Virtuous Objects: Wright Edition
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 overall take -- approximately $2.5 million -- was slightly less than at last March’s Modern sale, which brought in about $3.1 million. But still pretty impressive overall.