Snake Auction Observer 053—Aulenti Chiclet Colombo—plus Classifieds: USM Haller, Wenger
Coffee table sofa lamps chairs duck decoy set of plates and more
Snake is a reader-supported newsletter covering furniture with purpose, undervalued, or eternal. Many auctions this week: good stuff, cheap stuff, expensive stuff, rare stuff. For a representative sample, catch up on the most recent designer rundown and the latest Q&A interviews.
Healthy auction week—a few finishing now, lots more coming Sept. and October—it’s a bumper crop—my watch list runneth over... This week has well-priced debatable lamps, a couple of regal 80s seats, several undervalued couches and an important link between the 1970s and ‘80s. Quick Hits—just furn, no story—below, and Classifieds (from readers) at the bottom. Scroll all the way down for a nice USM Haller and a Wenger sofa local to BK at competitive prices. But first:
Housekeeping:
I’ll say it: great race for Ferrari. And I’ll ask what we’re all thinking: Will they keep it together?
Auctions:
Aulenti for Knoll coffee table, CT.: Aulenti 2,5000 lb. coffee table—I think this is a major piece—is it? I think it is. Of everything made in the 1970s (this one was released in ‘72, and designed in ‘65), Aulenti’s table is in loudest dialog with the 1980s. Any furniture…. Of course design looks to the future—these are artists, Italians—but there is something special about this one. It at once is almost nothing… masculine in terms of its imposition. (Maybe that’s just how I see it.) Powerful, almost a bit declassé. Aulenti is a giant I keep covering and discussing—check out her Minibox lamp—this one comes in many iterations, marble, almost all monochrome, though this jumps out most:
Two colors just like spaghetti. Prices for the Jumbo vary, run between $8 and $10,000—occasionally a table might dip as low as 6. The rest of the auction, from a seller I otherwise rely on, and which is out of Connecticut, is weak. Grandma furniture…. fancy crap—and among the garbage three sets of birding binoculars: the Leica Trinovid 8x32, the Nikon EDG 8x32 and Zeiss’ Victory 8x54, special, capable and, respectably, the standard.
Various kitchen items, Montreal: I wrote in an earlier newsletter but not at length that kitchen items (plates, melon ballers…) and household ceramics (actual fruit bowls) are the future of interior design, or, more concretely, a cloying alleyway for someone to run down, what with it being so dark compared to furniture. Furniture itself is quite dark:
And people know even less about hbd kitchen. (It’s a big industry; nothing looks good.) I have a few theories for why it is like this: Cultural workers don’t valorize eating at home; they live in apartments with small kitchens; there is scant information online regarding left-of-center kitchen implements designed with intention; the Venn diagram of Casalinghi potato peelers and seed oil avoidance, as it stands, is this author. Still, they’re out there. For me some of these deliver the jolt I felt seeing Cassina/Knoll/Colombo-type furniture a decade ago when I began to get earnestly into it:
Poole Pottery set of 87 dishes, $100CAD (pictured): Full set of dishes (though not a setting; no gravy boat) from Poole, a British company from the 1800s, best known for vases, plates. Canada is British; that’s how it operates, that’s its ruling class. It’s very likely there are skids more of these all over the country; even some in Quebec. No price history; but the value here… even at let’s say up to $4 per dish… for something very simply this pleasant and quiet is real.
Tapio Wirkkala Rosenthal Studio coffee cup set (12), $40CAD: Always exciting to find a loud but not altogether outré coffee service. These bring to mind the Vignelli for Heller cups or Toshiyuki Kita’s work—in that all three are pure ‘60s/’70s modernist enterprise, sleeked-down, simple post-1920s shapes… Some adornment here though with the vertical lines. Wirkkala, a Finnish designer, is major; doubtless many readers have seen his frosted cups (perfect), or the legions of ones that rip them off. His cutlery sets sell for money though his services, like these, hover in the low hundreds.
Tias Eckhoff ‘Fuga’ cutlery, $300: Confusing descriptor here, I think the listing is for 80 or so pieces, but it only shows one setting. Maybe message the house. So much good cutlery out there, so few cutlery scholars… another alleyway of intellectual poverty… is any other newsletter at the edge like me? Maybe… maybe not… either way forks and spoons are the last thing you round up when sorting your house—you need good furniture, lighting, storage first. Then you justify a cutlery expenditure. Eckhoff, a Norwegian industrial designer, has a fine back catalog:
Above is the Korulen. Fuga, listed, is from 1958; sets have run about $1,000 on auction; a fair price compared to building it out piece by piece with new retail licenses of reproductions.
Yalos Casa signed ‘Charger’ murano glass plate, $40 (pictured at top): YC is a murano glass producer—MG is from Italy and is endless—this specific plate design is the “Charger;” it is very strong… who knew a plate could be strong? The Charger, which maxes out at $100 on auction, has no history in the above color scheme, which dovetails with the G.I.S.M. MAN CD reissue on Beast Arts:
What does that tell you? It tells me something. Something about an eternal aesthetic and ultimate truth.
Eclipse lamp, Hudson: Is this a Joe Colombo? Did Joe Colombo design this lamp? Seller says so, and a few other Google results confirm that, as do some completed auctions, but the prices don’t. We know this is the Eclipse lamp by Lightolier, an American company, but I have no proofs of this in any of my books or docs about Colombo or Italian design. In the vague, hazy world of industrial design this is not a condemnation… Maybe it is a JC… maybe it isn’t… maybe who knows. Still, Lightolier (from Fall River, Mass.) made good lamps—this one, the Lytegem—so does it matter much who designed it? If you overpay, yes. If you don’t, no… if you listen to fools… these don’t sell for much. Seller has competing lamps from the era, this fine Thayer Coggin credenza (cheap), a big Utensilo, some apt red barstools, Eames, books, Aalto and Rey stools, much more. At $350 expensive.
Chiclet chair, Hudson: From the same very good auction above; the seller has split up these (Wilkes for Herman Miller) chairs into 4 lots of just one chair each. Service or greed? Hard to say. When this happens the vote gets split, and these things should go cheaper than their $900 or so they have been on auction lately, which itself is a vague figure that is built off mostly settées and the occasional sofa being sold and then amortized per cushion. The chairs were re-released recently (and capably) by HM and are available everywhere, new, for about $1,700; this auction, and the other three, sit around $550.
Michel Boyer for Rouve lamps, Fl.: Boyer was one of the great 1970s French designers who played with steel and fuzzier materials, much of his work either square, open or full of space. Before the light work he designed interiors and worked for Balmain (back when that used to mean something). His whole back catalog is worth sitting down with and contemplating; these lamps, for Rouve (his brand) might be his deftest work. Very quiet, minimal, simple… none have sold on auction before, but that’s nobody’s fault. This lot is the prize of a fine auction that’s heavy with Omersa (the most important diffusion brand of all time), a Picasso plate, soft Goyard luggage (really good; DM me if you want to go splitsies), these great Ingo Maurer lamps (damn) and a sound sculpture from Harry Bertoia’s son Val. $500
Quick Hits:
Eight tall Bertoia bar stools, not Hamas green, Hudson NY $125 (MCM deal)
Nicoletti Salotti loveseat, black, $225, Ga. (potential deal here; classic piece)
van der Rohe chaise lounge for Knoll, tan, $400, CT (fair color and price)
Tre Erre for Roche Bobois loud print club chairs, $200, CT (boring loud, if that makes sense; nonetheless good)
Minimal white sofa, Cassina Piero Lissoni/70s Polar Bear style, $25, Hudson (great get-me-over sofa until you find your dream piece)
Six upholstered Breuer Cesca Knoll chairs, $550, Hudson (strawberry cushions, very fun; pictured)
Corbusier LC10 side table for Cassina, $100, NYC baby (never seen this on lot before. Terrific)
Classifieds:
First seller:
USM Haller media center/credenza, pickup in Prospect Heights, 50”wide x 14 deep by 27 high:
$3,000 new (custom build), seller is asking $2,200 (pitbull not included)
Rey chairs by Hay, six: Hermes green—a color that is not avail. domestically anymore—retail for $450 new, asking 330 range
Second seller:
Ge236 3-seater Sofa by Hans J. Wegner for Getama— used for a few scenes in Hollywood movie “Beau is Afraid,” seller is in Brooklyn.
This couch is recent and runs $10,000 new, and about $3,500 on 1stDibs and on Chairish; seller is asking $2,800
DM me I’ll put y’all in touch. Feel free to send in classifieds if you have furniture and you’d like to freak it. Many have sold; many buy.
Rest in peace Sakevi Yokoyama. Thanks for reading.
Snake
That house that has the Nicoletti Salotti will white glove deliver in the greater ATL metro for a very low fee. I scored a huge Pearsall boomerang and two other great pieces earlier this year and the guys brought it all out themselves. Awesome house to work with.