Issues with Reissues

A design collector could walk into any Vitra retail store and leave with a brand-new version of French designer Jean Prouvé’s 1954 Antony chair for $1,310; or that same buyer could spend nearly $35,000—as someone did last May at the Wright auction house, in Chicago—on a vintage example of an Antony. Vitra also offers, for $3,500, George Nelson’s instantly recognizable Marshmallow sofa, a vintage example of which went for $129,000 at Phillips de Pury & Company in New York in 2002.

Despite such five-figure price differences, some dealers and connoisseurs insist that copies like those at Vitra water down the market for design. Others, however, say reproductions are no big deal. In a market that’s still defining itself—especially with respect to what, exactly, limited editions are—the debate remains heated.

The reissue of midcentury classics is nothing new, but “it seems to be happening more and more,” says the New York–based modern-design dealer Cristina Grajales. “Think of Cassina with the Charlotte Perriand collection and Pucci with Vladimir Kagan’s furniture.” In 2005, Grajales became part of the trend through a collaboration with Perimeter Editions, a specialty firm and gallery in Paris, launched in 2003 by Pascale Revert. Perimeter produces limited editions of pieces that were conceived by a constellation of famous French names but that, as director, Nicolas Chwat, puts it, “have not come to life before or have existed only as drawings or prototypes.” Still, Grajales notes, “it took Perimeter a while to convince me, because I’ve only worked in the past with originals.”

So far in her gallery Grajales has introduced reissues of creations by the Bauhaus-influenced postwar French designer Janette Laverrière. These include her 1966 Nenuphar mirrored table—only one of which was originally produced—for $35,000, from a Perimeter edition of 12, and a steel-framed armchair from 1944, which sells for $14,000 in a Perimeter edition of 50.

At the other end of the retail spectrum, consumers can shop at one of White Furniture’s four New York stores for a knockoff of Charles and Ray Eames’s iconic chaise ($900) which, like all the firm’s offerings, is made in China. The Web site offers this disclaimer: “Our products are not manufactured by, sponsored by, affiliated with or associated with Herman Miller, Knoll, Fritz Hansen or other companies.”

Indeed, those companies frequently produce their own reissues of their vintage designs. Knoll, for example, has been dipping into its famous archive since the mid-1990s and introduces one or two reproductions a year. In June 2004, an executive with the firm noticed that a prototype of the onetime Knoll designer Harry Bertoia’s asymmetrical steel-wire chaise from 1952 had sold for $118,000 at Wright. “I think Bertoia designed it for his kids,” says Elizabeth Needle, a senior vice president at Knoll. “For whatever reason, it never went into production.” After the auction, she says, “we thought, ‘Well, maybe there’s a market for this thing.’ ” Knoll sent an engineer to the home of the auction buyer to take detailed measurements of the chair, then put it into production; it now lists for $7,000.

The Bertoia chaise is not marketed as a unique piece, but some reissues are promoted as limited editions. Although these re-creations usually require the blessing of the makers’ estates or heirs, their “limited edition” designation has created controversy in the design trade.

Take the Danish designer Poul Kjaerholm’s circa 1953 Aluminum Tripod Chair. An example still sporting its original yellow paint came up in June 2005 at Sotheby’s New York, estimated at $40,000 to $60,000. It failed to sell, despite the fact, noted in the sale catalogue, that only 10 of the chairs had been produced and, of those, only two retained their initial colors.

Then, last year, the New York galleries Sean Kelly and R 20th Century, in close collaboration with the Kjaerholm family, jointly reissued the famous chair in editions of 25 for each of the four colors offered—yellow, blue, gray and black—plus 8 artist proofs. Prices for the Tripod reproductions, which are handmade in Denmark and have been selling briskly at both galleries, started at $12,000 when they debuted at Design Miami last December. As the editions sell, that amount increases, much as prices for photographic editions rise with sales. The yellow and blue Tripods are currently $15,000; gray and black chairs are still $12,000.