Good article about an upscale NYC scavenger

[CTLady]

Check out this article about a NYC scavenger who sells midcentury modern pieces through his own gallery.

https://www.gq.com/story/patrick-parrish-the-hunt-nyc-design-tips

He has a book out right now that I’m going to read…

Good points made:

More than once, he bought antiques purely on gut instinct, even if he could only see a few inches of a piece’s wooden leg in the early-morning darkness.

“Is New York’s flea market scene dwindling or just—Dead, it’s dead. It used to be incredibly vibrant, I mean back in the day Andy Warhol would bring, you know, Jerry Hall, and you would see lots of celebrities at the flea market. And there were like seven or eight lots you could be shopping. At one point they were all open at the same time and just amazing stuff came out of there.

In LA there is definitely a culture that still exists, because the Rose Bowl isn’t going anywhere. There’s no place in New York with that much space. Everyone drives to the Rose Bowl, but people in New York don’t have cars. Plus, New York is brutal, while LA has perfect weather. So it’s easy to do the Rose Bowl. You load stuff into your car, take a leisurely drive to Pasadena, sit outside in nice weather and people slowly come buy stuff. New York is super aggressive. It’s cold and rainy and parking is tough.”

In the book you talk about your most epic design finds as well as some fails. Do you have any stories that didn’t make it in the book?
Right when I first moved to New York, this was in the ’90s and I didn’t even have an apartment, I was walking down Lafayette Street. I saw that there was this giant plaster wall light by Frederick Weinberg just leaning up against this building as I walked by. Weinberg was super hot at the time. It was these two dancing figures—the biggest one and the most desirable one. I sat there looking for a minute thinking if should I just take it. But then I thought, “No, someone could be moving, maybe they just ran inside.” And as I was like (devil on one shoulder, angel on the other) “GET IT!” “No, leave it” someone walked out, looked at me and said, “Oh you want that? You can have it.” I remember I took it back to the gallery and we sold it on eBay for $750 or $950. That was a crazy amount of money for me back then.

Is there sidewalk etiquette for furniture and free stuff in NYC?
It sounds gross, but bedbugs changed a lot of dumpster-diving—or at least the hysteria over bedbugs did. But I also think you can still find cool stuff on the street. I grabbed a stool recently. I’m not scared if I see something good. I definitely still look in dumpsters, there’s great stories of people finding shit in dumpsters in New York. But I think the etiquette is: if there’s no one around and it’s not upholstered and it doesn’t seem too gross, then grab it.

[CTLady]

And a link to his book…

advice, stories, gossip, and pointers on how to go about acquiring top-quality art and design from flea markets all the way up to the finest auction houses in the world. With over 25 years of hard-won experience in the trenches as a picker, collector, and dealer he tells you what to do, what not to do, and how to negotiate the often-confusing labyrinths that international galleries, auction houses, and even flea markets can present.

Hailed by The New York Times as “one of the top dealers in the world for cutting-edge contemporary design,” he holds nothing back, providing a unique outlook into what is sometimes, for good reason, a secretive and cliquish world. Often what you don’t do or say is more important than what you do, and he has an insider’s perspective on what dealers and auction house experts want to see and hear from their prospective clients.

[almasty]

There used to be all these flea markets in empty lots (mainly parking lots, some just outright abandoned lots) in lower manhattan in the 90s. I thought the prices for items seemed expensive at the time, but at this point they’re comparable to any Midwestern goodwill. I can only imagine what i missed buying at the time (pre and beginning of ebay days, too young to know what to look for).

[MyCottage]

Oh, I’m going to have to read that book—thanks for sharing! The sort of stuff he’s selling—-my chance of finding that kind of stuff here in rural Pennsylvania is low to zero. (Although it improves if I’m willing to drive out of my usual stomping grounds.) But for me, and I suspect for most of us here, it really is the thrill of the hunt that keeps us in the game. I have morie damn death piles than I like to think about, but I continue to source because that’s where the fun is. And for me, and again, I suspect many here, it’s not just the thrill of the hunt, it’s also the constant learning that’s involved…there’s always new stuff to learn.

Of course, like almasty, I often wonder what would be in those death piles if I had bought different stuff years ago when I was still making the flea market circuit. I try not to dwell on all the good stuff I left behind. LOL

[Author]

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