Snake Auction Observer 057—perfect side chairs, dirt cheap Magistretti, Venturi, Haller, a Fendi bed, the best De Sede

A super deal on a chair, Italian storage, harsh daybeds and affordable knockoffs of Ponti and Cesca

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Housekeeping:

• I was profiled by

  Herb Sundays
  on Sunday, it was a distinct honor. Here’s the piece:

  Herb Sundays 93: Sami Reiss [+ on collecting] (Season 6 Premiere)

• I have some thoughts on Sam’s ideas on canon and taste (excellent) that I’m smoothing into an essay.

• About Ferrari: the less said, the better.

This week—a fine amount of deals, including an affordable odds-and-ends lot of USM Haller, two Magistretti chairs for 5x cheaper than I’ve ever seen them, cheap as sin Venturi, ideal Italian storage, a loud De Sede and a quiet De Sede, the best daybed ever made (real talk not just saying that), Fendi, Chuck Hollis Jones and a score of auctions close to New York… here is no greater value in design than in subscribing to Snake.

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Auctions:

De Sede DS-600 non stop, Pa., Tuesday: A piece of furniture that really brings to mind 2020: a through-the-wall piece of so-called ugly furniture that began the democratic design revolution (people who are not into furniture being into obscure items of furniture), it has since… been ignored slightly. Likely because it’s so prohibitive to find and hard to source. The DS-600, truly modular, rarely if ever seen in stores, rarely photographed in civilian homes, occupying a design aesthetic more uptown rich European than vigorous creative person… on the rich/vigorous continuum. But the couch itself remains pretty louche, and can be, if not subtle, at least not overpowering, if decorated against correctly. The thing this couch does correctly… is that every sofa (couch) is, really, the main point of focus in the living room, more than a coffee table, lamp or a television. This one begs that attention and exaggerates its proportions and distorts its construction, dispensing with the idea of three or four seats for an infinite number… 50 or 60 (or a couple dozen). It is really only in design (and film) that persnickety intellectual ideas like this can be executed in a fun way. This one runs 10 large (less than that before the pandemic) on auction, which means more in store; house is also selling a perfect Stelton tea set, an LV garment bag, Gucci tennis swag (the good stuff; the old stuff), a Bertoia Knoll that’s all cushion (not bad), this fuzzy Baughman chair (a step above bouclé, but still not the best) and this sharp folding cherry stool. $7,000

Kinsman for Bieffeplast chairs, Pa., Tues.: This chair and many others have the same color—several Joe Colombo pieces, Vico Magistretti’s Tondara and Selene tables (and chairs), Stilnovo’s Blitz lamp, and the Pratone chair that looks like toothbrush bristles or the thing that people with kids dry their pacifiers on... one wonders why? The particulars of the plastic manufacturing process in Europe in the 1970s, when many of these items go back to—though this chair is steel— is probably one reason. And that it’s a striking color—it’s not found in furniture history really but elsewhere. No real price history on this item as lots tend to stick overseas, which is odd as Bieffeplast got so many of Colombo’s Boby trolleys over