SNAKE Q&A 008: Hayley Jean Clark
Deco, Chinese rugs, Chinoise furniture, and all-analog sources for furniture and antiques
Now at Snake: Every other Friday or so an interview with a person in good standing of the newsletter whose taste in vintage, furniture, collectibles and adjacent fields is worth celebrating and learning from. Sellers, buyers, set decorators, artists, adjacents, etc…
Here’s the eighth…
Hayley Jean Clark / IG, Twitter / Manhattan / Architecture and design writer, also working on a short story collection.
Hayley is an advanced person and writer with good taste. Her interiors Instagram, @nestingdollnyc, is very much up there.
Q&A 008
Fav flea market?
There’s this awesome one outside of Lancaster, Pa., called Renningers Antique Market, in Adamstown. I feel like a lot of fleas upstate and in the city are pretty picked over, but since Pa. isn’t as trafficked by NYC design fiends, there are more finds here, and pretty well-priced too. There’s plenty of rustic stuff and good old wood pieces, but also some surprising modernist finds as well.
Best flea market day ever—what did you get?
A wonderful dark vermillion ginger jar with delicate figures and white horses. I don’t think it’s particularly old, but I enjoy looking at it every day.
Best eBay purchase?
Back issues of Nest Magazine.
Best Craigslist find?
I just bought the most special Chinese rug, it’s black with swirls of jade, lilac, rust, and dusty purple. I look at a loooottttt of rugs, and I feel like rugs with this color palette are pretty rare. I got it for a freakishly low price at an estate sale on the UWS I found on Craigslist.
Best LiveAuctioneers find?
Iiiiiiii don’t really look at stuff much on there, but I probably should.
IG seller account you hang out on/look at their stuff the most?
@Suuupersaturday. Their taste trends toward the whimsical and unexpected, which I really appreciate. A lot of sellers—even good ones—have predictable stock, so it’s nice to be surprised by Suuuper’s offerings.
Thing you most regret passing on?
I found this gorgeous chrome French Art Deco lamp from the ‘30s that I had saved on Etsy forevvverrrr. The price wasn’t that bad, but I just kept thinking, “one day I’ll do it,” and then after like, two years they finally unlisted it :(
Best thing you got for insanely cheap?
Giant, pristine Art Deco dresser for $200.
Best thing you overpaid for?
Probably this brightly colored boucherouite rug that I bought a long time ago to impress a girl (which worked), but now it doesn’t match anything in my apartment. If you want it, I’m selling…
Favorite piece of furniture you own?
My chrome and rush dining chairs from Good Behavior.
What’s one thing you own that you won’t ever sell?
Any of my ceramics.
Piece you have now that you despise and want to replace?
Rattan coffee table that got warped in a flood. I have to balance it with a stack of quarters. It’s kind of cool still, but I feel like it falls within the category of “Wobbly” furniture that’s in right now that I find to be cloying. Haven’t replaced yet because I don’t really know what direction to go, kind of getting a little too straightforwardly Chinoise in here. Looking for something surprising…
Who do you think sold more records: Nelly Furtado or Three 6 Mafia?
I would hope Three 6 Mafia but my understanding of music history is patchy at best.
Secret spot that you love but won’t tell anyone about? (please describe as judiciously as possible while omitting any identifiable characteristics)
Really glad you asked… I have an amazing NYC furniture spot that I only reveal to the truly deserving. The wealthy donate their furniture and the store sells it for pennies and then the proceeds go to benefit one of the city’s most venerable, least solvent cultural institutions.
Rarest/most canon vintage thing you have but never wear?
I actually sold these recently because I never wore them but I had those Celine PVC mules from Resort 2012.
Most jealousy-inducing thing you’ve seen? (e.g. I saw a guy in Foremost jeans once in 2012 and I’ve never gotten over it)
I don’t feel this way about clothes very much anymore, but every time I see that someone has an Eileen Gray lacquer screen I get upset, especially because most of the time it's in a room with really boring, anodyne minimal furniture which I guess is supposed to approximate Gray's gestalt, but ends up being a disappointing facsimile of the elegant, severe industrial aesthetic she created. If someone would let me have one, I would do it justice!
Favorite Russian novelist?
Nabokov.
Is there a field of collecting are you looking to get into in the near future? (Furniture era/paper/autographs/stamps/model trains/computer shirts/90s Harley shirts/digital watches/lighters/slot cars/faberge eggs/Amish quilts etc)
Wiener Werkstatte reproductions, like the glassware and silverware.
What’s the item that’s been on your watchlist the longest without you having pulled the trigger?
Book of Cecily Brown drawings.
Is the best vintage/furniture online or in the wild?
Well, probably online, but I think you can get better deals in the wild.
Has all the cool shit been discovered? (Yes or no answer only)
Yes.
Any vintage accounts you want to rep or boost? Furniture? (feel free to include local spots)
My dear Ivan at the Phoenicia Arts & Antiques Emporium in the Catskills. He has no socials but is this incredible older gay guy who has gorgeous taste, go see him <3
Follow Hayley on Instagram.