Snake Auction Observer 078: The T-shirt theory of buying furniture; five prime-tier cheap designer couches, Italy and France
The theory: We must all get loose and BMF. Plus deals and auction hits: The best mirror ever made (that is a loud mirror), all-time Italian, a 1920s chair that spanks
This week: nice and warm, spring is more or less here, I think I am cooked on my winter parka, it is probably too warm out for the rest of the year to wear it again, I have been wearing a Psycho Active sweatshirt to and from the gym (and on sprints) pretty much every day since February, and it is holding up well, and I finally got a sandwich at the gentrified grocery store across from my raw m. pickup in the [REDACTED] neighborhood of Brooklyn, but they were very light on the roast beef. More germanely, the best auctionable stuff comes in this week quite slim, meager even, until about Thursday, but it is laden and generous at the end. Really good stuff, including what is, to me, the best mirror there is (smokes the Sottsass; going for $1,000 atm), a handful, like last week, of very undervalued and well-designed (and important) sofas/couches (all under $800, most local to New York), a rumination on the difference between prime-tier and God tier furniture, and a case made for treating designer furniture like a T-shirt. of the week and is all laden towards the end. As well:” But first,
Housekeeping:
Nice Breakfast Club interview with Eric Adams, The interviewer is so adversarial and detailed. Rare to see something like this. We elected a vegan police officer as mayor of New York…
Yuki Tsunoda is racing well this year and the dream scenario (and the logical one) is that he joins Ferrari in some capacity in 2026. Will they get it together and face their destiny?
I can confirm there is a lemur on the loose in Clinton Hill. If anyone sees him, let me know. I don’t know the owners or have any advice but am just personally interested in this story.
Auctions:
Pearsall sofa, Ill.: Tues… A moment of silence for simple navy sofas with muted dimensions, of which this Adrian Pearsall is one of the most definitive; I discussed this aesthetic in Dwell the other week with Dan Nosowitz; one of the less pored over points of the (great, thorough) story being, among other things, that D2C brands making inferior products have settled on MCM because, from a production standpoint, it’s been dominant aesthetic in American design.
This has been unpacked to some extent in earlier newsletters here: because MCM was (overall) an American movement, and lots of stuff was made here, both by bigger producers and knockoff/inspired-by makers, there is plenty of it around. Pearsall himself grew up near Ithaca… the overwhelming availability of this style is also what is behind the rise (over the past few years) of foreign-looking furniture… French and Italian items from the same era (or after) that have different points of view on materials and angles (not minimal, or not spare), and which therefore look more novel… but they are also more novel because not as many pieces came over here…
Pearsall was the king of the flat couch, simple itchy sofas that give some credence to Danish items from the 1950s… this couch itself is a useful donkey (to use the Lawrence Wright turn of phrase) in explaining the difference between the disappointing/deceitful sofas described in Dan’s story and what the companies are actually trying to appeal to… or, perhaps, what many Americans still very much want. This is a pro-wild-ass furniture newsletter. But not everyone wants a crazy couch that beats ass. So this one stands out as humble, quiet, perhaps not very exciting.. but also ideal. In many ways perfectly and simply designed. (To be sure, it’s from the ‘70s, which shows up in the metal chrome legs, also debatably the use of rosewood)… in some ways it’s a great and alternate approach to old meets new. The overly charitable reading is crediting these D2C companies for designing their stuff after something good. But looking at something like this, one gasps at the gulf between two things that are the same in name only. The hope is that these dogshit made of particle board sofas don’t get Americans soured on simple, mid-modern design. But if they do, more for the rest of us. This lot has been listing forever; a pair of chairs runs maybe $600; a sofa, $1,000; part of a very slim Jasper auction. Priced high at $2,400, but not bad compared to what’s new.
Mod oversized lightbulb, Ill: Tues… I’ve never seen a gated lightbulb before, or, that is to say, one with some backing; this item, with a cage or otherwise, is one of my favorite pieces, for sentimental reasons (I got a good one early on in my furniture amassment) and also because it is one of those really split-second design decisions (“let’s make a lightbulb, but big”) that is executed correctly and runs as a nice counter to our aesthetic age which is so reliant on getting it right in a meeting. Sometimes you just have to let the lightbulb guy cook. One of these sold for under $500 a couple years ago, again this is a Jasper item getting relisted. The gating (I like calling it gating) makes it a bit more industrial… I do like the idea of writing up a lightbulb every single time it comes up in auction, but I likely will not. $650
Perriand/Mounique Jumo lamp, Denmark/in-house shipping: Wed… some issues with the listing here, there is a lot of debate on these lamps, whether Charlotte Perriand herself designed them; the lore on these (and a couple others) by Jumo is that they were done by André Mounique for Jumo, the French company, and selected by Perriand…. which works as this is a quite conservative, and nicely dull item, more plain than her other output. It’s very conservative and dialed in, which are design decisions that work for lots of people (esp. CP) but which I don’t think translate best to lighting. Why? Because a lamp’s function is so direct (turn on and emit light) that its design can be anything. Or even should. None of any of CP’s (alleged…whatever) Jumo lamps have sold in the past few years, not even the 600, which is probably the best one. $600, part of a meager Jasper auction.
I’ve founda number of all-time pieces this week, including the statement mirror to end all statement mirrors, dirt cheap Italian plastic pop design, local to New York, a handful of undervalued couches (all local, many canon), a set of chairs, rare Hermès; an avant sofa that keeps getting more affordable… context and prices after the jump.
Cardin mirror for Acerbis, Montreal: Thursday… Possibly the single best mirror of all time, Pierre Cardin (!) for Acerbis, model name Narciso. There is a good post with a number of these down in the archives of Cat Snodgrass’ personal IG. I actually won one of these from Heritage Auctions in 2021 for maybe $600. On paper it was my most successful auction moment as the mirrors have tended to run at double this rate (sometimes more) since the start of pandemic. Bonus to that is H.A. ship items themselves, effectively for an honorarium—cheap—but what ended up happening was for the auction house “breaking” the item in the warehouse the day before my payment was due. I feel like a newspaper reporter on the state department beat tweeting at Delta about a delayed flight writing about this—but I’m not complaining. I just want this grave injustice down on record. There are several historical agents who subscribe to the paid tier; and now they know. More acutely, there just are not any mirrors or even other pieces of design like this. They pop up a couple times a year. It is a coup that it is listing in Canada; I’m afraid there is not much else that stands out from this auction. Severe deal at $1,000 CAD, which is well under $800 in real money.
Castle molar settee, MD: Ends Saturday…. Castle has a couple of chairs, the Molar and the other one, that are both hard plastic; each come in colors and monochromatic shades. There is also the Molar settee… it looks like teeth. It is the best one, as in… it is one of those furniture items that are so good that nearly all the smaller decisions around it don’t matter. What I mean is: White is less exciting than red or orange, and can sometimes get scuffed. Plastic is also uncomfortable to sit on if you are wearing jeans. The Molar to me is the best argument for this new thing I’m going to introduce here… a new way of thinking…
The T-shirt theory of buying furniture
The premise of this theory is that we can learn a lot from the casualness that most of us have when buying interchangeable items of clothing. What’s the Cam’ron line, I buy bricks like sneakers? He’s right. We should buy everything like that. Money permitting, one should just buy whatever it is if it’s more or less good enough to the buyer, if it’s more or less good, objectively, and if it satisfies a handful of requirements. The interaction of all these things works the best with a T-shirt. Subjectively, if a T-shirt is within one’s aesthetic, and fits, then there is no reason not to buy it. Objectively, if it’s competently made (not on Comfort Colors, let’s say) and does not smell bad or something, and is priced within the realm of other T-shirts (more on this below), then it’s worth buying. The premise here is that you can never have enough good T-shirts. T-shirts are all, or were for a while, underpriced. They are $15 or $20, or less, and get worn every day. (Expensive T-shirts sometimes are also worth it. They are investments, but they also get worn more than, say, cardigans.) These are all things we, as people who have been buying T-shirts without thinking for years know instinctively; it’s not worth spreadsheeting out or thinking about or running a P&L statement on an X+1 T-shirt; it’s in fact a very simple thing.
So too for couches, for any piece of furniture. If we have a few hundred (or maybe thousand) bucks laying around—or if we work every day, like, say, most people do, and have money coming to us—then we can roll the dice on a new sofa. Not think it over, not spreadsheet it, not compare it to some invisible critical voice or something. And that is not to say that we don’t think about T-shirts deeply and hard… it’s just that we think about them when we see them, and another T-shirt’s just not a big deal. So too… if you focus too much on one piece of furniture you will lose some of your juju. More good T-shirts will always come around. More good furniture, also. The world is overloaded with both. No need to get antsy, just have money laying around (buying on credit is for pagans) and make a split-second decision. Anyways, a perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect sofa; the best of Castle’s massive body of work (it’s the least sarcastic and evil), used to be dirt cheap a decade ago, went up a lot before the pandy, back down to about $1,100-$1,600 now. Great auction, detailed below; steal at $500
Yrjo K lounge chair, Md.: Saturday… Yrjo K. will never be a major designer in America I think; first because not enough Finnish stuff makes it over here, and so we don’t see it, and second because his aesthetic, which is a combination of trad. French and Italian design influences, is too subtle to be immediately understood, or at least shared effusively. It’s not LOUD enough to get under people’s skin right away. This has no bearing on the quality of the item itself…
Really supple and simple leather, rich; real 1980s quality
Angles (nice and warm and inviting, the body is almost dowdy in how boxy it is, but still with round edges)
Legs (very poppy, almost Lord of the Rings)
I wrote in an earlier draft here that you can first principle a lot of design from this chair. I’m not sure about that. I just think it’s an excellent amalgam of a few different things happening here… more really is less. It isn’t canon but it’s big; design level it is massive. Seller has like five of these:
Plus: Saarinen table with four chairs, bunch of rugs
Cheap couch round-up:
A good, steady week for undervalued and well-designed sofas/couches. A handful this week, most of which are local to New York.
Knoll contempo, $300, Md—nice, soft leather plug and play sofa, part of auction above, a bit softer than much Knoll design
George Nelson for Miller daybed, $300, Md.—reined-in, red, easy
Matteo Grassi leather/ottoman combo, $400, NY—really, reall weird but could work for someone
Grassi leather sofa, $400, NY—same as above but an actual sofa
Knoll plain green sage upholstered sofa, $175, NYC—this is actually the idealized mid-modern sofa. Deranged price
Hermes Kermit scarf, San Antonio: Friday… I always look for Kermit Oliver for Hermès scarves, for a decade at least, but LA is flighty; most of what’s sold on the auction site is through Bidhaus (an auction house), which I don’t recommend. KO’s scarves are ideal Hermès, I think, but also non-characteristic, because they are themed to the American outdoors, Texas specifically. Oliver worked as a mail sorter for USPS for a while while painting, for Hermès and others. His kid died and he has had a hard life. His situation brings up questions about how much money exactly is floating around at Hermès, and, well, how talented he was. (So.) In a story somewhere he said he liked working at the mail. But still. One guy had this exact scarf on eBay a couple years ago framed, albeit in a Michael’s frame (with the sticker on the back), and a long statement in the description about how he was quite firm regarding the price. I thought about it. Where would it go, though? Of Oliver’s work, I am moved most by his Pani La Shar Pawnee design, but they are all good. He is American. Fair at under $2 large, let’s say; auction is otherwise paintings, though a couple books. $1,600
Quick Hits:
Richard Ginori 17-pc contessa red dinner set, $150, Atl Thurs… (really regal)
Keystone ice bucket, 1940, $50, Atl (some nice decisions here; worth contemplating but not buying)
Pillet for Zanotta chairs, $300, NJ, flat ship (works in a pinch)
Saarinen tulip chairs, stool, Md, $500 Saturday… (great condition and color, and price)
Botta for Alias chair, $275 Md. (avant garde and half insane. Very 1920s)
Kartell floor lamp/coat hanger, Larchmont $300 (probably the best thing this issue; no-nonsense Ital. crap; pictured)
Piretti umbrella stand, $150, Larchmont (covered before; minimal. strong, loud, beautiful, steal)
Vico Magistretti for Artemide Chimera lamp Larchmont $150 (classic B+ tier lamp; deal)
Thanks for reading.
Snake
Seriously, another great piece. I resonate with the t-shirt theory. I also figure more good furniture and less bad furniture is always a good thing. Pulling the trigger is the only obstacle.