Hunting rare furnishings is a thrill sport: the high of scoring a Noguchi table at a back-alley Genoa antique shop, the low of just losing a Lalanne at auction. And it’s even more true for the professionals, according to nine interior designers who share their most memorable tales of discovery and disappointment, from the major find they can’t live without to the holy-grail piece that eludes them to this day.
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Will Meyer
Image Credit: Hans Wegner The One That Got Away: “I just purchased a Hans Wegner daybed, but I’m still on the hunt for the perfect Papa Bear chair. I love Danish design, and to me, this piece is iconic. I hope to eventually get it—they never go out of style, so I’m sure the right one will find me.”
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Amy Lau
Image Credit: Joseph Walsh Big Find: “While on a trip to Ireland a few years ago I made a special point to do a studio visit with Joseph Walsh. I was immediately drawn to his Dommus chairs, which he had just finished designing. Sculptural, hand-crafted and expressive, they were unlike anything I had ever seen before. I decided right then and there to commission a set for my New York apartment, where they now sit around an ombré glass dining table by German Ermičs.”
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Pierre Yovanovitch
Image Credit: Christie's The One That Got Away: “It has to be a masterpiece by Uno Ahren. I love all of his work, but it’s very rare and very expensive. One is his inlaid Mahogany Secretaire, which was made in 1927. It’s a great example of his flawless execution of work and is particularly stand-out for a number of reasons. The design is impeccable and the production, with the inlaid images of the Garden of Eden, is so special.”
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Nate Berkus
Image Credit: 1stdibs The One That Got Away: “I’m still on the hunt for a Picasso ceramic owl. I buckled and didn’t buy one when I worked at an auction house in Chicago years ago, because I couldn’t afford it. I saw one again years later in Paris and still didn’t get it. Then, most recently, I saw one on 1stdibs. The value has gone up in every instance. Next time I will probably—no, definitely—not be able to afford it. But I still want one.”
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Miles Redd
Image Credit: Miles Redd Big Find: “For me, it is my mirrored bathroom by David Adler—something I found in a salvage warehouse in Chicago. It almost got sold out from under me, and I was devastated because there is just not another one out there, and that is why it is the holy grail. I see a ton of stuff and most things have a duplicate. This does not. It is the biggest room in my house and doubles as a dining room. I take a bath in it every morning, and it is just a very nice way to start the day. It feels like being on the inside of a diamond.”
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Alexandra Champalimaud
Image Credit: Mattia Bonetti The One That Got Away: “The Mattia Bonetti Rock dining table (above). I saw it at a design fair and thought it was absolutely divine. It’s an extraordinary work, with huge personality. But I couldn’t think of anywhere to place it. It would be too frivolous of me to buy it with no home.”
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Martyn Lawrence Bullard
Image Credit: Maison Gerard The One That Got Away: “I love to buy at auction. I always find the hunt for the unexpected that occurs at auctions to be such a thrill. However, the bad side of an auction is if you falter or second guess yourself on a bid that item can be gone in a blink on an eye and possibly never to be seen on the market again. Three years ago there was a Jacques Adnet Hermès Saddle leather day bed that I knew would look amazing in my house. I decided on the price I would pay, did some research on what the last one sold for and went to the auction.
Unfortunately, the item jumped up two bids more than I had decided on, and I couldn’t decide whether to bid one more time. Just as I made my mind up to, the gavel came down and I lost the item forever. I have searched and searched ever since to find another in the same color and size but to no avail. The motto of this tale is to always go for what you want with passion and abandon. We only live once!”
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Robert Couturier
Image Credit: Robert Couturier Big Find: “There is truly very little that I couldn’t live without, I veritably consider myself a temporary owner and I have never given objects that much value, even if I have paid small fortunes for them. Objects come and go and live their own lives really independently than ours! We enjoy them and then they are one. That said, the value of an object to me is in great parts its history: who made it who owned it and sometimes the impact it had on their lives.
I have one painting by Jean Baptiste Greuze depicting an angel that I would probably like to keep for as long as I live, it is not the intrinsic artistic value of the object nor even its monetary value that attach me to it but it’s memory, it was bought by my great-grandfather in 1880s he gave it to my grandmother and I have seen it my entire life in her house. I have always associated it with whatever bit of happiness I have known when I was growing up and with all the deepest loving memories I have of the grandmother who raised me. So when I look at it I think about her and it fills me with bonheur—and makes the idea of time fade away.”
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Michael Smith
Image Credit: Chairish The One That Got Away: “I am enamored by the Lovö chair, which was designed by Axel Einar Hjorth in 1932. I had bid on this piece at auction, but missed out. It’s such a dynamic piece. Despite the fact that it was made in the 1930s, it has a remarkably modern character to it and I would have loved to find a home for it in one of my classic yet modern projects.”
