Latest news with #Scandinavian
Otago Daily Times
an hour ago
- Business
- Otago Daily Times
Christchurch dealer's armchairs fetch world record price
Christchurch's Mr Mod is going out on a high note with a pair of 1960s armchairs selling for a world record price at the auction of his large mid-century furniture collection. Ross Morrison is signing off as a collector and dealer after the two-day auction of 674 lots last weekend culminated in bidding reaching $13,500 for the teak armchairs by Danish designer Erik Kirkegaard. By the final bid the overall total matched the $500,000 netted from a previous Auckland auction, once after-sales and a buyers' premium of just over 17% were added up. Among the highlights was another pair of Kirkegaard teak-framed armchairs selling for $7750 and a first-series black leather egg chair by Arne Jacobsen, imported into New Zealand in 1961, making $9000. The collection was assembled by Mr Morrison over four decades of dealing and trading in decorative arts. He has spent the past week overseeing deliveries and the picking up of Italian, United States and Scandinavian interior design from the 1950s to the 1970s alongside vintage, Georgian, William IV and earlier antiques. Mr Morrison said he was both exhausted and elated after a better than expected result. He was glad to see the collection go to new homes throughout the country and a few items heading to Australia with no regrets, he said. ''There was fierce bidding for two pairs of Erik Kirkegaard chairs and that's before the buyers' premium of 17.25% as well so that is a world record. Nobody has paid that sort of money for those chairs. Then on the final day the Arne Jacobsen egg chair sold for $9000 plus buyers' premium. I've had it for 15 years and always wanted that sort of money and finally it got there.'' This followed the egg chair being passed in for $5000 at one of two Auckland auctions of items from his Mr Mod store in 2023. He said it was difficult to explain how the chairs reached such a high price, but Erik Kirkegaard was a well known Danish designer from the 1950s and 1960s. ''When you get two people who want something that was it. It was basically a fight between someone here on the floor and someone on the phone who won the auction for the first matching pair and then the second pair.'' The chairs which he bought in Denmark will remain in Canterbury. Many of the better items sold for double to treble his starting bids, he said. A mahogany chest with carved, poly-chromed and gilded pair of dragons at the base and a marble top from Hollywood actor James Coburn's house will be going to the North Island after a $2100 final bid. He said some pieces sold well above expectations and other below, but it was time for him to let the collection go. ''There were a couple of things I thought: what the heck? The sofas and display cases went pretty well, but I think people got a good buy with the Jens Quistgaard enamel pot and also some of the Eames stuff was low. I guess that's a sign of the market for reproductions has caused that. ... Overall, it was about the law of averages and the whole of the auction.'' Only five items were eventually passed in after a virtually full clearance and after-sales of about 10 items. ''All I've got left is an American iron chandelier, a folding screen from San Francisco, an antique photograph from Italy, a fish bait box I think from Tokelau, a pottery platter and a NZ pottery bowl and that is it, nothing else and it's all gone. Over 99% sold when you work out there were 674 lots.'' Mr Morrison became a specialist of mid century interior design after accumulating furniture on buying trips to the United States, France, Italy and Scandinavia before the movement caught on. More than 300 people attended a mid-week preview night to view the lots and farewell him. ''They were disappointed I wasn't in business anymore because there was no one taking over that reign. With the international market being so high it's very hard to repeat that. Nobody could put up a collection like this again because there was stuff from my teenage years that sold. ... In the end you have to let it go and let other people have that enjoyment.'' Unlike the two previous Auckland auctions, he managed this one at an Addington warehouse himself and credited his small team and auctioneer Ronnie Proctor for it going so well. He plans to spend more time in his semi-retirement with sculpting and singing.
Scoop
2 hours ago
- Business
- Scoop
Time For Debate About Tax
We need to have a debate about tax Kiwis need to talk seriously about our tax regime says Peter Malcolm of the Income Equality—Closing the Gap organisation in response to the Green Party tax policy and Labour dithering around the edges of possible tax changes. Malcolm said there are a great many voices from across the income and wealth spectrum, calling for the government to collect more taxes to fund our increasingly creaky health system as well as education, social welfare and infrastructure. But we should not assume that the call for more tax is simply the poor wanting to punish the wealthy. 'The truth is that we all, those in middle income through to the wealthy should pay more tax', said Malcolm. 'International surveys suggest that those countries that are most happy are those where more tax is paid by everyone. This also requires a broader based tax regime so tax is paid not just on income but on capital profits as well ie all income regardless of source'. Malcolm went on to say that the Scandinavian nations have the highest levels of measured happiness but also pay more tax than countries like New Zealand. Scandinavians appreciate government services that meet the needs of their people and they know these must be paid for. This debate needs to take place across the political spectrum. Whether we vote to the left or right we should face up to the fact that we must all pay more tax if we are to have world class public services. We are encouraged by some wealthy Kiwis who support this concept. And of course even in the USA some mega rich and highly successful business tycoons like Warren Buffet and Bill Gates support principles of equality. 'All political parties should be developing their tax policies for the election campaign next year' said Malcolm. 'Even it takes several years to move to higher taxes this debate should be above party politics'.
Otago Daily Times
2 hours ago
- Business
- Otago Daily Times
Armchairs sell for world record price
Christchurch's Mr Mod is going out on a high note with a pair of 1960s armchairs selling for a world record price at the auction of his large mid-century furniture collection. Ross Morrison is signing off as a collector and dealer after the two-day auction of 674 lots last weekend culminated in bidding reaching $13,500 for the teak armchairs by Danish designer Erik Kirkegaard. By the final bid the overall total matched the $500,000 netted from a previous Auckland auction, once after-sales and a buyers' premium of just over 17% were added up. Among the highlights was another pair of Kirkegaard teak-framed armchairs selling for $7750 and a first-series black leather egg chair by Arne Jacobsen, imported into New Zealand in 1961, making $9000. The collection was assembled by Mr Morrison over four decades of dealing and trading in decorative arts. He has spent the past week overseeing deliveries and the picking up of Italian, United States and Scandinavian interior design from the 1950s to the 1970s alongside vintage, Georgian, William IV and earlier antiques. Mr Morrison said he was both exhausted and elated after a better than expected result. He was glad to see the collection go to new homes throughout the country and a few items heading to Australia with no regrets, he said. ''There was fierce bidding for two pairs of Erik Kirkegaard chairs and that's before the buyers' premium of 17.25% as well so that is a world record. Nobody has paid that sort of money for those chairs. Then on the final day the Arne Jacobsen egg chair sold for $9000 plus buyers' premium. I've had it for 15 years and always wanted that sort of money and finally it got there.'' This followed the egg chair being passed in for $5000 at one of two Auckland auctions of items from his Mr Mod store in 2023. He said it was difficult to explain how the chairs reached such a high price, but Erik Kirkegaard was a well known Danish designer from the 1950s and 1960s. ''When you get two people who want something that was it. It was basically a fight between someone here on the floor and someone on the phone who won the auction for the first matching pair and then the second pair.'' The chairs which he bought in Denmark will remain in Canterbury. Many of the better items sold for double to treble his starting bids, he said. A mahogany chest with carved, poly-chromed and gilded pair of dragons at the base and a marble top from Hollywood actor James Coburn's house will be going to the North Island after a $2100 final bid. He said some pieces sold well above expectations and other below, but it was time for him to let the collection go. ''There were a couple of things I thought: what the heck? The sofas and display cases went pretty well, but I think people got a good buy with the Jens Quistgaard enamel pot and also some of the Eames stuff was low. I guess that's a sign of the market for reproductions has caused that. ... Overall, it was about the law of averages and the whole of the auction.'' Only five items were eventually passed in after a virtually full clearance and after-sales of about 10 items. ''All I've got left is an American iron chandelier, a folding screen from San Francisco, an antique photograph from Italy, a fish bait box I think from Tokelau, a pottery platter and a NZ pottery bowl and that is it, nothing else and it's all gone. Over 99% sold when you work out there were 674 lots.'' Mr Morrison became a specialist of mid century interior design after accumulating furniture on buying trips to the United States, France, Italy and Scandinavia before the movement caught on. More than 300 people attended a mid-week preview night to view the lots and farewell him. ''They were disappointed I wasn't in business anymore because there was no one taking over that reign. With the international market being so high it's very hard to repeat that. Nobody could put up a collection like this again because there was stuff from my teenage years that sold. ... In the end you have to let it go and let other people have that enjoyment.'' Unlike the two previous Auckland auctions, he managed this one at an Addington warehouse himself and credited his small team and auctioneer Ronnie Proctor for it going so well. He plans to spend more time in his semi-retirement with sculpting and singing.
Spectator
4 hours ago
- Politics
- Spectator
Are beards a political statement?
Yes, it was right of the police to announce quickly that they did not think terrorism was the motive in Monday's Liverpool horror, thus heading off potential riots. The police also said the person arrested was a white man. If he had been a black man, would they have said that? If not, why not? Watching film of the incident, I felt uneasily reminded of the scene in Belfast in 1988 when two British soldiers in civvies drove out of a side road and found themselves in the middle of a Republican funeral cortege. The suspicious crowd began to threaten the car. The soldiers lost their nerve, one drawing his pistol, and the two men were dragged out and foully murdered. I wonder if the driver in Water Street feared that the boisterous Liverpool fans, one or two of whom were banging his windows, might do him or his car a mischief. The way he drives looks more panicky than murderous. Was the whole thing a terrible misunderstanding? The politics of welfare is complicated because people – sometimes the same people – both hate it and want it. But, on the whole, it is surely socialism, more than conservatism, which should want strict welfare rules. High-welfare countries tend to have a strong tradition of social solidarity, often reinforced by ethnic homogeneity. The Scandinavian welfare states, for example, arose in countries with low immigration, almost universal membership of state Protestant churches and common behavioural assumptions. It is interesting that Denmark, a model of welfarism, understands the need for welfare discipline and therefore imposes exceptionally rigorous immigration controls. For similar reasons, it now proposes to increase the state pension age to 70 by 2040, the highest in Europe. This is logical, given that the age of working capacity is so much greater today.
Yahoo
7 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
KC house that was offered as HGTV prize sells for $725K. Here's what happened
The winner of the 2024 sweepstakes for 'HGTV Urban Oasis' will not go home to Waldo after all, despite a home there being offered as the grand prize. The reason is a secret second prize option hidden in the rules of the giveaway. Instead, a buyer closed on the Kansas City house for $725,000 on Tuesday, according to Sarah Legg, the real estate agent for the property. The house received seven offers after it was listed in late April, Legg said. In 2023, Legg said she showed the TV production staff four or five houses. HGTV chose this house because 'they wanted something that was close to amenities, kind of in the urban core. They wanted walkability.' The home design cable network bought the house to remodel and give to a lucky viewer. A Memphis-based HGTV designer planned upgrades to the inside and outside, and a camera crew surprised the lucky winner, who already lived in the Kansas City area. According to HGTV, this was the first local winner of their home giveaways, which since 2010 have taken place in cities including New York City, Chicago, Atlanta and Louisville. After the reveal, the winner had a decision: She could take the house, furnishings, fixtures and art, which were valued altogether at almost $670,000, plus a $50,000 cash bonus. Or she couldtake the cash option. This monetary option offered the winner a lump sum of $250,000 instead of the house, plus the $50,000 cash bonus. The Kansas City winner chose the latter, and the home went back on the market. Finances might be why a sweepstakes winner would choose the cash option, Legg said. 'There are tax implications when you win a prize of that nature,' Legg said. Winners must already have a lot of cash on hand to take the house in the sweepstakes, because they have to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to the government by the time taxes are due. This is because the house counts as income on taxes. With the Kansas City HGTV house, a single person would have to pay approximately $263,000 in income taxes on the house alone, even before income taxes on the cash prize and their own employment income, according to SmartAsset's income tax calculator. In addition, the winner would have to find money for closing fees and property taxes, according to the sweepstakes rules. For the cash option, the winner wouldn't have to front the taxes and the approximately $100,000 in income taxes would be deducted from the lump sum of $300,000, according to SmartAsset. HGTV did not respond to requests for comment or answer how many of its sweepstakes winners chose the houses, but Legg said that it's '50/50 with the network on whether or not the winner actually keeps the home.' With shuttlecock wallpaper in the laundry room and a jazz-themed music room, the house puts Kansas City in the center of the design. Designer Carmeon Hamilton said in a September interview with The Star that the home was inspired by modern and Scandinavian design, along with the metro's character. The royal blue cabinets in the kitchen were meant to echo fireplace tile, but 'once we realized how many sports teams in Kansas City were blue, we knew it would go over very well with the citizens in town,' Hamilton said. The new owners will be less than a 10-minute walk from Kansas City Bier Company, Andy's and Fareway Meat Market. The Star's Lisa Gutierrez contributed to this report.
