Snake Auction Observer 040: EURO AUCTION EDITION
Colombo, Archizoom, Ferrieri... all being listed overseas; domestic items as well
Snake Auction Observer: good furniture, undervalued, or eternal, all selected off LiveAuctioneers.com. This week—Colombo, Archizoom, a modular bookshelf, all selling on the continent, per reader request. Domestic items in Quick Hits. Earliest ending auctions are at the top, as always… but first:
Housekeeping:
Ferrari… what to say? They’ve got to get it together.
After much research, I believe the best pho place in Paris is PANDA, in Belleville. They also have the best banh mi. Another good one is by the opera (the main opera — not the other opera).
Anna Karenina is definitely the best book ever written with a passing reference to parallel bars. But what is the second?
Auctions:
Slightly different capture this week as a reader in Europe asked for a newsletter to cover auctions based on the continent. Below I cover a few, ending soonish, and a couple which have already ended. I will note there is generally a better selection of design items on auction in Europe at all times. There are just more items by better designers. Colombo or, say, Kita, have odds and ends selling in Europe and not just their big hits. I rarely include these items in standard Observer letters because I want readers—I feel like most are North American?—to actually buy stuff… or open their minds to buying stuff. It’s not harder with overseas shipping, but it is quite more expensive. Let me know if you guys dig this crap. All letters remain downstream of my belief that furniture sold on auction is the single best design value that exists right now: wide selection, high status, grounded in reality, and a pure, un-mediated choice… a very high DPD (design per dollar)… AMERICAN readers will be thrilled to see some very good domestic items highlighted in Quick Hits.
Martinelli Luce Red Cobra lamp, Sicily: One of those perfect pieces of space age-adjacent Italian design… some popular lamp styles (mushroom esp.) seem to drift off this, or share spatial profiles. This was designed by Elio Martinelli for his company Martinelli Luce, in ‘68. Lamp is also available in many other colors—silver best— and looks space age—no serifs, still round—and close to the Olivier Mourgue Djinn chair in the spork scene in Kubrick’s 2001 (same shape, colors). Both are simple and not far off from mid-modern. Other Martinelli lamps sway even closer to the mushroom: the Foglia, which is a warmer version of this, the Elmetto… man… lots of hits. This one is not so much organic as it is contained. Part of a good auction from Sicily—region of Italy—full of nice metal accessories (lamps esp., an Ingo Maurer and three Edera Radicis for Sagim), sconces, plates and a glass bottle painted like a clown. Lately these have run around $1,000 domestically (less a couple years ago), and half-ish that in Europe. €250
Colombo for Zanotta game table, Sicily: Perhaps Colombo’s best-conceived piece? A regulation-sized card table with coasters that slide out for drinks. Produced for Zanotta, they say in the ‘60s, and there’s a long one too. This one’s poker sized, and executed perfectly with casino gaming table green. I was watching an old British documentary the other night and in it the host singled out billiard tables for displaying ostentatious wealth. Was he right? Maybe. I’m not sure anyone here (Europe) has a pool table in their apartment. Also haven’t seen—or heard—one eighteen wheeler here since I’ve arrived. How do they transport stuff here? Anyways, only a couple have sold domestically in the past couple of years, all in the three figures; enough have listed in Europe to fill a steamship, with some even ending as low as €200. €600
Gallotti & Radice coffee table, Milan: Had not seen this before, a quiet table which sticks out from an auction heavy on vases, promotional ashtrays (masterpiece), mirrors, Scarpa lamps, uncut Verner Panton fabric… This one is by by the companyG&R (which was formed by Pierangelo Gallotti and Luigi Radice in 1955) and which did its first joined glass table in 1969, but about whom it is tricky to find designer credits. Slightly different from many of their other all/99% glass pieces as this one’s top is (I think) steel. There is always a wealth of great Gallotti & Radice items on LA, along with some stinkers. Most list on the continent. The metal here is the whole point: it’s neutral, but loud… some of these tables were designed 50 years ago, some 20, some 30, they all look more or less the same, and out of time. This piece, unlike most glass work, can just fit into an apartment; nice, as many others in that style require massive commitment. €100
De Pas, D’Urbino & Lomazzi Flap chair, Milan: Great get-me-over auction—middling, deprecated, unique but not loud, half charming, nice price—that Europe is full of. This one looks made on the cheap—low to the ground, simple-ish construction—but because this was decades ago (design dates either ‘73 or ‘75, for BBB Italia… which is not B&B Italia) it’s luxury by today’s standards. Or at least quite well made. Jonathan De Pas, Donato D'Urbino and Paolo Lomazzi’s body of work may outspank that from the three guys I mentioned last week who did the Cavour chair. They did sofas—the Straccio, the Piumino, the Milano, whatever this thing is called (gutter)—the baseball glove chair (called the Joe), the blow-up plastic chair (called the Blow) that’s in the MoMA collection, and others… including the Lampiatta lamp mentioned below in Quick Hits. Two Flaps have sold, for €700 and €1200; neither domestic. House, the same as above, also has some great Magistretti lamps. €200
Mogens Koch modular bookshelf, France: What an item—an early ‘50s full wood (pine) modular bookshelf designed for both records, books and laserdiscs (thoughtful). Produced by Mogens Koch, Danish architect, for Rud. Rasmussen, Danish furniture company. Part of a wild auction whose items running into the mid five figures—a Guy de Rougemont cloud table, some Ron Arad seating—and other items that are more affordable and about as good (Prouve daybed, Sarpaniva lamp, Pierre Chapo table) and a cabinet shaped like a seated man. Modular furniture tends to be more modern than tall pine connected boxes; we think of Dieter Rams’s epoxy-coated steel Vitsoe shelves, Kay Leroy Ruggles’s Umbo line made of ABS plastic, and simpler items from Kartell. But this architect did it… not many other items on LA by him aside from some cabinets I don’t like. These shelves sell for real money both at home and abroad—and why shouldn’t they? €4,000
Completeds:
Archizoom Superonda sofa, Florence: Archizoom may be the most palatable theoretical furniture design group: their pieces ascend into sculpture as they skirt the avant garde.. the Superonda, designed in 1967 for Poltronova (furn. company from Firenze) is closer to sculpture. Early couch without a frame—Poltro’s website says it’s the first—and less a couch than an idea. You can sit on it, read a book on it… but two people can’t stretch out and watch a film on this sofa. So, what is it? A radical item… litigating the idea of what a couch actually is. <standup comedy voice>couches are farces baby…. Superondas run €2 to 3,000; one hasn’t sold domestically since 2017, and when it did it went for $900. This sold for €2,600
Colombo modular Tubo for Poltrona chair, Florence: One of Colombo’s best chairs and by this metric one of the best chairs… from 1969-70 according to MoMA, which has this stowed away somewhere. Titled modular in the auction, but is it? You never see it split apart. Also rarely seen stateside—like, a couple sold here tops; these run a 3-4 large, though were cheap seven, eight years ago—as is the case with many second-tier items from popular foreign designers. Or do we just think they’re second tier because we never see them? One wonders. This clearly isn’t second tier, it’s just an avant masterpiece item—the shapes aren’t harsh, it’s just made with untraditional materials—that has no domestic price history or footprint. Sold for €5,000
Ferrieri for Kartell lounge chair, Dublin: Irish furniture auctions be like… what if you went into 7 Eccles St. and everything inside was 1970s Kartell? Would be pcool… this one is one of their weirder more Deco arrangements, designed by AC Ferrieri, best known for her eternal Componibili storage system. This one’s the 4814… some overlap between pieces here, both similar shapes and sharp edges. Rare very dark and black and not fun and foreboding ACF piece, to say nothing of Kartell… Everything we see from a designer is, by definition, a sliver of what they’re able to do. Not everything looks alike. It’s fun to narrativize furniture but it can also create too rigid a thought process around what a designer makes. Barely a price history here; one sold for 2 large stateside a few years ago, and many have wilder colors. No one with health care and who went to college for cheap or nothing bought this; it was listed for €500 but didn’t sell.
Quick Hits:
Livio Seguso ‘70s milky glass polar bear Murano vase, $320+200 s/h — v. wild
De Pas &co Stilnovo Lampiatta lamp, $200, NY, IHS — weak colors, but deco
Two Colombo Boby carts (white), $75, Florida (potential for a #severedeal)
Stelton Cylindra kitchen set (ice bucket, pitcher, ashtrays—silver), $25, Fl.
Important Wharton Esherick cabinet, $18,000, NJ (this thing kicks ass)
RIP Frank Kozik. Thanks for reading.
Snake
Reading this slightly late so no bid were placed but THANK YOU! Beautiful pieces. Also, Belleville pho recs from my chef friends (and please look past the name) : ‘Asian Soup’