The seed of a furniture line: SNAKE & PARTNER FURNITURE (and Auction Observer 032)
An exclusive chair.... nude wood... New England based
Snake Auction Observer: good furniture, undervalued, or eternal, all selected off LiveAuctioneers.com. This week—cheap desks, lots of great ‘70s Italian and a clock that knocks my socks off. Immediate auctions at the top, but first….
I would like to announce the debut of SNAKE & PARTNER FURNITURE, an ambient furniture idea series that more or less speaks for itself. Snake and a different designer now and then. Snake. Below is Snake & Partner 001: The Connecticut Chair, designed by Travis Grillo O. LLC.
About the chair: it’s fourth in a series of freehand models, two nude wood, two in black, designed and built by Grillo. Coke can is included as standard imperial size reference; prototype thin legs for character. The design—I like it—drifts off the great Ro/Lu chairs from a decade ago (my interpretation, not Travis’)… Since we’re starting this off, we’d like to make it affordable. If you’re into one for yourself, hit me up here or on IG and we can talk turkey. Chairs are produced in New England and are easiest to pick up, for the time being, in that zone. More angles:
Thank you for looking. Onward and upward. More to come…
General Housekeeping:
Wrote about landmine training (the best workout there is) for GQ. Very early but optimistic about it… no spinal compression, no hyper-mobility bar to entry, all unilateral, all gait-based, fast… it’s like olympic lifting and boxing together, except like, not neurally impossible… spoke to Alex Kanellis the Landmine U guy (real deal) and Casey Johnston and a guy at my gym (he’s cool) about where it stands. I do these workouts regularly and believe in them and feel them…
Dude what is up with Ferrari? smh
I interviewed celeb trainer Corey Calliet for GQ; he got Michael B. Jordan into fighting shape for Creed III (and lots of other movies). Always psyched to talk grit with trainers, Caillet comes from bodybuilding, which explains his drop set philosophy. The more people I talk to the more it becomes clear what works and what doesn’t.
Worried about Ferrari
Ozempic seems rough, it destroys muscle mass… not a doctor but maybe a pull-up bar and smoking more cigs is the answer
Book launch was a success. Photos here. Thank you to everyone who swung by. Copies are available at Printed Matter St. Marks, and Shining Life. Distributors get in touch. The book tour will continue across America and perhaps even the continent.
Decent story in T Mag about a few giant Italian sofa designers. Pics are styled like the Apartmento shoots from a few years ago; Pesce looks great, Scarpa too, and Bellini… newer knew what he looked like. I’m all for reading anything about these guys, nice get by the mag getting those three in there.
Dude, Ferrari has to get it together
Join me… thank you
Auctions:
Breuer B3 (Wassily) chair for Knoll, Cleveland: Another look at a much-maligned and misunderstood piece of furniture, one that’s too present. But why focus on the negatives? The reality is a gulf between knockoff B3 retros and great original pieces and earlier B3 retros from a few decades ago with patina and correct angles. Note the lines on this; it’s easier. The B3 Picassos the club chair… maybe hard to pull off right now indoors; easier in a garage or in a nice gym surrounded by Ficus plants. This last year, knockoffs have sold for 200, retros for 500; price is right at $40
Peter Protzman for Herman Miller desk, Cleveland: Zebra wood desk (breathtaking) by Peter Protzman, who dealt mainly in desks. Also did office chairs with similar frames that are not as good. Produced by Herman Miller in ‘70-71. There’s a thing in the Lindy newsletter about desks and they face the wall now. I guess that’s true. I don’t go into the office anymore. Mine (art deco) faces the window. He touches, correctly, on furniture pricing (somebody tell him about my newsletter)… and goes on to point out how desks are devalued now and are mostly monitor stations. Probably correct.
This is the best one I’ve run across in months. There’s a perfect interplay between loud and harsh… It’s the zebra wood. Almost deco. Better grain on this than some other Protzmans. Something to be said about Herman Miller—they’re so big that some of their work is on the edge. Prices, $900 to double that over the past year. Same house as above. Mostly grandma jewels, cast metal animals and some nice, quiet mid-modern TV trays. $450
Forcolini lot of lamps, but only one good, Cleveland: Strange auction tacking three substandard industrial lamps onto a Nestore Lettura by Carlo Forcolini for Artemide… at least it’s cheap. I’ll be frank—I’m not big on the Nestore Lettura. So many Artemide lamps from the era (‘91) leave something to be desired. They’re cold and industrial, but not in the good Serbian way. Their lamps shouldn’t Serbian, it’s an Italian company. Still, not bad in person. Not everything needs to be or should be a statement piece. Sometimes a B+ piece gets the point along. Price history starts at $140, the price of a pair of Air Max 97s, and double that. Worth a flier if it stays around the sneaker price; $50
Ponti card holder, Philadelphia: Auction is heavy with art prints (signed Chagall, Picassos), vases, kitchen crap (Picasso) and a skid of the worst kind of mid-modern furniture (egg chair, Platner). The latter means deals abound in that sphere. Like this by Gio Ponti (founded Domus magazine, designed the Pirelli tower)… he made enough great furniture to sink a fishing skiff but the more I see of his work the less I like most of it and the more I love only some of it. This one is an exception and jumps out. Pure archeology… trinketry? Looks demonic. Good. Scant price history—only one, in white, sold. Once, for $800; $325
Three Magistretti chairs, Philadelphia: What’s that line about how people actually manifest what they fear and don’t want the most? With the gag a response exactly along the lines of, “Please, I’m so scared, I don’t want to have a hook-up at the Italian sandwich shop down the block, a winning lottery ticket and a cherry 1988 Dodge Ram 50 (built by Mitsubishi) with right-hand drive.” Well, it’s funny because the other month I wrote that I never saw auctions for good stuff get listed in lots and in the past month I’ve seen a dozen and today I’ve listed two. But who can complain? Three perfect Italian chairs for the price of one. All by Vico Magistretti (Selene, Maralunga, Veranda…). Two Gaudis (1970), and a Vicario (‘72)… I understand the listing: they look pretty close to one another and selling one table-ready chair doesn’t always work. Vicarios are sleek and massive but go for cheap ($200, three for $200) lately; Gaudis, which are quieter, don’t seem to sell at all on LA. Nothing better than this stuff; severe deal at $250
Albini Luisa chair, Dallas: Franco Albini (architect) designed wood rattan furniture, modular shelving and this chair. It was reissued a decade and a half ago, it’s originally from 1951. Nice touch staining its ash legs to black—it’s sleeker. There are always good auctions out of Dallas. Why is that? Probably all the money over there. This auction has just this chair among sus paintings, a geode and an hourglass. Most Luisas have unstained legs; prices vary, and they tend to be sold in big lots, and overseas. Might go for dirt; $240 now
Kirsch-Hamilton Aurora clock (Corchia & de Harak), KC, shipping enabled: Snake’s Lock of the Week was originally designed by Al Corchia and Rudolph de Harak, a NASA engineer and an architect (not sure who’s who), for Rathcon. Rathcon aslo made this cube. Clock is part lava lamp, part Colombo lamp, part baseball radar gun. It skirts camp; a search of Kirsch Hamilton mostly shows just these clocks. Corchia has a lithograph in the MoMA collection and de Harak designed that art clock above the Starbucks on John St. Prices oscillate; these sell between 3 and $700. House also has a Louis Vuitton Rei Kawakubo bag with holes (good for groceries), bowls (like this nice Victor Babu), harsh Eames office gear and a near-perfect, small Wormley table. $175
Soriana Ottoman onlys, Beechwood OH: What will these two disembodied accessories sell for? Soriana Ottomans have sold in the past for $750, $1,400, $1,700, $1,900 (two), and $550 in the past five years. All of them except a couple of them were in this brown leather, and they’ve all mostly sold in the past three years. The chair itself has been running between $2,500 to $7,000. Hard to wrangle discussed as such items on auction. But then again, people who know a lot about this stuff tend to be overly pessimistic. Which means sometimes they might go for less. Snake Bear Market Furniture Observer? House has sterling dinnerware, boring chrome and black furniture and a set of plates I need so bad that I can’t see straight, but which I have no room for. Guess which plates in the comment section for a can of red Coke. $1,700
Kipp Stewart Cabin Diners, LA: Decent Los Angeles auction. These Kipp Stewarts stand out because they’re plain and direct. They’re burlier than most KS furniture, though seem to be built for outside. This house has been trying to sell the same pair for a few years. They also have a Tackett (perfect), thoughtful Japanese and non-Japanese stoneware, ceramics and two Beethoven busts that are not properly labeled. $2,000
Quick hits (bold are shipping enabled):
Rastad & Relling Bambi chair, NJ, $1,300 (+ Coke buttons, Miller chests)
Citterio for B&B Italia sofa, NJ, $175 (also some nice rugs)
Magistretti “Caori” ‘62 table, Philly, $450 (perfect table, super deal)
Paulin Groovy chair for Artifort, Philly, $1,400 (in Cam’ron purple… good)
Tan Tobia Scarpa Soriana lounge chairs, Ct., $4,000 (fair price)
Five attributed Eames dining chairs, wood base, KC, $1,200 (not bad)
Thanks for reading.
Snake