kirkerblog 4.0

I've given away some tricks of the vintage trade in my recent blogs, but by no means all. All the auction houses I've recently analyzed the results of -- the best on the block -- are the best places to sell pieces, good economy or bad, but the best places to buy are the off-the-radar auction houses you probably wouldn't know about unless someone in the business told you about them. Which, actually, is how I got into this whole auction game to begin with: someone I dated shortly before leaving New York worked at one of said auction houses, which is where I found my best auction score to date: a pair of Andre Dubreuil-style Spine chairs for $80. (For comparison's sake, a set of four similar knockoffs is currently for sale on 1stdibs for $7,800.)

I'm not naming names, of course, but there's a 20th-century auction going on today at one of said regional houses ... and I just royally screwed up by not registering for it in advance, since it's not one I've done business with previously. As a result, I had to witness an original, mint-condition Eames rosewood lounge & ottoman of early '60s-vintage -- which even at Wright's otherwise dismal sale earlier this month sold for $4,250, above the high estimate (note that the stated price on Wright's Web site includes the 25% buyer's premium) -- go for a pittance price of $500. Although I've sworn from day one that there are two vintage items I would never sell at the gallery, because I think they've been done to death by interior designers -- the aforementioned Eames lounge chair and the iconic Barcelona chair & chaise -- a $500 purchase price could convince me otherwise.

I'm generally avoiding vintage right now because the market's so unpredictable, but at the same time I've seen first-hand that well-priced vintage flies out the door; our big sale last month yielded our largest monthly in-store sales figures to date. Pieces by Adrian Pearsall in particular proved immensely popular, and I will be pouncing on anything else of his I find at auction in the future (though there's slim pickings in the summer - most are held in the spring and fall, and there were no Pearsall pieces on the block at today's sale).

I can't believe I forgot to blog about it, but given that the press release is out and we just had a launch party tonight for it, I suppose it's way overdue to mention that the Mexican design collective I've kept under wraps the past few months is Pirwi, and we finally have our first shipment of their wares on the floor. (Regrettably, we don't have floor models of what may be their two coolest designs to date -- the Centipede bench and Drip table -- because both are brand-new additions to the product line introduced after we placed our initial floor-sample order.)

Pirwi hits the furniture trifecta: totally bad-ass design (and covering both moderately conservative and truly avant-garde looks), eco-friendly production processes, and arguably best of all, reasonable price points, starting at around $200 and topping out, with a solitary exception for a knitted chair requiring an insane amount of man hours to fabricate, at under $3,000.

I've seen most of the spectrum of modern design at this point, and I have yet to encounter a manufacturer that successfully accomplishes all three of these goals. We've had a tremendous response so far, and the next step with our PR agency is shooting for national coverage, since for the time being at least, Kirk has a North American exclusive on the brand. Both Pirwi's principles and I concur that Austin's a great place to launch the line, given both logistics (relative ease of transport since Mexico City's a day's drive) and Austin's large eco-conscious populace.

Next step: getting it up on our Web site. We have a basic home page graphic up now, but we eventually want to sell most of the line online -- a daunting task, given that each piece comes in five different veneer colors (and in some cases six) and many in multiple sizes, and I have to reconfigure our e-commerce engine to take all of that into account, as well as the fact that the larger pieces will require custom shipping that has to be specially arranged (and shipping prices even for the regular pieces will vary widely depending on size and shipping distance). That, however, is a problem to be contended with once my present weariness has subsided.

The results are in, and I called this one wrong, too. You know how I said the first sale of the auction generally sets the tone for the whole thing? In this sale, my Kagan chair -- estimated at $5,000-$7,000 -- sold for about 30% below the low estimate, at $3,600 (which, to be fair, is significantly more than I paid for it originally). That proved to be the overwhelmingly predominant theme behind this sale: nearly everything sold and had multiple bidders, but at prices with few exceptions (I'd say 90% fall into this category) 30%-40% below the low estimates. Thankfully two of the exceptions were the two priciest pieces I had on the block, both of which sold for their high estimates, so on the whole I personally did quite well.

Still, there were some definite bargains to be had. Mid-century doesn't sell particularly well on the West Coast -- which has "moved on," at least in interior design circles, to '60s/'70s/Hollywood Regency -- so this Knoll credenza would've likely fetched double the price at Wright, where mid-century still has a large audience. Someone got a damn good deal on these Calatrava chairs, which rarely show up at auction. Someone also got a steal on these Kjaerholm chairs, which sell new for $4,500 each. A Falkenstein sculpture selling for barely 1/3rd the low estimate is simply an embarrassment ... though there were plenty of worse ones, including this, this, this, this and most of all this & this & this (textbook cases for insisting on reserve prices). A Nelson tray table was the solitary bidding-war inciter yesterday, in an auction with 550+ lots. Not good. These Rodrigues chairs -- which I've never liked, personally -- were routinely selling in the $10,000 vicinity only a couple of years ago. Lord, even Warhol flopped!

Still, the auction wasn't a total flop. The sole Prouve lot on the block went for well above the high estimate. Kuramata remains as popular as ever. Both Giacometti chandeliers on the block sold within estimate range, albeit near the low end. Most of the Walter Lamb lots sold within estimate range, and one lot did especially well.

Oh, and I left out one auction on my earlier list: Bonhams on Thursday.

Huh. I called this one wrong: the results are in, and this was a pretty damn successful sale. They even managed to sell the most expensive Nakashima table I've seen in eons within auction range, albeit at the bottom of it. (Once again, listed sale prices include buyer's premium. At Phillips it's 25% up to $50,000, and 20% for the portion over that.) Still, some pricey lots didn't sell, and the cover-model star of the show went for well under the low estimate (and its twin, also up on the block, didn't sell at all). I was right about the estimate on the Wilson Breakfast Chair being too high -- we'll see if the one at Sotheby's sells next week -- as well as the general lack of interest in the likes of six-figure Marc Newson tables.

The best part about attending auctions live in person -- which I admittedly haven't done lately -- is watching when a completely inexplicable bidding war breaks out (invariably between A-type men who can't stand losing), and this relatively small sale of 128 lots had three: a pair of Joe Colombo chairs; an innocent-looking 10-inch glass vase that sold for $100K+, including premium; and an ampersand teapot, of all things.

Mostly a flop, though not as bad as Wright's. The Giacometti didn't sell. Neither did the Argente cabinet. Most lots sold, but many went for well below the low estimate. There were a few home runs -- a number of similar Wright window sets went for double the high estimate; an Adnet desk set sold rather well; a Nakashima desk went for a healthy premium; to my surprise, a piece of design art sold for a huge premium; and someone apparently really wanted a copper turtle topiary -- but overall it was a disappointment, which doesn't bode well for today's Phillips sale (also taking place in Manhattan, home of scores of decimated Wall Streeters and destitute Madoff victims).

Forgot to mention: my second nephew's name is Finley Peter. (No, the Kirks have no Irish blood; they just liked the names. "Kirk" is old Scottish for "church," actually. And Peter was my grandfather's name, by the way.)

The results are in, and it looks like I handicapped this one accurately. Front-loading the sale with design art was indeed a bad idea: only 21 of the 38 lots sold, and only 9 of those 21 sold within or above estimate range. (Note: listed prices include Wright's 25% buyer's premium. The hammer price for this Marc Newson lamp, for instance, was $5,000, the low estimate.)

Tons of great stuff went unsold. I mean, come on: not even a prototype Womb chair managed to sell? Even many of the Eames lots, usually swarmed upon, yielded no bids. That said, the auction wasn't a total disaster. Evans continues to sell well -- and, in some cases, extraordinarily well. I also pointed out as soon as I got the catalog that the estimate on this Ox chair was absurdly low; I was proven correct. (Brown leather mid-century classics proved popular in general. Note to self: reupholster Egg chair in well-aged leather prior to sale.)

Okay, okay, so I was wrong on one major prediction: the Maloof chair only sold for $20,000, well below the low estimate. Did people miss his obit in the Times?

First, the big news: I'm an uncle! My brother's twin boys were born today, one 6 lb 10 oz (and named Colin McLain - the middle name was his wife's dad's name) and the other 6 lb 14 oz (name still TBD). Their first pic's already up on my Facebook, if you're one of my friends on it; since my brother's not really into the online thing and only got his first cell phone a couple of years ago, I don't know if he'd want me to post their photo in a totally public forum like a blog (access to my Facebook profile is limited to friends and some work associates), but e-mail me if you're not on Facebook and want to see the tots.

More on auctions, which I posted about a few days ago: it still never ceases to surprise me how many people have been duped into thinking a line of Paul Evans sculpted-bronze knockoffs is the real deal. This list includes myself: I bought a full dinette set early on in my gallery-buying spree that was listed by the smallish auction house in question as "Paul Evans." Not "Paul Evans-attributed," or even "in the manner of Paul Evans," but "Paul Evans." They were wrong: the set was part of one of two lines of Evans fakes, derived from his sculpted-bronze line, that hit the market for a couple of years in the early '70s. In hindsight -- and having learned much more about Evans' work as time has gone by -- I see now how clearly they're fakes, but I made a rookie error in trusting that an auction house would have verified the provenance of all pieces on the block. In reality, only the largest auction houses guarantee provenance, as I learned the hard way a second time as well. I'd feel worse about it had I not purchased the full set for a song (and have it listed for sale for a fraction of what 1stdibs dealers selling the stuff have it priced at).

Last fall I made a non-rookie error and got duped on a pair of fake Marco Zanuso Lady chairs from another small-time auctioneer. Had I been more familiar with the design, I would've noticed the deviances in the legs (real Ladys mostly had steel or aluminum legs; these had thin brass ones) and heft (real Ladys are heavy; these are feather-light), but everything else this particular auctioneer had on hand was legit, so I assume the Ladys were as well. Wrong. They're still good-looking chairs, mind you, and were recently reupholstered in a nice Knoll beige textile, but I bought them on the cost basis of them being legitimate Ladys, and now have to take a loss selling them as fakes.

Anyway, today I received a flyer from one of the smaller auction houses I work with, where the best deals are invariably had, and what do I see? The exact same fake-Evans dinette set presently sitting on my gallery floor (at a 2/3rd markdown from our original price), but listed in the flyer as original Evans, along with several accompanying pieces. The rest of their gear looks legit (and believe me, I've now learned how to spot a fake, in most cases, from a mile away), but I felt compelled to e-mail to tell them that their Evans stuff was not actually Evans and that they're only going to damage their reputation by advertising it as such. I also do this periodically when I see similar fake Evans pieces come up for sale on eBay, which I monitor on the incredibly unlikely chance a good Evans piece comes up for sale there. (In the year and a half I've been looking, this has happened exactly once -- not counting auction listings from Rago and Wright that are no longer listed on eBay.)

To sum it up much more succinctly: caveat emptor.