Snake Auction Observer 077: Good ideas are overrated; a dozen dirt cheap god-tier couches

Many deals, some all-timers on auction: The best (Italian) lamp of all time (hidden), hits from Europe, a panoply of tasteful teak, and a stool destined to go up in value

This week: pretty cold out again, I had to do my windsprints wearing multiple layers, and I thought I had put my parka away for good, but I haven’t, and cutting season is well underway, and despite this news has come up about variations to the potato diet, some including skittles, others including raw milk. There werre an ordinate amount of fine auctions listed this weekend and many more ending. This week’s suite of auctions is heavy on seating, sofas, specifically, with more important/canon pieces being served up in the steal range—under $1,000, even under $300—than I have seen in six months. Do this an your life will be better. There is also the standard assortment of deals. And there are a couple all-time (like awe-inspiring) pieces sitting at under 1 large. I would rate it a 7.7/10 auction week. As always, deeper thoughts are hidden among the descriptions. But first,

Housekeeping:

• Ferrari has done it again. I never had any doubt.

• Dune 2 not bad. I loved how staccato it was; it reminded me of something directed by D.W. Griffiths.

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Auctions Observed:

Knoll white leather bench, NJ: Tues… I remember going to Last Vegas for a bachelor event a decade ago, and at the time I chafed at the upscale, minimal furniture thing that outfitted the hotel that I stayed in and other ones: glass tables, cold steel, lots of metal, not much accenting. But when I came back home to my apartment (which wasn’t bad; I had an Eames Compact in original leatherette, and I think one Magistretti), I was hungry for the aesthetic, and felt comforted by it, since it showed that the person with that type of furniture had money. I think this may be a good half of why people veer to that type of design. Who can blame them? It’s nice to be paid. Anyways, there’s a similar aesthetic here that the pared down design look in Las Vegas seems to be chasing. Wouldn’t you? This is a good one; plain like lots of Knoll, runs like $700, house has McCobb, Nelson, Mogensen (dope), really just a lot of great anonymous wood. $500

Modernist light tulip table, California: Tues… Folks who have absolutely no interest or insight into design might not understand the artfulness of furniture, and this newsletter doesn’t really work until you read about three or four issues. People who don’t get design at first often see much of it as a sort of… series of gimmicks and levers.: here is a plastic table, here is a chair shaped like a box, here is another one that’s all wood, even the cushion, and here is a chair shaped like a zig zag which is somehow meant to serve a human body. And everything is expensive, much more than jeans. There is a lot of that here, sure. But most items don’t chase this sort of outright gimmickry; rather it’s just that the shapes and the materials we see in other homes, in the businesses we frequent and are forced to work in and under, online and in stores—in the world that we’re forced to interact with—have inferior shapes and geometries. Almost everything we see is nothing or sucks major ass. This is not really worth dwelling upon; maybe someone else can be low calorie about this line of thinking. The relevant point is that the good stuff, with a point of view, which some might call gimmicks, is all varying shades of pretty good… really good even… or great. They just look like gimmicks comparatively. But then, on the other end of the spectrum sits this table, which is a straight up gimmick that lights up, and which I would buy for myself and eat beef leg soup off of it (perfected the recipe last week) for six months to half a decade until I one day wake up kind of sick of it and upgrade/move left or right. And the point here is even more important. Sometimes the dumbest and most obvious ideas work in design, if executed correctly. Maybe even often. Not everything has to be subtle, or require a proof of concept that’s more than a sentence. “Table that lights up.” Why not? Is the other stuff that’s out right now better? We all know the answer. In many ways, justifying (and pitching) real art as an idea before it’s made is one of the great sins of this world. What if Scorsese wanted to make a movie about a gorilla? Isn’t that enough to cash him a check? Why map it out? So too purchasing: if it’s good, it’s good. Good ideas are only ideas. No real price, part of a Jasper auction that is half not worth a scroll. $1,200; expensive

Perriand Arcs stool, LA: Wed… Short item here to highlight perhaps the best stool ever made. It is running only at $800, and is being auctioned by Bonham’s, as real a house as it gets. These seem to not sell for a lot now. House has Prouvé, this fine Rodrigues couch, much more. Worth investing in Perriand, always, worth investing in here. $480

Cheap couch roundup:

The following eight (8) sofas ending this week are all excellent and undervalued.

• Rosselli for Saporiti confidential, $550, Ct.—nice and simple late 80s

  I’m giving away one here; the rest, and a number of all-time museum pieces, all selling for dirt cheap this week, get context and prices after the jump.