Selling Modernism: Game change

Once a dealer commits to carrying moderate-to-high-end vintage items, the procurement game changes. He realizes that he can no longer rely on Craigslist and estate sales for his inventory.

That's not to say dealers abandon Craigslist altogether or quit scanning the estate sale photos for great pieces in the background. Amazing finds at reasonable prices still show up occasionally, but they're too hit-and-miss to keep a store or a shop on an online marketplace like 1stdibs or V&M stocked. (For instance, V&M suggests that dealers start with a minimum of 60 items with an average price of $1500 and add new stock weekly. Many dealers on 1stdibs list far more items...and with considerably higher price tags.) It's simply too time-consuming to be on the constant prowl for that kind of inventory while trying to keep regular store hours.

So it's necessary to figure out fairly quickly what the heavy hitters in the business do. Fortunately, there are several nationally known dealers here in Dallas whose business practices we have been able to observe. They mainly buy at auction, have a few trusted pickers who bring them quality pieces on a regular basis and have built such reputations for themselves that people are constantly offering to sell them great pieces of furniture.

We're getting there. It's become rarer and rarer for my SIL to go to estate sales or buy off Craigslist. He finds it a much more efficient use of his time and resources to monitor the auctions sites or build relationships with pickers and vintage modern collectors who frequently have good pieces for sale than to drive around town or sit in front of an estate sale at 4 a.m. hoping to pick up something, although he will if he sees something too good to pass up. Here are just a few of the pieces we've bought lately:

Alvar Aalto wing chair, Model 41

Dunbar side tables

J. L. Moller armchairs

Nanna Ditzel style chair

Vladimir Kagan chairs

We've also bought a Scarpa style coffee table and a really cool chrome chandelier. All these pieces will be making their way to the brick-and-mortar store and online shop as soon as they are cleaned up/restored.

Selling Modernism: Reform Gallery

Reform Gallery's owner, Gerard O'Brien, moved his family from New York to Los Angeles to pursue his acting career in 2001, just five days before the World Trade Center attack on September 11. Not long afterward, he concluded that he couldn't "afford to indulge in acting anymore" and began making plans to open a shop.

He realized that no one was really focusing on California Modernism and decided that might be the direction to go. He opened Reform Gallery in 2002, showcasing California production furniture masters such as Greta Grossman, Maurice Martine and Paul Tuttle. His exhibit, CA Design, celebrated California designers from 1956-1976 and was a turning point for his business. Masters such as Otto Natzler, Sam Maloof and Harrison McIntosh came to the shop, and O'Brien commissioned Julius Shulman to document the event.

Reform Gallery sells some of the finest pieces available in the country and is known for striking displays at modernism shows nationwide.

From 1stdibs.com

CA Design exhibit
midcenturia.com

smarttravelling.com

smarttravelling.com

smarttravelling.com

supercozy.com

reform-modern.com

reform-modern.com

Besides it's beautiful merchandise, Reform Gallery is known for its outstanding design library, shown below.

nicoledisson.blogspot.com

Reform Gallery is also known for its remarkable displays at design shows. This Paul McCobb display and the close-up from the October 2012 Los Angeles Antiques show are perfect examples.

flickr.com - Diedre Woollard Photostream

reform-modern.com

Several months ago, O'Brien bought a Northcraft Model 2014 lamp by Paul McCobb from us, like the one pictured below in the Fall 2012 edition of Atomic Ranch. The lamp in the article was apparently one sold earlier.

atomicranch.com

Gerard O'Brien, owner of Reform Gallery
(from Casa Brutus magazine)
reform-modern.com

I couldn't begin to include all the stunning photographs of Reform Gallery's shows and store displays, so I used some of my favorites. I urge you to go to the website and check out Press, as well as News & Events.

Selling modernism: Era Atomica

Era Atomica, located at 1726 E. Passyunk Avenue in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is the labor of love of one of our own blogger friends, Stacey of Mid-Century in Montgomery County. She opened the store just a little over a year ago, and it has been so successful that she's already thinking about opening a second location.

Stacey describes the store's current location, as well as the store's atmosphere, like this:  

The neighborhood is perfect for this type of store, the businesses have been super nice, helpful and excited over what we're selling.  The residents are a mix of young families, young hipsters, and gay couples with (clearly) great taste. Some people come in and just pull up a (Heywood Wakefield) chair and talk with us while we work about... well ANYTHING. 

When talking with Stacey via email recently, she told me that Era Atomica has established a great clientele niche, made up of new as well as many repeat customers, that is constantly growing as a result of the influx of people moving to the Philadelphia area, which I was surprised to learn is exceeded only by the number of people moving into Brooklyn and Portland.

The store has been especially busy lately selling to college students moving in and getting settled in their own places. Stacey says they have great taste and are very receptive to design ideas, so it's fun to help them furnish their homes.

Era Atomica will be participating in Design Philadelphia 2012 by offering a hands-on upholstery demonstration on Wednesday, October 17 from 6:00-7:00 p.m. If you're in the area, I hope you'll stop in and say hi, and if you're not, I know you'll enjoy this look through the store.

Selling modernism: Original in Berlin

Since I'm involved in a family business that sells mid-century and modern furniture, I'm always interested to see the kind of merchandise carried by similar shops around the world, as well as the way it is displayed. I recently received an email from Lars Triesch announcing the new location of Original in Berlin.

The move makes them the largest mid-century modern store in Berlin, and what a beautiful shop it is!  Very much like Mid2Mod, Original in Berlin offers a wide variety of vintage and new products, from designers such as Alexander Girard, Russel Wright, George Nelson and Carl Auböck.

The store opened in the summer of 2010 and is expanding their collection to offer more Scandinavian, French, Dutch, Italian and American furniture. They have their own upholsterers and carpenters on staff to restore furniture or do custom work...something we'd love to have someday.

German followers, who make up approximately one-fifth of my readership, will be happy to hear about Original in Berlin, but for those of us who can't make it to the store, the good news is that they will ship worldwide to us too. As an added bonus, if you mention Mid2Mod when you order, Lars will give you a 10% discount.

Enjoy a peek at Original in Berlin.

Selling Modernism: Rapson-Inc.

Much of my blog focuses on the designers of modern furniture and accessories. This is the first in a series of posts about how those pieces reach the public once they have been manufactured. The series will take a look at some of the pioneers in retailing of modernist design, as well as businesses around the world today that sell exceptional modern home furnishings.

In 1940, Elliot Noyes, a student of Walter Gropius and the first curator of the Industrial Design Department at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, organized a competition called Organic Design in Home Furnishings. The participants included the world's most talented modernist designers and architects. In the years following World War II, their designs went into production, but there were few retail outlets selling the products.

Ralph Rapson and his wife Mary decided to open a store that would sell specifically this type merchandise. Rapson continued to work as a practicing architect and architecture professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and, in his spare time, he selected the designs for the store. Mary was responsible for the financial, promotional and operational end of the business.

Rapson-Inc. opened in 1950 at 282 Dartmouth Street, one block from Copley Square in the Back Bay neighborhood of Boston. Mary proposed that their inventory be made up primarily of Rapson's own designs, along with pieces acquired on credit from Knoll Associates, with whom her husband had been collaborating on several projects.

The long, narrow store was decorated with Angelo Tasta's fabrics hung from ceiling to floor, Knoll chairs hung on the wall, storage cabinets of Rapson's design to display smalls and a living room vignette used to show customers how to incorporate modern design into their own homes.

In the early 50s, Rapson received a commission to design a number of American embassies throughout Europe, so they closed the store and moved abroad, but in the late 1990s, Toby Rapson, Ralph's son and business partner at Rapson Architects, worked with Ralph and a team at the firm, along with master craftsman Jonathan Loeck, to put some of Rapson's designs back into production.

After Ralph Rapson's death in 2008, Toby Rapson separated the furniture design business from the architecture firm, and Rapson-Inc. was reborn, using the original bowtie logo from 1950. The company now makes furniture from the large collection of original Rapson designs, determined to produce a top-quality product by remaining mindful of Rapson's observation that "there's a lot of half-assed Modernism out there."

From rapson-inc.com and modernism101.com

Rapson Inc., circa 1950
esotericsurvey.blogspot.com

Rapson Inc., circa 1950
rapson-inc.com

Rapson, Inc., circa 1950
esotericsurvey.blogspot.com

Rapson-Inc. logo
rapson-inc.com