I have stories of great finds...
I have stories of great finds and incredible prices (or even free) from years ago and until last month I would have happily retold them here - until my experience last month that left them all in the dust. Gather round for a midcentury furniture camp fire tale kids.
I figured the days of finding great, spectacular deals on good midcentury stuff was over. Seems like everyone knows something about it now, and regardless it's "old" and antique roads show, ebay and mad men have made ignorance of it near impossible.
And then it happened. I won't bore you with too many details but even a month later my partner and I will just sit back and recount this estate sale and moments that occurred because it still makes our heads spin when we think about it...and now when we look around our house which has been totally refurnished.
I got up hours before work to be sure we were the first ones to arrive at the sale.
Original Knoll executive credenza from 1961 and a Knoll low conference table from early 60's - in near perfect original condition- the pair for under $100. Wassily Chairs, Saarien tulip side tables and kitchen table with Marble tops - for $30 and $40. Stendig furniture, Henry Rosengren Hansen kitchen stools, Wegner leather stools, etc...
All of this incredible, beautiful, original designer furniture at prices that I not only could afford, but which almost made me faint. When he named the insanely low price on the first item I had to still my fluttering heart over, besides instantly snapping "I'll take it" I looked at my partner and we didn't even have to speak. From there is was an effort to control ourselves as we romped and ran through the place know we could afford all of this amazing stuff. (I had honestly thought I would go to this sale and maybe blow my entire fund on maybe one or two pieces, instead I didn't spend anywhere near my entire funds and nearly bought the entire place out.)
By the end of the whirlwind I was actually turning down items that under normal circumstances I would have jumped at - but I was already looking at 2-3 full truckloads with less than 1 hour of shopping time.
The irony is now just to finish doing my entire house in midcentury style I've had to spend more money on just a few lower quality vintage pieces just to bring it all up to snuff with all I got @ the estate sale.
I can only say I'm so glad it was someone like me who honestly had dreamed of owning pieces like this just for my home and not some crass capitalist who would have just snapped it all up and then just sold it for 10x the prices the next week. We love it as much or more as the deceased original owner did - and will take excellent care of it. Though if I have a kid and they would sell my fabulous stuff at an estate sale that cheap (and without doing a whit of research) I would come back from the dead to haunt them forever!
Pics of the booty
Yes, I realized half way through that story what I was typing was equivalent to midcentury collector porn and obviously you need the money shot - pics - to really appreciate this. So without further ado...
I'm posting a link to the album instead as there are 12 pictures, and it would require perhaps 6 postings to include them...but I will throw 3 here just for a taste.
Here is a description of the 12 pictures in the album.
We have twelve pictures, here is what they show:
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1. Eero Marble top side table - 1st Edition.
2. Eero Dining Table - Marble top was destroyed by previous owner, so we just got the base and added this glass top - it too, is a first edition.
3. Wassily Chair - these two Gavina Chairs were produced by Gavina in 1962, and were custom ordered in a white/slight tan fabric direct from the factory, not many of these fabric/canvas Gavina's in existence.
4. The Florence Knoll 78 Inch table - first edition, we have shown pictures of the base, top and with the new owner in one pic. the top is in original condition and is like a mirror.
5. A teak waste basket - goes with the Credenza.
6. Hans Wegner foot stool. Now the most expensive cat perch we know of.
7. Arco Lamp with a base made by the previous owner to his specs - not done by the factory that we know of, but by a company in NY.
8. Credenza, first Edition Flagship Credenza by Florence Knoll.
9. Two Herman Miller Chairs, first edition issued with this type of base.
10. 4 Bar Stools from Denmark, designed by Rosen - this pic is NOT of our 4, but of the exact ones off the internet - ours are in storage until I can get around to redoing the seats, so no pic of the actual 4 we obtained.
11. No photo of the 4 Stendig chairs we obtained and they are hard to find on the internet.
12. No picture of the two knoll headboards - they are doubles for twin beds - nothing fancy just wood frame with fabric but still - knoll.
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Just so this makes sense my b...
Just so this makes sense my boyfriend and I are both posting under the same name.
So the photos are the booty from the most incredible estate sale of my life, ever. I don't expect another to even be in the same hemisphere.
I don't want to divulge too many details to respect the former owner's privacy but it was one crazy scene. He didn't really bother to advertise the sale much I, thank heavens, just happened to notice a scraggly flier taped up on a pole downtown the day before. (which I took) it wasn't even listed as an estate sale merely a yard sale. However I knew the address and knew the estate would have amazing stuff. So the sale was supposed to start at 8 am - we arrive at 7:40 and are the only ones there. In fact we were the only ones there till well after 8:45 am.
We arrive and let's just say the estate inheritor is quite eccentric. He grew up around all this stuff and didn't seem to be much impressed by it maybe because it had become pedestrian if you've seen it since you were born.
Apparently the absolutely stunning house these treasurers were in was being sold, it closed in 3 days and he needed everything out by then. He had put off the sale till the last minute, it was mentioned because some family member had wanted the furniture but they never came and got it and now it had to go asap.
There was no electricity in the house anymore and it was HOT even 8 am so I'm sweating my ass off and the sheer excitement of it made my temperature rise.
I had assumed there were going to be marked, firm prices because well you just expect that and then because on the flier it said "prices will drop X% every 4 hours". But when I spot the first thing I want - he simply asks what I would give him. It became this bizarre game. I see an amazing piece and cheekily offer so insanely low price (I.e. $25 for a Saarien marble side table) and every time he hesitates and says, "well....I was hoping to get $30" OK!!!!! No matter what price I gave he always said he was hoping for exactly $5 more. No argument from me! It became some insane game or it made me feel insane because I wasn't sure if this could possibly all be real - except the humidity and sweat that was better than a pinch for convincing me it was not a dream.
I'm sure the photos tell the story all r interested in. I will close by saying the entire list above was obtained for approx $750. Im still n shock it. I don't have room in my house for everything I bought. This furniture is worthy of a new home. sometimes I think my furniture in the lounge may be worth half the worth of my house - it's insane.
I have traversed flea markets, estate sales, yard sales, auctions and junk stores for 15 years trying to amass a good collection of midcentury. I think this sale was the gods way of acknowledging all my hours of toil by granting me the type of estate sale I had always fantasized about and getting the pieces of furniture I feared I would never be able to afford.
tinyarmada, I had a similar s...
tinyarmada, I had a similar score, though not quite as good as yours. It was a gorgeous midcentury home out in the woods and the sale was poorly advertised. I got there early, was the only shopper, and found a ton of great stuff. Bird chair, $100, huge teak Kofod Larson credenza, $200, Moller stools, Lovig desk, Scandia chairs, some palaset cubes, all of it for next to nothing. I wanted to buy more, but I couldn't fit it in the car. Left behind a lot more, like the matching dining table and chairs, a pair of Falcon chairs, a nice teak console table... oh the pains of having a small car. When I left, the credenza was on the roof of my car, and there was so much packed in the car that chair legs were sticking out the passenger side window. Really helped furnish my place that day.
tinyarmada,Thats an...
tinyarmada,
Thats an awesome story!
I had a similar thing happen to me about 2 years ago.
I had to drive 30 miles from my home one Saturday afternoon to pick up a beat up Craigslist teak lounge chair that I wanted for a project. As I always do I brought along extra cash in case he had other cool stuff for sale. When I got there and finally saw the chair in person I realized it was worse off than I expected and passed on it.
I didnt want to waste a trip, so I jumped on my phone, looked up garage sales within a 10 mile radius and found one about 1 mile from where I was. The ad was short and only gave the address, time and named "furniture plus other household items" for sale. The sale had already been going for a few hours so I wasnt very optimistic as I drove over.
To my amazement, as I pulled up to the home I could see the entire driveway filled with mid-century furniture. I figured most of it had to be sold by this time of day.
I quickly jumped out and instantly recognized a few pieces.
I asked the pair of ladies holding the sale what was available and to my amazement they pointed out a single Dux upholstered armchair as sold, everything else was still available. I literally went crazy running around looking at everything and asking for prices.
In the end, I scored a matching pair of Greta Grossman for Glenn of California desks in Walnut w/ black formica, a pair of matching end tables from the same line, A walnut Dresser & Highboy by Milo Baughman for Glenn of California, a Danish coffee table and a Greta Grossman Cobra Lamp all for a bundled price of $380 dollars!!!
It took me a second trip to get everything home but I knew I had probably had the greatest day I would ever have Craigslist hunting. My only regret from that day was passing on a very nice dining set that I did not recognize. I also did not have any room at home for it so I passed. A year later I finally realized that it was a set designed by John Keal for Brown & Saltman.
I ended up selling all of the pieces over a 6 month period with the exception of the Cobra Lamp that sits on my desk today. I've had other good days since then, but nothing remotely close to the pure excitement and quality I experienced that day!
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