get educated and a dozen other things, and explain it, but if that work and education destroys your ability to get these gut feelings from pieces like this then it’s an L. A waste just to know things but not to do anything about it. One sold last year for $70; before that another sold for 4000€. This one, deftly, is $2,000
Piretti for Castelli umbrella stand, Mass.: Are the above designers, and this one, the Bills Pullman and Paxton of Italian design? Maybe. You never see them together. It’s the G first names and the twin last names. But they have so little in common. Giancarlo Piretti is younger than either of the two fools above and is known best by his folding chairs. Deeper into plastics than either. This item, the Pluvium, looks like this closed:
Very substantive. Turns the whole charade of umbrella stands on its ears. These sell even in Europe in the high hundreds; on auction, few lis, with in 2014 one hving sold for $125. Seller has a number of sterling silver fruit bowls, mini Eames and Arne Jacobsen chairs (perfect to no-comply over with your fingerboard), art, Picasso ceramics… $150
Colombo Smoke glasses, Fl: These are, if you think about it, the best glasses ever designed that weren’t released by 7-11; they’re meant to be held by the thumb as the index and middle finger dawdle a cig:
Or, for me, a carrot. These were made originally as part of a collection (shot, champagne; short, tall), and seem to be available in odds and ends all over the place, with real ones from Arnolfo di Cambio, who released them originally, and some unsanctioned re-releases that look off. They auction a couple times a year, and have been getting pricier, even when sold in big lots. Seller has sold these before, about $5 or 600 for under a dozen; this one is for six. More of a curved bottom than the ones that usually list. In the auction: scarves, crystal, Murano glass, alabaster apples, many brutal paintings, duck decoys, deadstock motorcycle boots, and one of those chairs shaped like a hand, like they had at Search and Destroy, but not the real one. $300
Helena Simkhovitch bust, NC: I’ve always wondered why bust-making has fallen off; yes, the best ones are of old Roman rulers, or talented musicians like Beethoven, and lose much if updated to, let’s say, people who know who Seinfeld is. But they have to be able to work in a modern context? Why wouldn’t they? It’s a face in space… Simkhovitch was a New Yorker and has a bust in the Whitney’s collection, of Isabel Bolton, the author. Other busts she’s made: a jockey, a woman’s body, a guy who looks like Ty Cobb. This one works best because unlike the jockey he’s hatless, and his hair’s very short. He’s not hiding anything. Busts can’t be a free-for-all; if they are to be relevant to our age, they must have some discipline. Because they are the best art form, and focus so much on the face, they should only immortalize individuals with military/fade/Bea Travail haircuts, or who have long curly hair, or women. Just not people who have fades with long curls on the top. No real price; house also has Danish furniture, a wild Tim. O. Walker chair (linked below), and some 1950s Lawrence Peabody chairs that look like Eames rope chairs but are brighter and better. $50
Intrioni P60 chair and Ottoman for Saporiti, PA: Rare burgundy lounger by Vittorio Introini, affiliated with Saporiti, designed the P35 chair and lots of great modular storage systems. This is selling out of a catch-all auction from Delco (Stickley, Chinese Canton, jugs, old umbrellas) and may be the only thing in the lot that is good. Chair sits between Italian design and Gordon Gekko apartment. Looks made in 1990, but was designed sometime in the ‘60s. This version with the leather has to be newer; the legs on Introini’s chairs have this slight jutting out shape here, and on the P35. These sell cheap; one went for $100 only a couple years ago, the rest are about at what the price is now, which is $325
Capponi Gilda for Artemide lamp, PA: Perfect loud Italian lamp—the shape, the logo—that I’ve not seen auctioned before. Silvia Capponi was one of the designers along with In Suk Il. The Gilda as I’ve seen it came with a case:
(unreal) and is a modular lamp, with the top (a plastic ball) that can be switched out for other colors. I declare being able to be switched out with different color balls. One sold a few years ago for $50 (from Wright), another lot of 30 sold for under $1,000; irrespective of the end price this is the Snake Lock of the Week. House has rugs, turquoise jewelry, an Eames Group chair, clocks and pipes. Never seen an Artemide lamp that just says Artemide on it; $50
Quick Hits:
Venturi Queen Anne chair Van Nuys $1,600 (perfect obv.; great color)
Tim O. Walker Campeche Memphis-style chair, NC, $50 (Campeche is the shape here; it’s upholstered and colored like Memphis)
Ray Loewy DF2000 cabinet, grey, $300, NC (perfect furniture)
Hercules Office Solutions Burdick-style exec. desk, $50, NC (unbelievable)
Armless Hankerchief chairs (paig) Vignelli for Knoll, $100, AZ
Knoll International chairs in Steelers colors, $200, Cali (good for alcoholics)
Thanks for reading.
Snake