Snake Q&A 028: Ryan Caliguri/Spare Room
Philadelphia based seller: Germantown lore, REVS, Underdog, Baughman Coggin, game-worn Cro-Mags jeans
Snake covers design and explains it. For a representative sample, read the best selections from this week’s auctions, and the most recent designer profile and explainer.
Every other Friday on Snake or so an interview with a person in good standing of the newsletter whose taste in vintage, furniture and adjacent is worth recording. Sellers, buyers, artists, adjacents... But first:
Housekeeping:
Was interviewed in Elliot Aronow’s Minor Genius Substack, answering a few questions about the how-to’s of researching furniture, how to an amass a collection, and so on:
Classifieds at the bottom.
Ferrari at home this weekend, manner of speaking. Will they get it together?
Ryan Caliguri | IG | Vintage IG | Philadelphia
Ry is great, I’ve known him forever, it’s been a treat to watch his shop and aesthetic broaden and deepen itself over the past half decade and surpass whatever humble knowledge was in the air in vintage 10 years ago; this is big nuts real deal. I met him as a very young guy about 15 years ago who then was pretty fearless about finding stuff, and had, in some ways, retro taste—old Polo, late ‘90s Nikes—and was a very good storyteller. It’s a sort of discernment and research-based skill-set that has allowed him to bone up on seemingly… very different avenues in vintage, that Spare Room, his shop, now deals with: olds, Pa. metal, Dutch crap, a giant fist on a stick, and so on. What is also cool is that the shop stuff is both separate from and complementary to his collecting interests, i.e. USHC, Revs, and so on. I would say this kind of clarity of purpose and openness is representative of the better young vintage dealers today.
Q&A 029
Fav flea market?
Brimfield feels like such a stock answer to this question because it factually is the best flea market in existence, and there’s really nothing close to it, almost making it the correct answer. So, with that being said, my favorite market is Renningers Antiques Market in Adamstown, Pa. It has continuously delivered great stuff over the years and as my tastes have changed and the things I’m after also change, it’s still firing on all cylinders. And just when you thought the most mind-blowing thing has already popped up there, it pops up again, 10-fold. The people there are true blue lifer flea market people, which is the spirit of the market. A lot of the dealers have been dealing there since the 70s and tell tales of nights spent with flashlights out, on zero sleep, combing through each others’ vans and trucks, camping out in their spots for days at a time before these fleas. Nowadays it fills about one-quarter the space it did then but I love it the way it is now.
Best flea market day ever—what did you get?
I’ve had a lot of really great days at flea markets and I’m terrible at savoring the moment when I find something really great. I like to take it in as much as the next guy, but the thing is, once I've found the thing I thought impossible to find in the wild, I just want to keep hunting for the rest of the items on my list of things that are impossible to find in the wild. In May of 2022 I went to a flea market about 30 minutes out of Philly, in N.J., with my friend Hope (@honeycyclevintage), who had just moved to the area. She was looking to check out markets close to the city but not in the city. The layout here was weird; you have to walk down this single row of dealers from the side, if the giant parking lot next to it is full—which it was that day—so were walking in, just talking and barely looking, and all of a sudden, about five tables up, I spotted a Clayton Patterson hat sitting on top of this table filled with hats. It happened I was wearing a Clayton hat that day and when I picked it up the seller kind of got weirded out and made a joke about the one on my head looking familiar. He ended up selling me two deadstock caps for 15 bucks; I don’t think I stopped looking at them until I got home that day.
Best eBay purchase?
Again, I’m bad at keeping track of wins, but I remember during the pandemic I was hunting for the Slash Magazine Darby Crash poster pretty hard, hoping to keep that purchase at or around 300 bucks. One day I opened the app and one popped up for $190 BIN. It’s been in a tube in the corner of my studio ever since, haha, I’ve been putting off getting that framed longer than I’ve been putting off doing this interview.
Best Craigslist find?
In (I think) 2017 I was at work at my day job, which at the time was moving Anthropologie furniture around all day. My partner and I had come to the conclusion that it was time to say goodbye to the Ikea couch that we just lugged from her place to our new spot, and to start scouring, as best we could, to source something that was really cool/comfortable. I was sitting on a couch at work, looking at Craigslist and saw an ad for a Thayer Coggin Milo Baughman-style sectional in burnt orange velvet that was described as a knockoff. The gentleman had mentioned this multiple times in the ad, with sentence fragments like, “NOT THE REAL DEAL!” and, “IN THE STYLE OF!!!” T think he was asking $600, which I thought was very reasonable for a giant six-piece sectional, in such good condition for its age. So I borrowed a truck from work and drove an hour outside Philly and met the guy and his wife. They explained they thought they had a sixth piece to the couch, in storage, but weren’t able to locate it, and they were super apologetic, acting like this was gonna be a deal breaker for me. I had no idea about this mysterious sixth piece to begin with, and honestly couldn’t have cared less. I just drove an hour to come here, I’m not going to leave without a couch. So the guy flips up all the cushions and explains how its a knock off, blah blah blah. So when I go to take out the $600 he was asking for the couch, he told me again how sorry he was that the sixth piece was missing, and how awful he felt, and as a consolation he would sell it for half price. Im stoked and he helps my partner and i load up the couch after i give him 300 bucks. So when we got home we decided to give the couch a once over with the vacuum before we get it into the spot. I take the cushion off, one with a big sticker underneath it, and notice the sticker he had shown me was only a receipt from a upholstery store that had cleaned the couch for the previous owners. There was something underneath, and when I peeled it back, it was a sticker that said Thayer Coggin by Milo Baughman. At the time they were selling around $2-3K on LA. My dog has since made the couch hers and so now it’s probably not worth the 50 bucks im gonna pay a friend to help me get it out of our apartment sometime in the next 6 months.
Best LiveAuctioneers find?
I’m pretty new to the LA world and feel so much regret for not stepping into it way earlier, but now its probably my go-to for online buying/soucing. In 2022, I snagged a lot of five really great 18th and 19th-century punched tin lanterns from a local auction right outside Philly, for like $275 before the juice. I ended up turning those around to an older local dealer for roughly $300 per piece, and he was pretty confident that he was going to be able to double his money. So everyone wins, except the consigner, I guess.
IG seller account you hang out on/look at their stuff the most?
There are a few for sure, so I’ll narrow it down to my top 3.
@Lackluster.co—Beth Coller is a local dealer who I actually have the pleasure of running into in the real world on the regular, she’s always got something dope in her bag. Her IG feed is filled with top notch objects and furniture that I am constantly envious of.
Would definitely have to be Warren Battle @Battle_brown—Warren’s store is the perfect eclectic mix of period furniture/folk art/ that also highlights some really great local Hudson Valley artists.
Last but not least would have to be Andrew Basemen @AndrewBaseman—I dont think he’s technically a dealer, but his feed is basically a showcase for some of the most mind-blowing examples of make-do repairs on 18th and 19th-century antique pearlware, mochaware, and pottery that’s available to look at online, and I visit it frequently.
Thing you most regret passing on?
I really regret not buying more old punk and HC shirts in the mid-late ‘00s when there were tons for sale at all times, and basically free compared to todays prices. Other than that, I don’t really get hung up on stuff. There’s always more.
Best thing you got for insanely cheap?
Last year i got a ‘86 Mark Gonzales Vision board in like 7/10 condition for 10 bucks out of a house somebody brought me to, that I still have and plan on holding onto. Last year I also bought a navy blue Patagonia Rhythm hooded fleece deep pile off a guy’s back for 20 bucks plus a replacement jacket. I had every intention of keeping it to wear but it’s just too crazy of a look for me so I sold it to Woj.
Best thing you overpaid for?
Like two weeks ago I bought 4 original REVS stickers on eBay for $203.50, and I’d do it again tomorrow.
Favorite piece of furniture you own?
Last year I went on a 2.5 week buying/selling trip with an 83-year-old dealer who I had maybe 7 conversations with prior to spending those 2.5 weeks straight together. On that trip, the destination was Santa Fe, N.M., for a couple of shows that take place at the end of July. When we got in, he took me to a gallery in town dealing in high end Native American antiques. In the very back of the gallery was this beautifully painted old general store cabinet that would have been provided to a distributor from the Star Zephyr Company, which made dyed yarns in the Germantown section of Philadelphia at around the turn of the century. I saw it on Monday and went back for it Saturday. Now it’s in my foyer in Philadelphia, about three miles away from where it came from.
What’s one thing you own that you won’t ever sell?
I have a really great Underdog “From Now On” 89 tour shirt that I got off Hoodrack a few years ago that I’ve never seen another of, before or since getting it off of him. It’s on a Stedman tag, and it’s honestly the best fitting old shirt I own, rare or not. I don’t see it going anywhere unless somebody wants to trade something funny for it, like a Breakdown hat or Cro Mags shorts….ahem. [Editor’s note: I have these shorts, but won’t trade them.]
Piece you have now that you despise and want to replace?
I’d really love to replace the couch I was talking about earlier.
Who do you think sold more records: Nelly Furtado or Three 6 Mafia?
I don’t know who sold more, but I know that more Three 6 records have been boosted, and that’s what really counts.
Secret spot that you love but won’t tell anyone about? (please describe as judiciously as possible while omitting any identifiable characteristics)
As weird and kind of stand off-ish as I may come off, I don’t really gatekeep any spots. I’m confident enough in my ability to find stuff at the places I go to that I feel comfortable talking about them freely, and even invite people to check them out. Not a lot of people are looking for the same stuff as me. Honestly three quarters of the time I have no clue what I’m looking for until I actually find it. Not gonna be jealous or mad at somebody else finding dope stuff or making a buck, either. There’s always more.
Rarest/most canon vintage thing you have but never wear?
I have a deadstock pair of the New Balance Kawasaki 993s that came out back in 2012 in an 8.5. Like once a year I take them out of the box and squeeze my giant size 10 foot into them in my living room. Then I put them back in the box and back on the shelf.
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)
This one’s hard because I feel like its a daily occurrence for me. I feel like I lose out on something I really want so frequently that I constantly try to block it out, but, usually after losing, I become so hyper-focused on that thing that it ends up opening three other doors instead. I just lost out on a Blind Jason Lee ‘USA #1’ tshirt on eBay like a week ago because I wanted it for 10 bucks less than the BIN and then somebody pulled the trigger and I’ll probably not see another in that condition for another couple years. So sometimes losing is winning I guess.
Favorite Russian novelist?
I think this question is above my pay grade. (and IQ)
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)
Honestly no. I’m pretty comfortable with the stuff i personally collect now (hc/punk,REVS,Clayton Patterson, etc.), and as far as dealing goes, I feel like I am in the process of expanding all the time. A lot of the things I deal in now I didn’t deal in two years ago, and the same can be said for the stuff from two years before that. I deal in a wide variety of high end to low brow, and I’m always looking to sharpen things on either end of that spectrum.
What’s the item that’s been on your watchlist the longest without you having pulled the trigger?
REVS Just Stay Away LP. There have been like two on eBay for the last couple of years, and neither of the sellers are responding to my lowballs anymore, so I’m afraid it’s time for me to hit the BIN.
Is the best vintage/furniture online or in the wild?
I don’t think those things are mutually exclusive, especially in this day and age. The online marketplace thats been created via Instagram and the platform it gives people to buy and sell to a vast audience is really an amazing tool and something I personally use everyday. It’s actually the reason im answering these questions right now. The community it creates, and the relationships that are forged through it are very important and should be treated the same as buying/selling something in a brick and mortar store in the real world. A lot of people don’t like using online auctions and don’t like paying buyers premiums. I’m not going to talk badly about things being sold at auction online. Really spectacular stuff is sold online everyday of the week. That’s not to say you won’t get a phone call one day from somebody asking you to help them with the contents of a home filled with Nakashima and Noguchi, but it’s not as likely as you being able to buy a piece from those makers through an online service, IG. However, there are a lot of real deal pickers out there who pound the pavement, knocking on doors and doing their time on the road to source the best material they can for their businesses, too. Both of those things require a wealth of knowledge that isn’t something you can learn overnight. It all comes down to dedication.
Has all the cool shit been discovered? (Yes or no answer only)
No. Everyone’s mantra should be, “Theres always more!” because there is.
Any vintage accounts you want to rep or boost? Furniture? (feel free to include local spots)
@ryfillman_antiques @affection.goods @mindseyevintage @briarvintage @somewhere___someplace @winning.and.losing @strangedesires_ @o.g.g.e.t.t.o @_sharktooth_ @forbidden.zone @the_fun_corner @jointcustodydc @milestogovintage @lloydstreasures, @tenchurchatlambertville Steve Smoot, Jimmy Grievo, Jeff Herr, Michael Locati, funny Jeffrey, Alex wit da truck, Kent, and the ladies who make the Breakfast sandwiches in Adamstown. Thanks->
Follow Ryan on IG | Follow Spare Room on IG | Read previous Q&As
Auctions ending this weekend:
Scarpa Dialogo set of six chairs, Detroit, $1,000 ends Friday… (wrote about these last week, this is the other style of the set of chairs… loud and excellent)
Frattini for Cassina steel/glass table, 1969, $100, Detroit (potentially huge deal)
Magistretti Chimera floor lamp (Artemide), $450, Detroit (fair price for a perfect lamp)
Alessandro Becchi Le Bugie lounge chairs for Giovannetti, $800, Fl. ends Sat… (completely nuts, prob. the best thing in this issue; so many questions… only one of this chair, from ‘72, with this sort of pattern. A melding of several styles and ideas; pictured)
Classifieds—msg me and I’ll put you in contact:
Eames ‘51 surfboard, MDC veneer drum table, $350 together, Rockaway
DWR Molded Stackable Dining Chairs (4), $700 for all, flex; Hem Kendo Counter Stool (2), $800 for all, flex
Post Q&A nice video of the week*:
Thanks for reading.
Snake
*reworded to something a little less braggy.