Snake Auction Observer 083: Japan and FL Wright; lots of tables and chairs

Sottsass, Thonet, Kuramata, Brimfield...

Nice weather out, they put the A/C in on Saturday, but I have yet to plug it in… now I am seeing a few different people at the blue chin-up bar park near my apartment… nobody has muscle’d up yet… this week’s auctions are high on quality and novelty, there are a handful of pieces I have never seen before, or read about, and which might fall under the same Venn for you as a reader… on the table there are:

• 1 lamp, 7 tables, 1 coffee service, 3 sideboards, 6 chairs, 1 chest of drawers, 1 mirror, 1 patio set, 1 dinner service, 1 storage unit, 1 totem pole (manner of speaking) and one bench

But first, housekeeping:

• Brimfield this week. If you’re there, send me snaps. Nice Brimfield-adjacent interview Friday.

• Ferrari getting some Mercedes staffer ahead of the Hamilton move, which, the more time I spend with it, the less I love…

---

Obs. 83

Yamagiwa Taliesin lamp, NJ: There’s almost always a Frank Lloyd Wright in here, but this lamp looks like one of the more edge pieces from his body of work… to me it immediately brought. to mind the revolving cabinet by Shiro Kuramata for Cappellini, from 1970, that Lichen had a few years ago:

lichennyc

A post shared by @lichennyc

Evidenced more clearly in the second and third slides. Both the cabinet and the lamp play on height and horizontal space… both really are making a statement about spacing. Plus with the directions on the Taliesin it looks like a zoetrope, just like the Kuramata. Doubtless Kuramata knew about FLW, possibly this was a direct influence… but how to define that? I dug around and could not find any confirmation. I’m not an academic… I don’t know. A bit about Kuramata: he also made those undulating cabinets (they sway, and are on wheels), and designed storefronts for Issey Miyake. Reading about Kuramata, he was influenced by Judd, and Wright was influenced by Japan… but Kuramata was one of the designers in the ‘80s who updated Japan’s design reputation from tatami mats to… more internationalist furniture. Language can be a hindrance in explaining these things. One zero-sum question is whether the Taliesin is more square or boring than the cabinet… well, it’s not red. Both are great. Runs very little lately; under $1,000. Made for Yamagiwa, a century-old Japanese lighting company that, for what it’s worth, also sells items by Kuramata. Design, at the very top, can be small. House also has this FLW table lamp that is banker/Graves. $475

Thonet ‘80s modular table, NJ: Older discussions of Thonet (many in this newsletter) here frame the brand as a distinctly futuristic set of pieces, despite all the caning and wood. It’s a fair thing to say… and finding this table’s been a pleasant surprise, a much more direct version of Thonet’s futurism than can be found in older, out-of-time objects, or, maybe just a more palatable one… much to say about this modular table, made in the 1980s, that splits apart into 4, as sort of side tables. I’ve not seen that before. Sometimes there’s not much to say about a piece of design except that it’s well conceived and looks good. I do think that’s how I feel, initially, about most items from bigger houses that show up on the pike. A very simple binary appreciation. This is that. The colors are so of their decade… completely not minimal. From the same auction as above; no real price history... $225

Robsjohn-Gibbings table, NJ: Made for Widdicomb in 1950 but speaks to Judd’s work. Or presages it. From the same auction as the above two; T.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings was a British architect, his work is either gilded or sparse—this is a good example of the former—this is his starkest… the exact one hasn’t sold but his big tables run around $2,000. $500

Reed and Barton Ponti coffee service, Chicago: Another surprise from Gio Ponti… this time an actual silver coffee service, produced for Reed and Barton, which is an old silver company, from Mass. Coffee and teapot, creamer, sugar, and waste bowl. I like that there’s a waste bowl. Is that for the grounds? Cigarette butts, perhaps… from the midcentury. A good idea in general would be a solid gold or silver ashtray. There’s actually a solid gold Memphis Milano one on 1stDibs:

That is near-flawless and is only $437, which isn’t bad for something with provenance and made of gold. This Ponti sold for $1,200 years ago, missing a piece… otherwise it’s been mostly silverware. Part of a big dining auction that features this propeller-beanie cocktail shaker among other pieces. $1,300

Below the jump: the best items from auctions this week, including an undervalued and curious set of accent chairs, a great sideboard (not many of those out there), archival Sottsass, great 20s furniture with patina, the strangest bench I’ve seen and a toile-Italian collab that has no real precedent…