#virtuous objects

Another Wright auction means another dazzling display of design objects. Although we may have seen a lot of it before, it never gets old. The showroom at the pre-sale  preview seemed more crowded than it had in the last few iterations.

And indeed, this sale had 433 lots -- about 15 percent more than in December’s “Important Design” sale, with 378. The merchandise was, as is typical, pretty fabulous: the usual representation of Nakashima, George Nelson, Eames and Jeanneret items

[how can there still be -- sale after sale -- that many pieces from the High Court at Chandigarhh? Yet Wright's intrepid staff keeps on finding them.]

Stuff I liked particularly:

a collection of Fornasetti boxes

a couple of Ruth Duckworth items

plus of course objects from designers I’d never heard of : like Pedro Friedenberg [this kooky anthropomorphic table that reminds me of John Dickinson sold for $18,750, within its estimated range]

and Stilnovo -- actually a manufacturer, which made this incredible wall mounted light fixture

[shown here with a Paul Frankl bench (estimated at 3-5K, it went for $9,375) and Wright’s Clare Warner (priceless)] that was estimated at 7-9K but sold for $15,000  As in the last sale, a major Gio Ponti piece -- a breakfront that I liked enough to photograph -- went unsold

but some other Ponti pieces sold for way over their high estimates.  The one big question mark about this sale were the roughly 40 or so lots that Jordan Mozer had designed for a single Glencoe residence. I am an unabashed admirer of Mozer’s work, I think he's under-appreciated in his hometown for his interiors because most of his projects are far away from Chicago. His objects -- furniture and lighting, mostly -- are splendid displays of creativity, even if they’re a little quirky for your particular environment [which they would be for mine].  And while I think many observers may share my awareness of his special talent, he’s a largely unproven commodity in the auction arena. Also, I wondered whether there was a market for all of it at once. Well, my bad, as the kids like to say. Although a couple of the lots went unsold, most of them went for way above the high estimates. If this experience is any indication, collectors are really interested in objects by living designers, and it all bodes pretty well for the contemporary design market.

My favorite item was the zigzag bench, estimated 3-5K, sold for $5,938.

The Horta/van de Velde-inspired four-poster bed frame, estimated at 5-7K, is spectacular -- the kind of piece that, when you put it in the room, it becomes the room. So I wasn't sure it would find a buyer.

Wrong again: it brought $13,750. 

The “Potato Chip” chair [estimated 1-1.5K] went for $5,625;

the matching “Pouf” footstool [estimated 1-1.5K] went for $8,125.  

I am always interested in how museums categorize objects they display. Paintings and sculpture and photographs are pretty easy, although you certainly can make a case for sculptures that are really about painting [think Robert Arneson or Viola Frey] and paintings that are sculpture [Red Grooms,  Ellsworth Kelly].

Utilitarian objects are a different story. Consider the pieces displayed in the four recently installed cases near the light court of the Art Institute of Chicago's Rice Wing,

which contain a lot of virtuous objects. Among those I liked the best: a coffee pot designed by the recently departed Eva Zeisel,

as well as a group of pieces by Russel Wright,

a fantastic clock designed by Paul Frankl,

a great vase that I thought was a piece of Lalique but was designed by Reuben Haley,

and a footed bowl by Gertrud and Otto Natzler

for which, if you’ve seen my collection of studio pottery bowls, you’ll understand my love.

When I started thinking about the groupings in the cases, I wondered how the museum would classify them: are they “Decorative Arts?” Or are they “Design”?  It’s always an interesting debate, and you can’t always make a bright-line distinction between the two -- especially at an institution like AIC, which has made a pretty big deal about perception of the Architecture and Design department on the same level as the other curatorial areas. Turns out the museum classifies these objects as neither -- they’re under the more general heading of “American art." I'm guessing that, because AIC's decorative arts department is technically "European Decorative Arts," and all the items displayed here are American.

I like their categorization as  "art"  because, well, I  think many designed objects are works of art -- even production pieces like most of what's displayed here. As a practical matter, I guess most people just think anything in an encyclopedic art museum like AIC is "art," so the distinction is something not a lot of people think about. 

Vintage Bazaar, the floating agora that styles itself a flea market without tube socks, landed on 9/18 at the Congress Theater, which proved to be a not entirely accommodating venue for the event. 

I've never been to a concert at the Congress -- although I know they still use it as such but only, evidently, for dance parties [Erasure -- yes, the dance-pop darlings are still, apparently, together and touring -- played there the night before] , so the main floor of the theater is an open space, which should make it ideal for exhibition, except that it is  entirely interior and windowless, with ambient lighting that is generally insufficient for looking at merchandise [and for that matter, for taking photographs].

The Congress wasn't a grand palace in the style of the Uptown or the Chicago, but the lobby is still pretty luxe, and -- because there is natural lighting -- offers the best display areas.

Manly Vintage occupied the primest spot at the front of the lobby, and had one of the two items in the show I almost had to have: a marble-topped Harvey Probber table, asking price $250

[they have better pics on their website]

Manly also showed a great surfboard-style coffee table [asking about $300, IIRC]

In the way-too-dimly lit theater space, one object really jumped out at me: a table lamp with a base designed by a midcentury ceramicist, entirely unknown to me, named Marianna von Allesch

a beautiful object that seems to have been made as a lamp, not a vessel converted into one.

The market continued outside onto the street beside the theater, where it was drizzly on and off mid-day