The Four Seasons Restaurant auction raises over $4 million

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last updated 28 October 2022

Following a tete-a-tete with the building’s operators over prospective architectural renovations and interior alterations, the Four Season’s owners – Julian Niccolini and Alex von Bidder – made the difficult decision to close shop and relocate. The former Restaurant’s midcentury wares have been auctioned in a huge sale at Wright. Pictured: Emil Antonucci’s seminal Four Seasons sign sold for $120,000, despite a $5,000–$7,000 estimation

It was back in June that we reported the news that the Philip Johnson-designed Four Seasons Restaurant – a 'pharaonic temple to modernism' located in the Seagram Building, wrote Aaron Peasley – was due to shutter. Following a tete-a-tete with the building's operators over prospective architectural renovations and interior alterations, the owners – Julian Niccolini and Alex von Bidder – made the difficult decision to close shop and relocate.

Though the Four Seasons name and reputation will live on, its historic environs are set to become a fond memory. Not so the furnishings and tableware though, which have been sold by Chicago-based auction house Wright. The historic offering – a startling 863 separate lots – fetched, collectively, over $4 million.

Beginning with Emil Antonucci's seminal Four Seasons sign – a sight to moisten the eye of many who regularly swept into the hushed, urbane interior; a sentiment reflected in the $120,000 sale price, despite a $5,000–$7,000 estimation – the auction saw a veritable feast of furniture, glassware, crockery, plant pots and restaurant apparatus pass hands; some a little scuffed, but talismanic all.

These included a number of bar stools designed by Mies van der Rohe and architect Philip Johnson; 'Tulip' tables and stools, designed by Eero Saarinen and formally used in the Grill Room bar; a bevy of Philip Johnson Associates Grill Room banquettes and van der Rohe 'Brno' chairs and 'Barcelona' lobby loungers; Hans J Wegner's Grill Room mezzanine armchairs; and a quite incredible amount of Garth and Ada Louise Huxtable drinking glasses, varied tableware, caviar bowls, oyster dishes, cooking pans, serving carts and wine coolers. (Not to mention the kitchen's anonymously-designed cotton candy machine, check holders and more ash trays than even a masochistic chain smoker could shake a stick at.)

With that, the Four Seasons Restaurant's identity and history – so evocative of time and place – is dissipated, but hopefully among the former patrons that loved it most. Niccolini and von Bidder may be moving further up Park Avenue – in a setting designed by Brazilian architect Isay Weinfeld – but the Four Seasons' spiritual home will forever be at number 375.

A pair of Mies van der Rohe’s ’Barcelona’ lobby chairs sold for $21,250

This three-sided banquette and table by Philip Johnson Associates sold for $52,500, despite an estimate of $3,000–$5,000

Designer glasses — Among the hundreds of pieces by industrial design and architecture duo Garth and Ada Louise Huxtable was this four-person stemware collection, which sold for $3,500

A serving cart by the duo sold for $4,063

Set of four ashtrays — The anonymously-designed wares for sale included the kitchen’s cotton candy machine, check holders and more ash trays than even a masochistic chain smoker could shake a stick at. Pictured: this set of four ashtrays sold for $12,500

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Wright website

Tom Howells is a London-based food journalist and editor. He’s written for Vogue, Waitrose Food, the Financial Times, The Fence, World of Interiors, Time Out and The Guardian, among others. His new book, An Opinionated Guide to London Wine, will be published by Hoxton Mini Press later this year.