Snake Auction Observer 051
Snake Auction Observer 051
The best daybed on sale in some time; Knoll, Aalto, Breuer, Magistretti, Italian trio
Snake is a weekly newsletter focusing on furniture—sometimes through auctions: good ones, deals, value and other. This week: great week for auctions, lots of special items I never on the block. European daybeds, wall-mounted office and storage systems, very cheap seating and a very blue vase. Immediate auctions at the top, and Quick Hits at the bottom, but first….
Housekeeping:
I have a reported story on GQ today about sunscreen and the people who go without it. You can read it here. https://www.gq.com/story/sunscreen-truthers
I should mention (I talk about this in person) I’ve stopped using sunscreen (dice roll; we’ll see what happens) and this is the first year I haven’t burned in a while. Now, is that related? Maybe. Maybe not. I believe the reasons are, in no order, because I’ve titrated exposure pretty religiously—I didn’t hit the beach for more than an hour until July, and get sun early and late—because I’m off sunglasses (as a constant wear) and because I’ve been eating a fairly seed oil free diet with lots of saturated fats and carotenoids for a while now. Also genetics, less susceptible to melanoma than some Irish guy; I haven’t been to the beach all day two days in a row, either. None of this is airtight; it shows how many input factors go into one health decision, which is very simple at times but also not. I would say my reasoning is we all make decisions every day; and this is what I’m rolling with, this summer any way. I think it’s probably worth being skeptical of sunscreen companies as, I don’t know, any other publicly available good.
The Los Angeles launch for my book Sheer Drift (on Shining Life Press) will be at Varsity Los Angeles at 7 PM this Saturday, Aug. 12. Here’s the flier:
I’ll also be at the LAABF at the Geffen Contemporary with the gang from Shining Life.
No races for a few weeks. Plenty of time for Ferrari to build off their podium finish and get it together.
Auctions:
Knoll hanging cabinet, Pa.: Odd Knoll piece here—have not seen it before—though a bit of a staple: a wall-mounted credenza/cabinet done deep in early 1960s style. The contrast here and loud grains are designed to go best with Alexander Calder tapestries or Louise Nevelson prints, i.e., right in the wheelhouse of mid-modern. But the style is also coarse enough to sit the piece against poppier design work that came later. Italian stuff, clashing items. It would work with a nice Shaker chair, too. These have been demanding $1,000 lately, but may trend a bit down. Not a standout item, but a memorable one from the first day of a two-day auction, ending on Tuesday, and which includes some sleeper hits—Kristiansen nesting tables, Mangiarotti vase in Yves Klein blue, a couple of tacky but chrome bachelors’ chests and a very cheap, very big Lomazzi sofa—and convenient curbside delivery in New York, for the price of a pair of sneakers. $475
Alvar Aalto blond wood slat bench, Pa.: The second day of this auction… Aalto’s oddly-angled predecessor to the Nelson bench… the two benches speak to each other because they both have pronounced slats. These, for Artek (number 153A) were designed in 1945, two years before Nelson’s. Back then they didn’t even have high-speed ocean liners and so the Serbian Dutch Finnish designer may have overnighted the idea stateside. Strange bench—quite high—and the blond wood, which fascinates me, at times looks cheap, or gaudy, and often simply… looks wrong. But through Aalto (the stools, again; the father of Finnish swag) we can learn something. It’s workmanlike. Some similar (but not identical) Aalto birch items have been selling near a thou lately, but in this grain they tend to run half that. The house’s selection on the second day is more upmarket. It includes an Eames lounger that’s almost a deal, a 3.5’ pagan chrome obelisk and the two items below, which I want to run down quickly because of their novelty. $175
George Nelson for HM wall-mounted desk system, Pa.: Very odd and cool item, or at least it looks strange deconstructed… in reality, it is a quite elegant working solution:
to the problem of having to work at a desk. Elegant despite the worker being forced to stare at the wall. Very degrading. Nonetheless, the auctioning item is a bit different than the stock pic here (shades), while still retaining a nice amount of homey Cold War harshness and minimalism. This exact one works because of how it uses space: the other Nelson wall desks made for Omni look cheaper, the bigger ones are much less engaging. It’s a shame Nelson furniture is so out of vogue and runs so cheap now; I guess everybody has better stuff than this and can’t be bothered to buy it. That must be it. No real price here; no comps have sold in a long time. $350
Naoto Fukasawa B&B Italia connecting benches, Pa.: The best items in the whole world of furniture, or at least my favorite, because they are the most optimistic, are daybeds. They are positive because they are very limited in use. You can’t really watch television (or films (or Ferrari placement racess)) on them; you can’t work on them, you can’t eat off of them. You can only use daybeds to catnap on or to read. Only built for idealistic pursuits. Also, very artistic dimensions: no height, all width. They look like something. This one, by Naoto Fukusawa, a Japanese designer who’s new to me (but who has made the Shelf X, for B&B Italia—I’m buying two, one for my Chain of Strength records and another for my Deutsche Grammophon collection), fits into the grand daybed tradition. And what is that tradition exactly? The continent. Europe, baby. This is the least American auction I have ever highlighted. The patterns, the dimensions… America has a lot of things (college football, $2 chocolate bars, a middling selection of small pick-up trucks, a new sandwich store allegedly influenced by City Sub), but it doesn’t have daybeds. These are Grecian, Milanese. Has #neverbeenonliveauctioneersbefore. $200
de Pas, d’Urbino and Lomazzi Abracadabra wall unit, NJ: Probs. my favorite shelving design trio (they did the Brick shelves; also did the baseball glove couch and the Piumino sofa), this one, the Abracadabra, is new to me. Who’s seen it? It’s a modular shelving unit produced in 1985 for Zero Disegno (classic company; lots of Pesce in their archives) that takes the best aesthetics from stout ‘50s Danish modular wall solutions, Tomado shelving (perhaps the best small-footprint shelves ever made) and Vitsoe. The Vitsoe influence is very rough, and only in terms of dimensions; also the bottom third. These aren’t disparate connections… these are connections! A late design date for this type of item; most of the great modular shelving was made in the 1950s and ‘60s, back when men were still men Ferrari still had it together. Retro feel, though—items designed in the 1980s with a backwards tint tend to be just outright postmodern—negative, too funny. I don’t think this is that, but it’s a little kitschy. Still, these guys made the Brick. Has #neverbeenonliveauctioneersbefore; house has several items not-exactly Carl Aubock items (hangers, magazine racks), a Kwok Hoi Chan lamp that’s a take on Frattini’s Abele and a Cova D10 chair (Italy, 1932) that capably alters Breuer’s B5 diner. $250
Yrjo Kukkapuro Experiment lounge chair, $50: This Wright auction ships from wherever—super deal—and has lots of hits, and they’ve been reliably the only house from which to buy this chair from: one’s sold for $3 large this year, and half that in 2022. I wrote about Kukkapuro in the most recent Lore:
And have an extra addendum from a Finland-based source:
I’m not sure if this is apocryphal—but his OG idea for Karuselli chair came from falling backward (drunk) into a snowbank. The shape his body made in the snow was the jumping off point.
Now we know!
Breuer, B-35 loungers, Oakland: Strange thing about Breuer, he’s more than a giant or an institution, but a river—through which just about every design decision now is made. Designers either face or ignore him… he’s in the air. But the variance in visibility between his items is wide. Who’s seen these? I have, maybe a handful of times. About once for every 50,000 Wassilys, and 11,000 Cescas. These were originally made for Thonet in ‘28; later models for Tecta. Perfect, perfect geometry; can’t be redoubled, which is why the new new new retros don’t work. No real date on these; wicker ones go for the most; no stickers or ID. Maybe 1960s. Seller (lots of MCM) wants $1,000.
Quick Hits:
Kristiansen nesting cube tables, Pa., $150 (look even better nested)
Fake Baughman bench (small) (but good), Pa., $175 (baby bench, tufted seat)
Offredi for Saporiti chairs (four side, two arm) Pa., $125 (mature/90s Wall St.)
Knoll 7’ long plain black sofa, Pa. $200 (steal of the week)
Magistretti Veranda sofa, $3000, in-house shipping (will always rep this baby)
Simple/officey Florence Knoll walnut/steel sideboard, Pa., $300 (deal)
Italian settee, patterned, 1980, $150 (pictured)
Thanks for reading.
Snake