Recent media exposure, including a retrospective at the Barbican in London, a new book on the furniture designer by Lesley Jackson (shortlisted for the BACA awards in June) and various reissues of old designs by Habitat, has helped to bump up the value of Day furniture.
The Forum Lounge chair is a distinctive design of the early 1960s, the cube form, exposed frame and stanchion legs giving the chair an architectural presence. Estimated at £300-500, the pair were contested by the trade to £980 – a high price perhaps, but even with premium and VAT added. still comparing favourably with the £1500 retail cost of a brand new pair at Habitat.
Furniture buy of the Day
Robin Day shot to fame as the winner of MoMA’s international low-cost furniture competition in 1948, but the bidding for a pair of Forum Lounge chairs, one shown, in the Post-War section of the sale at Phillips Edinburgh (15% buyer’s premium) on April 27 was anything but subdued.
