Art Basel Miami Beach – Part I

We’re still thinking about what we learned at the huge Art Basel show in Miami Beach in December (see Letter to Lee, February, and Kovels Komments archives, Dec. 13, 2007, at Kovels.com). The biggest surprise for us was the dealer showing some furniture by Philip LaVerne: a coffee table for $30,000 and a mixed metal cube of silver, bronze and pewter for $15,000. We remember LaVerne pieces from our house sale searches in the 1980s and ’90s. Smoky mirrored coffee tables decorated with exotic Asian figures were the most common.

Pieces by LaVerne were popular in our city in the 1960s, and several decorators and shops featured the work. But at house sales 20 years later, LaVerne pieces were sold only after prices were slashed. The mirrored tables with painted chinoiserie decoration were especially unpopular. LaVerne made other pieces, too-plaques, stools, chests and metal tables, some seemingly inspired by Picasso and others by Michelangelo. Philip LaVerne Galleries was in New York City from the 1940s into the 1960s or ’70s. Philip and his son, Kelvin, made mid-century modern furniture and signed it. We have not seen any sell in shops for years.

The dealer at Art Basel told us he’s planning an exhibit of LaVerne for the fall and we suspect prices will be like those at Art Basel. So we talked later to dealers in the Midwest. They see LaVerne, and if they get $4,000 for a coffee table they’re delighted. That sounds like an opportunity for some collectors and dealers to buy bargains. Why the price difference? New York often is the first to promote a neglected furniture designer, so we will have to wait to see if LaVerne becomes important again.

to be continued…..