Its All In The Eye Of The Collector

I occasionally get around to reading the WSJ, ocasionally I said. And today while I was browsing happily through the December archives, I came across an article which blew me away. Now, I’m not broke, by any means, but I certainly don’t have the funding that some people have according to this article.

Seems that designers, in their never ending quest to gain 15 minutes of fame, are now producing limited edition home furnishings and appliances.  Yes, I said appliances. How bout a limited edition refrigerator for your kitchen? LG produced  one in 2005-2006.

There’s something distinctly nouveau riche about the new limited edition jewel encrusted DIOS refrigerator from LG. Aimed at the Taiwanese market, the R-U719GWN three door refrigerator has all the usual LG high tech domestic wizardry such as an ice-maker and LCD panel, but comes with an extra helping of bling in that it has several inlays of Swarovski crystals – 4900 of them to be exact.

Or maybe your tastes lean more retro. Love your Mini Cooper? The Italian company, Smeg, has partnered with MINI to produce similar refrigerator panels, that will even carry those matching white stripes. The special MINI Cooper themed refrigerators will be available in limited edition of 250 units. Yeah, I want my kitchen to look just like my garage!

The ultimate decadence is the La Glacière refrigerator from The Corner Fridge Co. Price: $18,500. (Edition: 2,000). Gotta be a serious foodie for that one.

 

 

At Design Miami, the international design offshoot of Art Basel thatopened its third annual exhibition on December 7,26 galleries are devoted to limited editions, up from 19 last year.

Serious shoppers can consider Studio Job’s $184,000 Robber Baron cabinet, a 1,900-pound cast-bronze piece that the design firm is producing in a quantity of five, and Dutch designer Hella Jongerius’s Backpack Sofa, a hybrid sofa-storage unit produced in an edition of eight that starts at about $51,000. A set of celadon vases, in porcelain, from the designer Peter Ting, will be offered by Contrasts Gallery of China in an edition of eight, costing $150,000 for each set.

The strategy behind the limited-edition game is of course to create a sense of urgency. And of course the marketing works!  George Lindemann, a prominent Commercial Real Estate Exec in Miami, can tell you first hand.  In 2006, the haute design collector, nabbed a  Marcel Wanders Crochet Chair. What did the owner of the George Lindeman art collection pay for this chair (numbered 1 of only 20 produced). A whopping $45,000.

“It looked much better live,” Mr. Lindemann says of the chair. He still recalls the moment the gallery told him, “OK, you’ve got to decide now. Other people want it.” He considered for a few minutes and leapt. The white chair now sits in his Miami office, where unwitting clients are politely asked to leave their coffee outside. “It’s an investment for down the road,” Mr. Lindemann says.

Okay. Think I’ll just stick to comic books, Barbie and baseball cards!