Bares für Rares sofa sale Horst Lichter, Digi Mart USA News: “I’m going crazy, a lounge lawn!” Bares für Rares host Horst Lichter said he would have loved to sink into the cushions of an unusual designer piece of furniture. The sofa appeared to be quite valuable.
“That’s not from a teenager’s room?” Lichter asked. “We bought a small house in the Oberbergisch region, and the previous owners left furniture and belongings inside,” explained Jörg from Waltrop, who was accompanied by his son Benedict.
A small treasure thereby passed into their possession, as expert Sven Deutschmanek revealed: “This seating is by Gerd Lange, it dates from the early 1970s and was produced by Herman Miller.”
“That would knock me over!” The modular sofa “living levels” could be rearranged at will and set up differently again and again. “At the time it was very innovative, it was something new,” Deutschmanek said.
“This couch is in almost perfect condition,” he noted in surprise. Apart from small scratches, he found nothing to object to.
“What do you want for it?” Horst Lichter asked the sellers. “We hoped for about 8,000 euros,” Jörg said.
Lichter had not expected such a high value: “Yes, that would knock me over!” But what did the expert think? “Well, 8,000 euros is too much in this case,” he said, tempering expectations and considering at most half the desired price realistic.
“That’s fine,” Jörg said, accepting the expert’s estimate of 3,000 to 4,000 euros. “I think that’s really good money,” Horst Lichter said, especially for a sofa they had received for free.
“Ultimately we are here to sell the sofa,” Jörg said confidently as he went into the dealers’ room. “It doesn’t matter if it sells below the estimate,” Benedict said.
“The main thing is we no longer have it.”
“You won’t believe it: this is by Herman Miller,” Christian Vechtel read aloud to Benjamin Leo Leo and Liza Kielon, who had already made themselves comfortable in the seating group. The only interested bidders, Benjamin Leo Leo and Christian Vechtel, raised the price in small steps.
At 1,800 euros the air grew thin. Benedict tried his luck: “A 2 should come before that.”
Leo asked: “A 2 in front or at the back?” “Both,” Benedict grinned. “Then I’d do 2,002 euros,” the dealer offered the unusual price, which father and son accepted.
Benjamin Leo Leo found two one-euro coins in his wallet and paid the agreed sum exactly in cash.
Other items in the same episode also sold. A bar brooch with about 1.2 carats of diamonds from the 1920s, with an estimated value of 700 to 1,000 euros, went to Elke Velten for 1,200 euros, which was close to the seller’s desired price.
A bronze figure of Rudolf I of Habsburg with a horse on a plinth decorated with hunting motifs by Hans Müller, made around 1910 and valued at 1,000 to 1,500 euros, sold after negotiations started slowly; Christian Vechtel ultimately offered 1,050 euros, exceeding the seller’s desired price.
A Meissen porcelain étagère with the “Blue Orchid on Branch” decor from the 1970s, estimated at 450 to 700 euros, sold for 400 euros to Christian Vechtel, who said: “I think this étagère is very rare.” A glass table clock by Jaeger-LeCoultre from 1980, estimated at 900 to 1,100 euros, was agreed with Liza Kielon at 820 euros. “I think they’re great!
It’s timeless, a beautiful table clock,” the dealer said. A 1950 NBN harbor crane with clockwork drive in its original packaging, valued at 150 to 200 euros, sold to Benjamin Leo Leo for 220 euros.
David Suppes said: “That’s really fun,” and did not want to stop playing with it.
