The present and following three lots were purchased from Vladimir Kagan circa 1963 for a house in Scranton, Pennsylvania. The owners, recent transplants from New York, were familiar with Kagan as he had designed an interior for one of their relatives. Cherry-picked from Kagan’s catalogue from the 1960s, this collection highlights some of the defining features of Kagan’s midcentury design career: the swooping curves of his walnut frames and the urban inventiveness of his modular sofas. A standout is the “Unicorn” side table in walnut, preceding its later aluminum brethren and straddling the line between his organic craft-inspired earlier work and his later futuristic forms.

Defying their parents’ taste in French provincial furniture, the owners chose these works for their sunny living room– striking modern furnishings in an otherwise traditional setting. Recalls their daughter: “My mother didn’t trust anything unless it came from New York.”