Chess part II

First up we have a gorgeous set by Man Ray commissioned by the Maharajah of Indore in 1926. Only three of these sets were made during Man Rays lifetime but a limited edition of ten were released later by the Man Ray trust. I think this is one of the nicest sets I've seen and an amazingly modern and relevant design considering it is 85 years old.



Next we have a beautiful set by unknown designer / maker that I was recently the under bidder on, sadly for me it was an absetee bid and not a phone bid due to time difference and I lost out to someone in the room.



Next up is a gorgeous set by Paul Wunderlich made in 1927. This one made £2280 at Sotheby's 6 years ago. I love the pawns and rooks in this set, stylish and elegant in the extreme.



Last one for today is much earlier than all the others so far but it is still a very good looking set and in my opinion deserving of its place among all the other gorgeous sets shown here. This Cambodian chess set is made with stained and white Ivory.



to be continued.....

I have recently purchased a few nice vintage chess sets and while researching them I came across what I believe to be some really beautiful sets that have sold at auction over the last few years. I'll start with the ones I bought. First up is this Austin Cox 1962 chess set made from Aluminium as a gift from the Alcoa aluminium company given out to their customers.


Next up is this perspex chess set which can be found online attributed to Charles Hollis Jones and sometimes referenced using the words "Vasa chess set" which might be a reference to Op art artist Victor Vasarely. I dont believe either had anything to do with it and for the moment its designer and maker remain a mystery but it is in my opinion a great looking set.



Now we are in to the sets I can currently only dream about. Next up is this 1924 Josef Hartwig chess set sold at Phillips De Pury earlier this year for £6800. A lot of money for a chess set but a seriously beautiful thing to own. I believe there are similar reproductions of this set online for a few hundred euro.



Last one for this post is a brass and chrome 1969 chess set by Francois Colette sold in Wright's auction house in Chicago in 2008 for $2900.




To be continued.....

One of my current favorites are desks, you cant beat a good mid-century desk and here are some of the best ones I've failed to buy this year.

In the number one slot was this M.F Harty desk by Stow Davis that sold along with its credenza at Bonhams and Butterfild in LA. I believe this model desk is the same as the one used as P Diddys desk in the film "get him to the greek". If there is a nicer desks that exists then I have yet to come across it.



and the matching credenza..... ( I cant download the image as a Jpeg so here is the link....
http://www.bonhams.com/usa/auction/18380/lot/4319/

Next up and in a very very close second its a Pace Collection desk by Leon Rosen. I love this desk, I would quite happily sit behind one of these every day for the rest of my life. (photos taken from 1stdibs Orange Living)



Finally there was a Paul Evans Cityscape desk sold at Wright20 in Chicago a few months back. It has taken me a bit of time to come around to Paul Evans designs but I loved this desk the second I saw it.



Next time around will be the great desks I managed to buy. If you have a favorite mid-century desk that you want to share or sell please email me on
killian@mid-centuryonline.com

Buying Vintage part II

I'm not sure if regret is the right word but there are a few pieces that go through your hands that you just wish you could keep and here are a few sofas I've had that I believe are very special.



This cantilevered sofa by Milo Baughman for Thayer Coggin (above) is probably one of his best designs and again one of the early pieces I sold through mid-centuryonline.com. It is a firm and comfortable sofa with one of the most amazing profiles of any sofa Ive ever seen. I meet the lady who bought it every so often and she loves it so Im very happy though Id take it back in the moring if she wasn't.

There are a pair of chairs that were also in this line that I would love to own if anyone reading this blog ever sees them for sale or has them to sell then please let me know...I'm attaching a photo below of the chairs taken from Los Angeles Modern Auction / icollector.com.










I also had this beautiful large curved sofa (below)which had a real 50's styling to it, there was no label attached and I still have not seen another but this was top quality craftmanship in beautiful original condition and it went to a stunning new built modernist home. The wood trim which I believe was walnut and the legs were angled almost to a point in a really 50s way like the fins you see on the back of cars from that period and there were beautiful angles everywhere. If anyone reading can shed any light as to the maker I would love to hear from you.














The last sofa on this list is covered in the maddest fabric but looking beyond that fabric is the frame of an extremely elegant sofa. I love the way it floats above the base allowing light to stream in under and around the piece. This sofa also went to a beautiful new built modernist house and into a light filled room so it should look amazing. The thing I think that is funny about this sofa is that it was originally covered in an eggshell blue 50s fabric and somebody took it off to replace it with this mad patterned fabric..Yay the 70's. Anyway this sofa also had no label and Ive never seen the base of the frame like it but the top rail of the frame is very similar to some from Adrian Pearsall so for now thats my best guess.












If you can shed any light on the designer / maker of either of these sofas or if you want to offer me a sofa for sale or get advice on your sofa then please email me at killian@mid-centuryonline.com or comment below.

Thanks for reading.

Killian.

Buying Vintage

I'm going to go back over a few pieces I've sold during the last two years and hopefully give some form of insight into why I bought them and why I feel they will remain valuable over the coming the years and therefore avoid becoming landfill. My method for buying is based on whether or not I love the piece, I get an immediate and strong reaction to the pieces I buy and I envision how they would look in potential different settings. I obviously have some favorite designers like Milo Baughman and Willy Rizzo so I try to buy pieces by them but Im always coming across new designers and manufacturers that make interesting pieces.





These pink chairs (there were 4)were one of the very first things I sold. I purchased them in Florida and they had faded from an initial purple colour to a bright pink due to sun bleaching. The pink though looked great, it was a happy accident of sorts and the chrome once it was cleaned up was immaculate and really set off the pink. The chairs themselves were solidly built, they had a firm seat and back and were very comfortable to sit in. I cant see a day when a chair like this goes out of style so in my opinion they are a good buy because even if you have to ebay them you will certainly sell them and get most or all your money back and quite often you could make a profit.



Here are another pair of chairs I sold early on, these went to a house in London with what looked like a very nice collection of interesting modern and vintage furniture. These chairs were unmarked when I bought them and I sold them as in the "style of Vladimir Kagan". At the time Im not sure if I was aware of another similar designer called Adrian Pearsall so I went with Kagan as the influence. The chairs were really well made, very solid and in very good condition. At the time I sold these signed pieces of Kagan furniture was starting to get really expensive and Pearsall was still quite reasonable but now Pearsall furniture is starting to attract a lot of attention and the prices have been steadily creeping up all the time. While these chairs may not be by either designer they certainly will appeal to the buyers of Kagan and Pearsall so that will make these chairs a good long term investment for their current owner. They get to use them and love them and if they ever change their mind there will be a market waiting for them when their time to move on comes.

Buy things you like but the most important thing is to try to buy quality. Quality items will always sell even in depressed markets so buy the best you can and enjoy them while you have them. Look up Vladimir Kagan, Adrian Pearsall and Milo Baughman if you have time, they have some beautiful pieces though in the case of Baughman his name is becoming a byword for chrome framed items so there a huge amount of false attributions to his name. The way to avoid buying a non Baughman piece is to check and see if the piece has a label.

Pierre cardin Part 2 (Lamps)

Part 2 of my Homage to Pierre Cardin is based on the lamps that bear his name. I have one such lamp on my site, its the coil or spring lamp made by the Laurel lamp company. The lamp is made from a thin sheet of brass coiled into a small spring shape with a milk glass shade that is attached to the brass (this lamp also comes in a chrome finish). The lamp does not have an etheched / laser cut name like the furniture but instead has a sticker with the Pierre Cardin signature on it.




The last time I was in NYC I was in a shop called "The Warehouse" , it's one of those uber swanky NYC shops that appear on the 1stdibs website and in their window they had the lamp photographed on the left. A few weeks prior to my trip to the USA I had seen one of these lamps come up for auction and I didn't bid as I felt it was too expensive for what I imagined it to be, obv being a guy I didnt read the dimensions or anything I just imagined it to be smallish. Anyway I walk into the shop and there is the same style lamp in the window and its huge, this lamp is about 2 feet wide or more and about 3 feet high or so. When I first saw it at the auction I liked it but thought it was a small lamp and overpriced so I didnt bid but when I saw it in the shop window I totally regretted that decision. This is in my humble opinion one of the nicest table lamps I have ever seen, its big, stylish, sexy and very impressive and its on my list of must haves for my own personal collection. I love this lamp.




The floor lamp photographed above was another Cardin lamp I had the opportunity to buy but this time I turned it down for a different reason. I really liked the lamp and I still do but the one I was offered was missing some of the beaded part which I felt killed the look of the lamp. It might be hard to see in this photo but the see through mesh part of this lamp is a series of vertical metal beaded strips. There are way more Pierre cardin lamps out there, google them for yourself and see what you think. I picked these three because I have a bit of history and some unfinshed business with them. I hope one day to buy the other two and settle these scores and if price and funds permit I hope I get to keep the middle one.

Again dont forget to check out my website www.mid-centuryonline.com or mail me any questions at killian@mid-centuryonline.com

Pierre Cardin week part 1

I am going to start off the new year by actually writing something in this blog and Ive decided to start by dedicating week one too Pierre Cardin and his designs (or at least the ones that bear his name). I am aware of the fact that Monsieur Cardin was famed for being the King of the license but I am going to overlook this fact and refer to anything that bears his name or logo as being a Pierre Cardin product.

I first came across his furniture range when I purchased a chocolate brown and chrome dining table and 8 chairs (pictured) through a great dealer I buy from in Philadelphia.

I was totally drawn to this table and set about researching Pierre Cardin furniture. It seems that his furniture which was available in the USA was made under license by the Dillingham manufacturing company. I also managed to buy the matching sideboard from this set which I have described to others as the furniture version of shoulder pads. To me it epitomises the glamour of the late 1970s and early 1980s. Its serious and playfull all rolled into one.

I should point out at this point that when I buy furniture I dont buy it because I think I can sell it or because its cheap or whatever other reasons people come up with. I only buy things where I have a heart stopping emotional reaction to a piece of furniture, I can be flicking away through pages of furniture when suddenly something will stop me in my tracks and make me sit up and take notice. Pierre cardin furniture from the Dillingham range certainly caught my eye and started a serious love affair with furniture bearing the Cardin Name. I subsequently purchased a coffee table from the Dillingham range that proudly sits in our living room like a giant 4ft square immovable gorgeous lump of swanky fantasticness.

The furniture is generally constucted of particle board that is then lacquered and has chrome or brass accent pieces added. I should add that these metal accent pieces are very thin bits of metal and should only be polished by hand and never using a machine or anything that will generate heat as the accent pieces are backed with plastic. I believe the furniture of Pierre cardin is currently selling for less than it's true value and is certainly one to watch for the future. Any questions you have relating to Pierre cardin furniture or to find out what pieces we have in our current stock then please check our website www.mid-centuryonline.com or E-mail me on killian@mid-centuryonline.com