#wright gallery

Another fine sale of Important Design at Wright Gallery.

If I ever get tired of going to the Wright previews, I guess I shouldn't be alive. The tactile nature of attending it really works to satiate my admittedly obsessive need to touch beautiful things, thereby providing me with a verisimilitude of ownership - brief though it may be.

The people at Wright are insanely skilled at mounting these showings. They scored big with the initial impression in the lobby, with the Robsjohn-Gibbings Mesa table [from an "important private collection" in Atlanta] and a cabinet designed by an Austrian who is UTM [Unkown To Me] named Herta-Marie Wietzemann.

Whether or not this merchandising ploy was responsible, the table was really the star of the auction. Estimated at $30-50,000, it actually sold for $106,250.

Items designed by Pierre Jeanneret for the High Court at Chandigarh - a staple of the past dozen or so sales at Wright - continue to appear as part of a seemingly endless stream. How much more can there be out there? Wright's people continue to find it and it continues to fetch high prices.

I've often had issues with Wright's pre-sale estimates - so often I think the house low-balls the estimates to goose interest in the items. But they've sold so much of this material in the past few years, they've more or less made the market, so their estimates have to account for the reality - the reality that they have created.

Also a trope at most of Wright's auctions is the obiquity of Italian made objects, which I guess it's just the nature of post WW2 design. Not that I'm complaining.

Several nice pieces designed by Osvaldo Borsani

I'm kind of surprised that Borsani's cool shelving system didn't get any bids [estimated 9-12K]- although the Franco Albini chair next to it sold for  $8125, above its 7K high estimate

I  particularly liked this sleek coffee table by Ico and Luisa Parisi

Note the Sottsass bookcase in the background. Estimated between 10-15K, it went unsold. By my count, more than 60 of the 316 lots failed to find bidders - it seemed like a high percentage to me. The Parisi table sold for $18,750 - well above its high estimate of 15K.

I have a particular fixation with Fornasetti, so I enjoyed seeing this table, although the fish-themed top is unusual and not in a really good way

Still, it sold for 5K - its high estimate.

Wright showed the table in a grouping with some interesting seating by Joseph-Andre Motte [another UTM designer], a small Retiveld chair and some storage pieces designed by Gio Ponti.

Several dozen lots in the sale were Ponti items. I particularly liked this pair of chairs.

Most sold quite well, but this Distex lounge didn't get any bids - maybe because, while it's suitable for "lounging," it's really hard to get out of it.

Among the lots were actually some non-Italian items: Paul Evans works remain popular with collectors

I was intrigued by a group of Tommi Parzinger pieces that came from a house in Chappaqua NY.  I am guessing the house for which they were designed was a cool MCM number that was probably torn down when the original owners went to their greater reward - and their heirs auctioned off the contents.  [In the pic below, my favorite thing is actually the Ruth Duckworth piece on the buffet. It sold for $9375, well above its 7K high estimate.]

I'm sure there was a reason he chose kelly green for the laquered portions, but I'm not sure what it was. Maybe unsurprisingly, the piece that brought the highest bid was the [non-green] cabinet below, which went for $8890, well above its 7K estimate.

Another  UTM designer, Pierre Guariche, designed this chair, which was only produced for a few years before being replaced by a completely upholstered model. I think this one is far superior.

Also enjoyed this "Silver Streak" c. 1942 iron, which sold for $2250 [displayed here next to an Hermes [c. 1930], which went unsold.]

When I posted my pics from the sale on the Mid Century Modern Facebook page, the pic that got the most "Likes" was of this Finn Juhl sofa, which sold for 22K [more than double its 9K high estimate

The item that I actually most coveted was a daybed by another UTM design source - Atelier de Recherche Plastique

Estimated at 10-15K, it didn't find any bidders.

But here's the thing: in July or August, Wright holds what it calls its "Mass Modern" sale, where it auctions more mundane items - well, not exactly ordinary, but pieces that [unlike what it sells in sales like this one] aren't unique or from very limited productions. The house will also include in that sale certain items that didn't sell at its regular sales. So what I'm hoping for is the inclusion of this piece in the Mass Modern sale coupled with either a lotto win or a bequest from a distant, forgotten relation. At which point I will post a pic of the daybed beside the bay window in my dining room

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.  

The last sale of the year -- the auction world follows an academic year calendar -- took place at Wright on Saturday. Its “Mass Modern” sale is supposed to include stuff that’s generally less rarefied than what the house has in its regular design auctions. But you do find that some of the lots are items that went unsold at previous sales. Some of the items that I would have loved to have, if I had the space and money for them: This George Nelson wall-mounted cabinet, estimated $1-2K, sold for $1,118 [condition isn't great -- much of the painted surface is worn]

This “in the style of Arredoluce” easel lamp, estimated $500-700, sold for $2K

A pair of “Paul Frankl attribution” chairs [with down upholstery] and coffee table, estimated $200-300, sold for $500.

A really comfortable Bruno Mathsson “Eva” chair, estimated $500-700, sold for $688.

I hadn’t known Hugh Newell Jacobsen designed outdoor furniture, but it doesn’t surprise me. This pair of chaises longues, estimated at $1 - 1.5K, sold for $2.125.

The “After Alexander Calder” hammock, estimated $2-3K, sold for $5,313.

I have always coveted the Yanagi stool, estimated at $1-1.5K, sold for $1.5K

I have said many times that going to the preview for one of Wright Gallery's design auctions is like going to a design museum, except you get to touch everything. You can even sit on the furniture.

It's fun to look at the catalog online, of course, but nothing beats going over to Wright's place on Hubbard Street and seeing it all in their display room. You've really got to give props to  Wright's Michael Jefferson, who procures spectacular consignments for these design sales, and arranges them in very appealing vignettes.

I like this selection:  a leather-topped coffee table by Jacques Adnet and a pair of chairs by Pierre Jeanneret, with a Jean Prouve bed behind it and a pair of Gilbert Rohde chests to the left.

There were some great dining/conference tables. I like the Paul Frankl cork piece to the right, and the Edward Wormley table to the left, with Scarpa chairs.

Also love the big Nakashima table. [The Brno chairs are a separate lot].

Several lots in the auction are from George Nelson's own collection, including some of his own designs and some from his contemporaries. Two in particular interested me:

The Eames Aluminum Group swivel lounge chair and ottoman

and his [pretty beat-up] Eames Hang-It-All.

Both of these carried what I would consider kind of lowball estimates: the chair/ottoman at $300-500, and the Hang-It-All at $500-700. I'm guessing that, with the provenance, they'll go for many times more than that.

But my favorite piece in the sale has to be this item from Ettore Sottsass from his high Memphis period