Earlier this year, Justin Miller of Los Angeles found an intriguing chair on Facebook Marketplace and decided to take a flyer, buying it for $50. The chair turned out to be a rare high-back wing chair by a famous Danish designer. It sold recently for $107,950 (including premiums) at Sotheby’s.
“I’m not a furniture expert by any means,” Miller said on a TikTok post when he found the chair. “But I have a good eye and I can tell when something is really unique.”
The chair, which came from a home in Beverly Hills, Calif., was created by Danish furniture designer Frits Henningsen. It is likely only one of 50 or so examples known to have been built, according to Sotheby’s, who sold the chair in its “Important Design” event in June.
Henningsen (1889–1965) was known for his exceptional craftsmanship and innovative approach to creating beautiful furniture, as epitomized in the present wingback chair. A rare and important example of his work, the chair also demonstrates the desirable qualities produced by the furniture industry of 1930s Scandinavia. Presale estimate for the chair was $30,000-$50,000, Sotheby’s said.
Miller, 33, who regularly buys and sells furniture online, was helping a friend decorate his house when he spotted the impressive looking wingback chair on Facebook. He didn’t know anything about it, only that it was compelling enough to take a chance on. Miller drove from Los Angeles to a swanky Beverly Hills home and left with a rare Frits Henningsen chair in the back of his truck – and a story to last a lifetime.
Courtesy Sotheby’s
During his seventy-year career as an architect, Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959) created more than 1,100 designs, half of which were realized and a large portion of which came about later in his life. One of earliest and largest private residences ever designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, the Susan Lawrence Dana House is famously dubbed the “blank check” commission where Wright was allowed unlimited funds and resources to create a Prairie School masterpiece for the influential Mrs. Dana in downtown Springfield, Ill. Part architectural wonder, part museum and part historical site, the house was built in 1902-1904 and is now owned by the state and has been designated a state historic site. Among the custom furnishings designed for the house, this magnificent tall-back chair survives. Standing 51 1/4 inches tall and 17 3/4 inches wide, the chair sold for $107,100 at Toomey & Co. Auctioneers this spring.
Photo: Toomey & Co. Auctioneers
A simple Shaker wooden sewing table from 1840 sold for an amazing $98,400 recently at Morphy Auctions of Pennsylvania. The seven-drawer, drop-leaf table is made with butternut, cherry, pine and basswood. It came from the Shaker community at Hancock, Massachusetts, and was attributed to Elder David Terry, who is known to have crafted similar tables. However, there was some speculation among experts that it might have come from the boys’ workshop at Hancock. Prices for Shaker furniture have fluctuated in the last 60 years. Pieces of furniture used by the Shaker communities sell for the most money. This sewing table was estimated to sell between $5,000 and $10,000.
Enjoy Our First “Kovels Antiques Live” Video. Terry Kovel Disusses “How to Take Care of Your Wooden Antique Furniture.”