Why celebrity interiors? A new friend joins Substack, rare Perriand, advanced metal furniture, Auction Observer 090

Plus price values on last week's auctions

Slightly more on the block this week, still a bit slow what with summer. I tend to get “your auction is live tomorrow” emails around 2 in the morning, usually a dozen or half dozen every night, but not that many last week, and nothing really over the weekend. But a few coming up.

• One of the auctions below lists the estate of Jim Carrey — well, not the estate, he’s not dead, but stuff he owns is on the block by an auction house ahead of a bigger auction this month by Bonhams which will comprise his art collection. Some decent items this week from him: a good Bellini piece, in fact a great one, some weird avant accoutrements and one practical piece of furniture that jumped out at me which I’m highlighting further down in the newsletter. The whole thing though makes me wonder about the authority celebrities have in the design world. Do they have any? Of course they don’t. Why would they? With respect, this guy is an actor… that’s what he spends his time doing. Not a designer. Maybe he has a nice hut… but yet… here he is his name in the auction, and his house all over and… if not him specifically, well, there are always so many house tours written up by design publications. They canonize what these actors own and justify it… here, the article says, is the real crap. Much of these celeb tours are the only outward facing pieces in design media. The media is otherwise very enterprise: it’s written, more or less, for other design professionals.

  And there is an industry component to an actor having good furniture: it means whatever designer got it for him is successful, and it means the stuff he has might go for a lot of money. And the discussion about design in the broad sphere is so… in its early stages that something as novel as Jim Carrey owning a Bellini means that Bellini furniture jumps up a couple steps in public understanding. No beef.

  It is weird to me to see house tours from actors and so in design publications as opposed to real normal people with very good furniture—think some guy from Amsterdam who works at an ad agency and collects Kartell—but that’s the way media works. I mean it’s easier to find Diplo or Carrey than an anonymous ad guy, and the other anonymous people are showing off their huts on IG to begin with. I do think the bars are lower for these people and the stuff in there is not very good—but I also don’t read all of them, and my taste sort of slides against what they have in their homes… meaning I’m definitely not right here, just not in sync with, say, Diplo’s concrete walls. (I would be surprised if I was.) To be sure, this is not something that’s unique to design: Vogue doesn’t put models on the cover anymore… it’s top down. I’m not gonna bag on some actor’s house. That’s negative. And it’s not the magazines’ fault either. It’s just a top-down thing. I do think one reason why houses are grey and white and lean so heavy on bouclé is because the same stale houses and interiors by the same risk-averse designers keep on getting into print. Until we see more examples out there of real people in real houses with very sick furniture, the only way consumers and readers can grow is to do the legwork themselves. But then… that’s how it is now. Luckily a tiny bit of hard work weeds out the suckers and so much good design and furniture is more available and accessible than ever.

• Throwing Fits
  (fashion podcast) is now on Substack. Give James and Lawrence a follow and a sub… it is a great show to listen to when you are preparing your post-workout shake, for example. If you’re a new subscriber to me and have arrives through their recommendation—well, thanks. Here’s a step-by-step on how to bid on the items below and level up your hut.

• Yes, I’ve read and heard about Kim Kardashian putting salmon sperm on her face as a skincare protocol. Thank you to the 25 people who sent me this story. My real opinion about this is something close to what I was quoted as saying in Ssense’s end of the year story that came out in December: What you put on your face is prob. less important than what you ingest. You can rock all the salmon [redacted] on your cheeks all day but you may get more bang for your buck inhaling a lot of bioavailable collagen. In fact if you don’t you’re leaving money on the table. I’m not saying this as advice, though. It just might be true. More in-depth and researched writing about this topic and others like it can be expected on my new WELLNESS AND HEALTH SUBSTACK that I am launching soon: Snake Super Health. Subscribe here.

• Haven’t gotten a fade in like three weeks I have special ops hair now so sticking with it

• Auction reader information request: Do you, as a reader, like big items over smalls? Vintage or new? It is sometimes hard to get a sofa into the apartment. But it’s worth it. Question below.

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Last week’s values:

Sottsass salt and pepper mills for Alessi passed ($275)

Knoll metal truck passed ($175)

Peregalli for Zeus TV stand passed( $900)

Paulin for Artifort Tongue lounge chairs $3,750

A pair of fiberglas Sormani loungers $5,000

Two plain grey French contemporary upholstered sofas $400

Pair of Magistretti for B&B Italia Caledonia armchairs $700

Piretti for Castelli Piano folding table $650

Dieter Rams modular armchairs in rare color $2,500

Ferrieri 4870 chair for Kartell passed ($250)

Graves MG32 teakettle, for Alessi passed ($225)

Enzo Mari for Danese Sumatra paper trays $200 (Christ)

Barberi and Marianelli coat rack for Rexite passed ($450)

Handmade wood hat stands, silhouette, three passed ($750)

Ospiti collection sculpture by Anastasio $3,750

Modernist perfect chrome winged office chair passed ($275)

Table clock by Constantini L’Oggetto $350

Piretti for Castelli Plona folding chairs, pair $1,600 relisted

Ghini for Moroso velvet sofa $325

Piretti Anomina sofa €400

Solar energy car prototype, with Shell logo passed (€2,000) (an actual car)

Panton Pantonova five-seat sofa $3,000

De Pas, D’Urbino Lomazzi folding chair €700

Maralunga by Magistretti two-seater sofa $2,250

Bellini 412 Cab chair $400

Propeller beanie worn by the Pope [auction taken down]

Fussell plastic drawers on wheels $300 (Jesus)

Kagan omnibus chaise longue $1,500

A subscription will pay for itself after your first purchase or even if you don’t buy off LA and then understand design. Dozens of investment opportunities follow below.

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Obs 90

Boby trolley, three of them (white; second black), separate auctions, Queens: Tues… I do think sometimes that the Boby trolley era is over… among a certain class of people. But what has replaced it? Really it is more of a 501 jean than a novel piece of furniture. It just happens to be half modular and Italian. I also think that this aesthetic has ascended, so to speak, and wedged itself into the people who look to Jim Carrey and so on for furniture: I see a Boby being snuck in among plain white or tan-decorated houses… 1920s, 1930s and a single 1970s piece. It is like a Bored Apes… please… my trolley… it is so pastel colored… But looking at the prices now, well, questions come up. This is values have broken down this year:

• $425 and $450 and $50 in June, $160 in May, $225 in March, $225CAD and $425 and $350 in Feb.,$200 in Jan., $250CAD in Dec. 2023, passed in Oct…. €100 or so average over there.

Not bad. What are you going to do? In my brain one should never, not even under threat of death, pay more than $150 for a trolley. But we don’t live in that world anymore, or if we do it’s only sometimes. Part of a nice local auction that also includes some great Herman Miller office stackers, fairly-priced Tulips, ton of rugs. $100

Charlotte Perriand pair Ombra 512 loungers, Chi: Surprising item from Perriand… or rather a surprising auction. Most of what she produced makes the auction cut—not a representative sample, of course—tends to be from Les Arcs or features some sort of wood or more downtempo aesthetic. This though is very immediate and simple: it’s strong, looks very simple and rich. She produced it kinda late, 1953… still in prod for Cassina. Almost never list, run $1,100-twice that. This one’s $2,000 for the pair. House has a bunch of elegant auctions, the best of which highlight Quick Hits, and which also includes:

• A table lamp from Charlotte… that is very subtle and strong

• And this pair of handsome Gerald McCabe chairs

Jean Prouve SCAL daybed 450, Chi: I never really talk about Jean Prouvé here… in fact I might never have mentioned his name to begin with. Not sure why… it’s not like I don’t love the guy. Some of it is because his items tend to not show very heavily on auction, seeing as they are among the highest echelon canon for interiors: this isn’t a value item but a supreme life-time investment. Prob. be worth more than your car or house in a decade. A bit about Prouvé: architect, metal guy, self-taught, brush cut (fire), his list of accomplishments dwarf the English language… a bit about this one… off-the-cuff piece, made in ‘52… with Perriand. Called the Antony since it was used for a school there—town in France. Looks quite old but in insane shape. Should have a little table on the side, but can’t tell from the auction photo. Rare beautiful modern/futuristic/timeless 70-plus year-old item. Daybeds don’t really get used that much, it’s an American thing, if the Lindy guy knew about design he could probably weigh in well on it. As it stands I think we just work too hard in America. But there are a few more on action at the moment:

• this van der Rohe style one for $10 that ends tomorrow, by Bonhams

• Decent deco option by Kem Weber

• Another one by B&B Italia

This one runs about $10,000; $7,000

After the jump: three different great pieces of austere metal seating by great designers, the best crap from the Carrey auction, a goated recliner for less than $100, a couple dozen items close to NYC and Quick Hits (items in New York or LA that are worth an impulse buy or an investment) and a subtle Perriand piece for the office. For those new to the program: this is not a scam. These prices are real. We are just in the furniture dark ages. Use your head. You’re early. It’s going away. It’s won’t be this way forever.