The preview of an auction at Wright Gallery remains one of my great personal pleasures: I have often likened it to going to a great, small design museum where you can touch everything.
It’s fun to look at the items in the catalog and online, but really, nothing beats going to Wright’s show room and seeing how the staff creates the display vignettes.
I went the day before the auction, where Wright’s staff was happy with the merchandise and clearly enthusiastic about the sale. I talked with Claire Warner, who is back at Wright to develop its contemporary art program, and who said she thought this group of pieces were the strongest the house has ever presented, and I am inclined to agree. Although this sale has fewer lots than some of Wright’s previous offerings, they are all relatively high-ticket.
As soon as you entered the space, you were confronted with one of the major pieces in the sale: a great secretary designed by Gio Ponti; Crowned with a split pediment, it’s almost “post-modern.” Estimated at $30-50K, it didn’t sell.
Other Ponti items fared better. A pair of 1954 lounge chairs for a house in Caracas, estimated at 20-30K, went for $92,750. They are shown here with a dazzling brass table with retractable shelves by Gabriella Crespi, which sold for its high estimate of $20,000.
This great little “unique coffee table” from the Caracas project went for $6.875, just below the high estimate.
A gate from the Caracas house sold for $5,000, below its 7-9K estimate.
This flashy “illuminated bar cabinet,” manufactured by Fontana Arte, that Ponti designed in collaboration with Pietro Chiesa, was estimated at 20-30K, but sold for $74,500.
And this very sweet vanity and chair that Ponti designed for the Royal Hotel in Naples, estimated at 7-9K, went for $13,750.
I loved this display of small Bertoia pieces. About half of them didn’t sell.
Nor did the spectacular Bertoia gong, estimated at 200-300K.
Also really liked this array of Sottsass glass works. Five of the fourteen didn’t sell.
All the same, it’s great to see that Wright is endeavoring to promote Memphis pieces. Of this group, the Sottsass bookshelf, estimated at 10-15K, sold for $11,250, and the Pesce table, estimated at 7-9K, went for $8,750, but the Sottsass cabinet, estimated at 9-12K, didn’t sell.
Two very dramatic metal screens attributed to Jean Royere, estimated at $10-15K, sold for $11,250. The neo-Baroque benches, attributed to Frances Elkins, went for $3.250, slightly above the low estimate. 
One of the most remarkable group of items were about three dozen pieces from the Henry Levy house in Glencoe, all of which were designed — or in some cases simply chosen — by Samuel Marx. Only about two thirds of them sold. In this photo, the Wright stylists have mixed together a Marx desk and chair, some great lamps, a small coffee table and a chest of drawers with pieces that didn’t come from the Levy collection: a “guitar” table by Jean Royere [estimated at 30-40K, it sold for $43,750] and a webbed settee with a pair of matching chairs by Edward Durell Stone [each lot sold for $4.375, slightly below its low estimate]. Of the Marx-designed pieces in the picture, only the mirror and the chest of drawers beneath it sold: the mirror for $20,000 [its low estimate] and the chest [estimated at 10-20K] for $6,250.
An exceptionally comfortable Marx-designed sofa [clearly reupholstered since its original manufacture in the 1950s] sold for $8.750, well above its high estimate of 5K], but the wonderful round table, made by Quigley in 1954 in Marx’s signature lacquered finish, went unsold.
I was excited to see a mosaic fragment from the Daniel Burnham designed Fisher Building, which sold for $2,750, below its 3K estimate. 
Also of local interest: this screen of glass Rondelays by Frances and Michael Higgins, which went for $6,250, slightly below its 7-9K estimate.
As they typically do, Nakashima items sold well. Among them: a pair of long chairs [I’m not sure why even knowledgeable people refer to these items as chaise lounges when they are actually chaise longues, and it’s to Wright’s credit that they’ve translated the term correctly]: both estimated at 20-30K, the one with the armrest on the right sold for $42,500, while the one with the armrest on the left went for $32,500. Can someone explain the bias against sinistrality?
The Minguren I bench from Melody Woods III, Princeton [at front in photo below], estimated at 30-50K, went for $104,500. The “important” king-sized bed sold for $98,500, well above its 70K high estimate. The Conold coffee table in the center went for $13,750; the pair of Conold cushion chairs for $30,000, and the custom Kornblut cabinet at left for $30,000, above its 20K high estimate.
There were fewer works from Charlotte Perriand, typically a staple of Wright sales, but those here were certainly choice. Two Bloc cabinets sold for $43,750 and $46,250, within their estimated ranges, and a signature stool for $4,063, below its 5K estimate. 
There were certainly disappointments, like this group of Noguchi stools, each of which sold for $3,750, below their 5K estimates, although this certainly doesn’t reduce them in my humble estimation. 
This display of Watrous lamps really knocked me out, but the Wright audience apparently felt otherwise. Each estimated between 7-9K, none attracted bidders.
And what about this amazing group of Panton S-chairs, which were maybe the coolest items in the whole sale? I always think of these as fabricated in plastic, but Thonet evidently manufactured these in plywood in the 1950s. The set of eight, estimated at 15-20K, failed to sell.
These “Chicago” chairs, designed by Krueck & Sexton for a 1987 apartment project, failed to sell with estimates of 30-40K. This must be particularly distressing, because these same chairs sold at a Wright auction in 2005 for $34,500. I can attest that they are spectacularly comfortable and, really, unlike any furniture you are likely to find anywhere.
I’m guessing, though, that the most crushing aspect of the sale was the failure to find bidders for some spectacular pieces designed by Sullivan and Adler from the late 19th century. An elevator surround from the Chicago Stock Exchange [a similar one is displayed in the Grand Court of the Art Institute], estimated at 150-200K, did not sell.
Nor did a newel post from the Stock Exchange [estimated at 7-9K] and ceiling escutcheon from Buffalo’s Guaranty Building [estimated at 25-35K]
That said, the most highly touted lot in the sale was the final one — the Laurent House in Rockford, IL, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, which sold for $578,500 [including many of the furnishings], within its estimated range.
I can’t help but think about the passed lots. Marx items have been big sellers in the past decade or so, particularly at Wright; maybe there were just too many pieces in the sale. Granted, some of the passed lots weren’t very special pieces. The lots that sold brought pretty good prices, but nothing earth-shattering. Also surprising: lack of interest in the Panton chairs, and the Sullivan material, which is just so rare.
But really, no one can expect all their wishes to come true this time of year [or, for that matter, ever]. I think the results should make for a happy Christmas at Wright nevertheless: total sales were about $5.65 million — the best take the house has had in a single sale since 2008, if I read the records correctly.
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