Snake Auction Observer 084: New Finnish giants, early work, demon desks

An academic week for auctions: lots and lots of knowledge and lore

It’s basically summer in New York, though not yet; it rained this weekend but was still in the upper 70s, there are all sorts of shirtless people working out at the secret pull-up station near my hut, and a guy parked one of those Tesla triangle cars outside my building, though its nose was creeping over well past the catwalk. I had a nice weekend upstate, thank you to my hosts Zoë and Isaac, it was in the part of upstate that’s only a 30 minute drive from the all-kosher barbecue restaurant, which I wasn’t able to try out; the store in town had half-pasteurized milk but none of the raw stuff. Anyone know any farmers up there? Upstate is cool it’s like Ontario but with better fast food. This is a very good week for varied types of furniture on the auction platform: a couple of auctions have museum pieces that provide an education, a couple of auctions have deals. But first,

Housekeeping:

• This was the weekend we waited for from Ferrari. Years of hard knocks… finally some satisfaction. Congratulations to the Scuderia for a job well done.

• Readers may have noticed but I’ve started using affiliate links for some items not on LA, i.e. retail and 1stDibs. These are items I believe in and are worth buying (inasmuch as anything is worth buying).

• Christie’s (auction house) has had its client data leaked and Ransom Hub (some tech thing?) is selling it. Has anyone heard about this? My friend Reggie bid $18,000 on a pair of game-worn Jordan IXs and is worried about his bank info being sold to Moscow gangsters.

• New York Times raw milk story is not exactly wrong but shows the inefficiencies in narrative journalism for discussing health (and strength). It simply cannot be covered narratively, it needs to be discussed either socratically or in a three-hour podcast by powerlifters; understanding reveals itself after months of listening. There is a complete blank space in the information market here.

• Ferrari really did it I can’t believe it

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Obs. 84

Borsani for Tecno desk, St. Paul: ends Wed… Good piece from a great auction (a penny auction, this beautiful terracotta figurine, some rugs, almost no furniture), this one edges out the body of work by Tecno, the Italian company, and which has a couple of pieces (bookshelves by Vittoria, mentioned in Auction Observer 001, this ABV table that is tremendous) that jump out and hit the top of the design list when listed. They’re still around and make items though the new ones are less interesting. Osvaldo Borsani, not sure if he was their main designer, but so much of his work is for them. I love his D70 sofa:

For Tecno; bunch on 1stDibs for half-fair prices. As for this desk: it’s gaudy and house places it to the late 1970s… it is not so much ornate but expressive. Dark and strong… but those words barely describe how it looks. It’s sort of like the Dürer rhino in that way… I could describe the desk here with words and it doesn’t get to the bottom of it. Ultimately it’s half-demonic (the space between the desk and the storage, and the evil metal columns) but not fully demonic. It fails the Michael Graves test: it’s darker and more somber than Graves’ work, but less evil. This desk’s a spicy item; sells for $800, double that, 10 times that Possible deal at $500

Ilmari Tapiovaara armchair for Thonet, Chicago: ends Wed… another discovery, completely new to me; this is this lounge chair by Ilmari Tapiovaara, who is a Finnish architect whose career spanned until 1999. This is one of his earlier pieces, in fact which began the big part of his career; it was designed for the International Competition for Low-Cost Furniture Design in 1948 at the Museum of Modern Art (imagine there was something like this these days… just think about it… and wonder why there is not… it is crazy there isn’t… I don’t want to get too boomer about it but this should be happening instead of collaborations… remember when Nike did that open-source sneaker competition in 2017 and then didn’t do anything like that again? Hit me up I would love to judge CredenzaFest 2025)… this chair, anyways, was called the Domus but when Knoll picked it up they renamed it the Finnish Chair; lots of his work was with birch. This thing… allegedly is the prototype design for that comp. and not the actual chair… hard to find hard info. This one is for Thonet; it’s European. Price varies, I’d say maybe $1,000; other ones with wilder designs run in the same range on 1stDibs, best ones are:

• This 2106 chair for 1,600 (minimal, great)

• Tapiolina chair for under $400 (steal; very stark)

• Bunch of other items just worth leafing through (esp. Domus Lux)

Part of a predictably strong auction by Wright with many more of his other chairs (upcoming auctions all theirs); I suggest leafing through it and seeing what furniture they have, which might jump out at you. $800

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