When a $38,000 Chair You Can’t Use Is a Bargain
Treating furniture like rare paintings has created a boom in collectible design.
The Bee’s Knees (2017), by Wendell Castle.
Photographer: Daniel Kukla, courtesy of Friedman Benda and Wendell Castle Inc.
For those who believe a chair is simply for sitting, the idea that furniture can be “editioned” might come as a surprise. After all, a couch is just wood, fabric, and stuffing—why not make a million of them?
Dealer Marc Benda takes a different view. At Friedman Benda, the New York gallery he co-founded in 2006 with Barry Friedman, he specializes in furniture and objects that can be made only a few times at the very most. Over the years, he’s sold an almost six-foot-high bronze and rubber rocking horse from Dutch designer Marcel Wanders; mirrors from American sculptor Misha Kahn made from automotive paint and resin; and chairs by the Japanese studio Nendo that are constructed out of the paper Issey Miyake uses to make his famous pleats.