DEPARTURES STYLE
DEPARTURES STYLE STAYING POWER 50 Interior Appreciation As furniture becomes increasingly collectable, a shortlist of pieces – old, new and limited-edition – to keep on your radar. by Katharina Hesedenz AN EAMES LOUNGER. A Mies van der Rohe chair. A dining table by Eero Saarinen. Each of these design classics is exceptionally beautiful – with a similarly exceptional price tag to match. Landmark furniture pieces don’t come cheap, but, unlike lesser examples that steadily decline in value the minute they arrive in your home, original pieces from licensed manufacturers grow in value as the years go by. The idea that interiors could translate into big money became unequivocally clear in 2015, when Marc Newson’s aluminiumclad Lockheed Lounge fetched a record-breaking £2.4 million at a London auction, edging its way, price-wise, into the ranks of Damien Hirst or Banksy pieces. But there have always been shrewd buyers willing to reach deep into their pockets for a Bauhaus armchair or a Noguchi coffee table, and since the pandemic, their ranks have swelled exponentially. Londonbased purveyor Heal’s reported a three-year peak in interest in vintage pieces as early as 2020/21, with items such as Hans Wegner’s Wishbone chair seeing a whopping 204% increase. It is a trend with no end in sight – which suggests it’s simply our new reality. A copper 2016 limited-edition Louis Poulsen floor lamp is now going for more than 1.6 times its initial price. Jean Prouvé’s Kangourou chair in “Prouvé Bleu Marcoule”, which Vitra launched earlier this year in a limited edition of 150, was sold out within a few days – and offered at a much higher price on auction site 1stDibs just two weeks later. Investment advisers can only dream of such margins at the moment. “In the field of Italian design, you can see a continuous increase in prices in the order of about 20 per cent per year,” says Sabrina Dolla, the design director of Parisian auction house Artcurial, which is preparing its Italian Design auction for late this November. Still, design is “ultimately not a speculative market”, she admits, “but a market of well-being”. And not unlike money, you can never really have enough of it. Game Changer Marc Newson’s famous Lockheed Lounge made design history. One of the 15 daybeds produced in 1986 was auctioned off in 2015 for £2.4 million. © KARIN CATT, COURTESY OF MARC NEWSON LTD 2022
ALL IMAGES COURTESY THE COMPANIES 1957-designed dining table by Eero Saarinen for Knoll International, knoll-int.com Vitra-made Eames lounge chair, designed by Charles and Ray Eames in 1956, vitra.com The Classics 1977-designed Atollo metal table lamps by Vico Magistretti for Oluce, oluce.com Enduring feats of design that have stood the test of time. 1920s-era PH 3/3 Brass Opal Glass Pendant lamp by Poul Henningsen for Louis Poulsen, louispoulsen.com Thonet’s S32 Cantilever chair, created by Marcel Breuer in 1928, thonet.de 1969-designed Soriana sofa by Afra and Tobia Scarpa for Cassina, cassina.com 51 DEPARTURES
