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Mid-century fans, listen up: One of the largest and most unusual collections of modernist furniture and decorative arts ever seen in Aotearoa-New Zealand is coming to auction.
Collector and restorer Ross Morrison shut his Christchurch shop Mr Mod in January after 43 years in the business. Now, the remaining pieces in his extensive collection will be auctioned at Webb’s auction house in Auckland on Sunday at 1pm.
Mr Mod: The Morrison collection will be the first of three or four auctions Webb’s will host for Morrison, which gives some idea of the size and breadth of the collection. There are 310 lots in this first auction alone.
“The collection is really one of a kind,” says Webb’s auctioneer Ben Erren. “There is no other collection like this in the country and it’s unlikely one like it will ever exist again. Every single thing here was picked by him. And it’s always quality.”
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On offer is not only a mixture of Mid-century modern design from around the world, but also “a lot of exquisite antiquities”, including pieces of art and furniture.
Morrison has said that being asked to pick favourite pieces out of his collection is almost like asking him to pick his favourite child, impossible. But some pieces have more meaning for him than others.
Lot 74, a George Nelson Model 4658 Desk, designed in 1946 for Herman Miller, was the one piece Morrison wanted when he started buying Mid-century design.
The desk has a futuristic look – a precursor to 50s US Atomic styling. It’s estimated to sell for between $5000 and $8000.
Another favourite is lot 23, a chest of Spanish drawers that once belonging to actor James Coburn.
“I absolutely fell in love with that when I saw it,” says Morrison. “I bought it from an auction house in LA and had it sent to New Zealand. I have never seen a chest of drawers with dragons as feet.”
Morrison has a picture of the chest in Coburn’s home, which was designed by legendary 50s Hollywood decorator, Tony Duquette, whose company still exists in LA.
Other items Morrison highlights are a Jean-Joseph Chapuis Empire Chair, a rare find in New Zealand; a Thomas Cole clock, from the UK; and a credenza and bar by La Permanente Mobile Cantù, Italian design from the early 60s, valued to be worth between $6,000 and $8,000 for the credenza, and $4,000 and $6,000 for the bar.
“It took a long time for me to make the decision [to shut up shop],” says Morrison. “I think that was the hardest thing to make a decision to change like that. And I know a lot of people can’t make that decision. But things happen in life and you go, ‘hmmm’. I’ve had an amazing career. Sometimes you just have to know when to pull the pin.”
It’s also getting “so much harder to buy overseas”, he says, as prices on “anything that’s unusual or rare or different” have skyrocketed.
“When you think of Denmark, with a population not much more than New Zealand, it can’t go on forever. I don’t know how many 40 foot containers [full of Scandinavian Mid-century design] go out of there a week, it’s probably in the hundreds.
“It’s got to come to an end. The sources are drying up. The same is happening in Italy and in America. That’s pushed the prices up. And when it comes to New Zealand, we’re just the poor cousins.”
That makes sales such as Morrison’s Webb’s event all the more exciting for decorative arts fans looking for reasonably priced one-offs.
Morrison originally wanted to find new homes for the collection in just one or two sales.
”He said I want to get it done in two,” says Erren. “And I looked at the warehouse and said, ‘oh mate, Not a chance’. I can only stand at the podium for so long before I fall over. We’ll need at least four or five to get this amount of stuff squared away.
“The key for us as well, was that each auction has to be of the same quality. So it’s not about picking out all the best pieces first and then the rest being a little bit lower quality.”
The market for secondhand decorative arts is “absolutely exploding”, says Erren. People want decorative items in the home, but they want them to have a bit of mana, and a unique story.
“Say you or I go out to Freedom tomorrow, and we buy a corner sofa for $3000 or $4000. Five years later, how much is that going to be worth? Nothing, less than a grand.
“But this furniture was not only handcrafted by an artist in their own right, to the highest quality, but it holds its value. It’s always going to be good.”
Mr Mod: The Morrison Collection goes under the hammer on Sunday, May 28 at 1pm. To register to bid, see the Webb’s site. If you’re in Auckland, you can see the collection on site at the Webb’s sale rooms.
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